Boulder Bridge, date unknown. Built in the late 1800s to replace a previous wooden bridge, Boulder Bridge uses as its only material local glacial boulders left behind after the Wisconsin Ice Sheet retreated. The bridge straddles the park's bridle path.

Vale of Cashmere, ca. 1913.

John Howard Payne Memorial Bust, ca. 1968. Here once stood a statue of John Howard Payne, an American actor and playwright of the mid-19th century. The statue was installed here in 1873 and remained until 1974, when it was relocated to the Home Sweet Home Museum in East Hampton, New York. The Home Sweet Home was Payne's childhood house, now a museum dedicated to the playwright. The name of the museum comes from a popular song written for one of his plays. Payne was born in 1791. He wrote his first play as a teenager, and attended Union College for a time. He left school to begin earning a living. He had his first staring role at the age of 18 and the play was a major success. Payne performed in London, Paris, and New York. Later in life, he became an advocate for Native American rights and served as the American Consul in Tunisia.

Talk a walk, smell the flowers. Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Cranbrook Rose Garden has over five thousand rose bushes. Each rose is said to have a different fragrance.

Brooklyn Central Office, Bureau of Fire Communications ARCHITECT: Frank J. Hemle DATE: 1913 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Eclectic This Italian Renaissance Eclectic public building, designed in the form of a garden pavilion has great charm and architectural dignity. Three graceful arches with slender columns and a low balustrade frame a deep porch or vestibule and create a fine central entrance. It is closely related to the surrounding Botanical Garden and adjacent to Prospect Park.

Ambergill Falls, Prospect Park, unknown date.

The Dairy in Prospect Park, unknown date. Designed in 1869 by Calvert Vaux and completed by 1870, this stone cottage, known as the Dairy, once stood just north of Boulder Bridge in Prospect Park’s Midwood. It became a main attraction to 19th century picnickers as it offered park-goers a reliable alternative to the vile milk that was then being produced by Brooklyn’s diseased cows. In the summer of 1871, over 11,000 quarts of milk were produced at the Dairy alone. Cold beef, ham and tongue sandwiches and pickled oysters were also sold inside the cottage. The Dairy's interior included "retiring rooms" for people to relax and recharge next to a fireplace. The Dairy was razed in 1935 to make way for the zoo. Since then, picnickers in the park have shifted across the lawn to Long Meadow.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (BBG’s) Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was the first Japanese garden curated within a public botanic garden in America. Designed by Japanese-American landscape architect Takeo Shiota, the garden took two years to complete, opening to the public in 1915. The project cost $13,000 and was funded largely by a gift from Alfred T. White, a benefactor and trustee. In 1947, Japanese-American Gardener Frank Okamura was hired to care for the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, which had been vandalized during World War II. During his almost thirty-five year tenure at BBG, from 1947 to 1981, Okamura also began teaching bonsai classes and traveling all over the country lecturing on the art of creating bonsai. When Okamura died in 2006 at the age of ninety-four he was one of the leading experts on the art of bonsai in America. This photograph, taken around 1975, shows the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden fully restored by Okamura, keeping Shiota’s vision alive for future generations. The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden is three acres and includes a waterfall, pond, bridges, a pavilion, and a traditional Shinto shrine. In 2001, the garden received a New York Landmark Conservancy Preservation Award.

Rose Garden, Prospect Park, ca. 1916.

Nellie's Lawn, ca. 1890.

Lefferts Homestead Although this is basically a Dutch Colonial farmhouse, we are amazed at the beauty of the detail of the main entrance, where delicate colonnettes and exquisite reeding set off leaded lights and a fine Dutch door.

Eastwood Arch, unknown date.

Trailer #100 and Car #725 in Malbone Street Tunnel, November 2, 1918. On November 1, 1918 the worst transit disaster in New York City history occurred just outside the eastern edge of Prospect Park. Just below the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Ocean Avenue, and Malbone Street (now Empire Boulevard) a five-car wooden train on the B.R.T Brighton Beach line took a sharp turn at a speed more than five times faster than it was meant to travel. The first car derailed and smashed into a concrete partition and the second and third cars scraped violently against the tunnel walls. In all about 100 people were killed, and more than 250 passengers were injured in this rush hour crash. A number of factors played into this disaster. The sharp curve in the tunnel, known as "Dead Man's Curve" even before this accident, was a result of a multi-year rerouting of I.R.T and B.R.T lines. The motorman, Edward Luciano, was an inexperienced driver who usually served as a dispatcher, but was pushed into service by a motorman's strike. He was also suffering from the flu, was on a double shift, and had only the week before lost a child to influenza. Malbone Street was soon renamed Empire Boulevard, to distance it from the tragedy.

The Lefferts Historic House, ca. 1783. The Lefferts Historic House is the former home of Continental Army Lieutenant Pieter Lefferts. Originally located on Flatbush Avenue when it was built 1783 (really rebuilt from the remains of the earlier home burned by the British during the war), it was relocated to Prospect Park in 1918 and later landmarked. Today it operates as a museum that specializes in children’s educational programs and exhibits the family life of rural Brooklyn in the 1820s.

Brooklyn Botanical Rose Garden, 1931. Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Cranbrook Rose Garden has over five thousand rose bushes. Each rose is said to have a different fragrance. The 5,000 bushes of the garden contain almost 1,400 differents kinds of roses including wild species roses, old garden roses, hybrid tea roses, floribundas, polyanthas, hybrid perpetual, climbers, ramblers, and miniature roses. Harold Caparn, and landscape architect, and BBG's horticulturist Montague Free collaborated to design the Cranford Rose Garden in 1928.

Music Pagoda Bridge, unknown date. The Music Pagoda, built in 1997, is one of the earliest surviving structures in Prospect Park that was not constructed under the direction of park architects Olmsted and Vaux. The wooden covering was damaged by fire in 1967, but a new structure shortly after was erected to closely match the original design. The Music Pagoda was the premiere location for music in the Park until the Prospect Park Bandshell was built on the west side in the 1939 and later renovated in 1983. Since the '70s, the Music Pagoda has gone largely without use, although it does hold occasional, small musical performances.

Prospect Park is the second largest public park in Brooklyn. Famous for its trees and manmade wetlands, the 596-acre park also contains the bulk of the borough's remaining indigenous forest. On this walk, The Great Outdoors: Prospect Park Edition, we'll guide you through the park's most leafy and green natural habitats, while also teaching you some history along the way.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (BBG’s) Japanese Hill-and Pond Garden was the first Japanese garden curated within a public botanic garden in America.

Binnen Falls and Bridge, Prospect Park, unknown date.

Binnen Bridge, unknown date. Binnen Bridge is located between the Prospect Park Boathouse and the Music Pagoda. It spans the Binnen waters and an impressive man-made waterfall. Its name, picked by Olmsted, derives from the Dutch word “within.” It signifies that the rustic-bridge is located deep with Prospect Park.

Former Prospect Park Carousel, ca. 1900.

The ca, 1783 Lefferts Historic House is located in the southeastern corner of Prospect Park. It was moved to this site in 1918 from its original location on Flatbush Avenue between Maple and Midwood Streets after being given to the city by the Lefferts family. Peter Lefferts (1753-1791), builder of the house, was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and later a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and one of the wealthiest men in Kings County. Peter's descendant, John Jeffers (1827-1893) was no only a principal of the Flatbush Water Works and the Flatbush gas Company, but was also a director of three of the county's banks. The Lefferts House has been operated as a museum since 1920 and represents the large, finely appointed Dutch-American farmhouses that evolved in the later 18th century as Dutch families adapted elements of English Georgian architecture and decoration, such as the two-tiered gambrel roof and the central hall.

(Attributed to Corry B. Comstock, 1924-25) Flatbush Avenue, already a well-traveled street in the 19th century, became a major commercial thoroughfare in the 20th century as the neighborhoods around it were built up. Even the Lefferts family acknowledged this and apparently did not impose covenants on its lots lining the east side of the avenue. Residents and civic organizations closely watched the development and loudly protested any new building they believed was out of character. Such was the case for this bakery, which was criticized as too large and too industrial. One article quoted an aggrieved neighbor as saying that, “It seems almost criminal to permit a factory to be constructed at the entrance to one of the finest residential sections of the boro.” In spite of these concerns, the bakery was eventually built by the General Baking Company. Its design has been attributed to Comstock, who designed several bakeries in the city, including at least one other for the same company. Contemporary passersby might wonder what all the fuss was about. The two-story building fits nicely in its context (although the clock tower would have stood out at the time) and its spare, Classical details, fine brickwork, and terracotta ornament are both restrained and well-executed. Locals were eventually won over and fondly remember the lovely aroma wafting from this direction until the bakery closed in 1996.

Institute Park, unknown date.

Niederstein's Prospect Park Hotel at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Malbone Street (Empire Boulevard); ca. 1900. The proprietor, John Niederstein, Jr., was born in New York in 1871. His father, also John Niederstein, had emigrated from Prussia and owned the Niederstein Hotel and Restaurant in Middle Village, Queens. The younger Niederstein's hotel — really a tavern with a few furnished rooms for rent attached in order to skirt the Raines Law, which prohibited alcohol sales on Sundays — often made local headlines as an establishment of ill repute. In response to a letter attributed to "a young man," the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an investigation into Niederstein's establishment on October 15, 1901, under the headline "Objectionable Resort Located in Flatbush." The report largely corroborated the "young man's" allegations that dancing and drinking in mixed company went on until the early morning hours. Three days later, the Eagle printed a letter from Niederstein refuting the claims, and asserting that "the dances conducted in his hall are conducted in the straightest possible manner," that his establishment was "the resort of the best element of Germans in this city," and that insinuations of louche behavior and drunkenness were untrue, as were claims that rooms could be rented for racy assignations — but that "if such places are there it is the business of somebody to look after them — not his." Niederstein's made the news for a variety of reasons, some mundane (social function listings); some odd (Niederstein and his hunting partners "shot a big moose" in the Maine woods); and some salacious, including a 1902 tale of an impromptu wedding featuring a runaway groom with a false name and a wooden leg. (The latter spurred a libel suit against the Eagle, which concluded with a $5,000 judgement in the bride's favor.) As early as 1900, plans to expand subway service along the BMT's Franklin Avenue and Brighton lines called for razing Niederstein's hotel to make room for a rail yard. Plans eventually shifted to storage tracks beneath Ocean Avenue, with the site eventually becoming part of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden grounds. The Parks Department's 1903 Annual Report indicated that property was "in the process of being condemned," and the hotel itself was likely demolished by 1905. After the closure of his Brooklyn establishment, Niederstein went on to have a second act in politics: he was elected Queens County clerk in 1906, over the objection of opponents who cited his hotel's reputation. Niederstein died of cirrhosis four years later, shy of his fortieth birthday.