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 Botanic Garden, unknown date. The start of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden dates back to 1897 when New York State legislation reserved 39-acres for the garden. The Garden opened to the public in May, 1911. Today the Brooklyn Botanical Garden spans 52-acres and attracts 900,000 visitors annually. Its most famed garden, located in the Steinhardt Conservatory, is the home of the C. V. Starr Bonsai Museum.

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.

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, ca.1897-1930. The massive Beaux-Arts building of the Brooklyn Museum opened in 1897. But the roots of the institution date back to the 1820s with the founding of the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library in Brooklyn Heights. That organization, though venue moves and mergers eventually became the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1890, with the Museum as one of its subdivisions. (The other institutions under the Arts and Sciences umbrella were the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Children's Museum.) Designed by McKim, Mead and White, the museum building was constructed in sections. The first wing opened in 1897, the central pavilion was completed in 1905, and final original wing (which included the sky-lit Beaux-Art Court) was not fully finished until 1926. Despite the massive structure, the building as completed in the 1920s was only a section of the original design. The staircase of the building has always been a contentious feature. The large staircase leading up to the entrance was only completed after the central wing opened in 1905. In 1934 the Municipal Art Commission (without the knowledge of the architects) approved the removal of the front staircase in an effort to create a more direct and "democratic" entrance. Finally, in the early 2000s, architect James Polshek designed a new glass entrance pavilion that included a stepped roof, a stepped amphitheater, and terraced lawns. While it was praised by many, there were also many critics (particularly historic preservationists) who thought that it was garish and inappropriate. It is well-loved by the skateboarding teens of Brooklyn, though.

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.

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.

It's rare that a plethora of a city's most prominent cultural institutions spring from one source, but in Brooklyn, that is just what happened.

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.

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.

Institute Park, unknown date.

The Prospect Heights neighborhood is located immediately north of Prospect Park, bounded by Atlantic Avenue to the north, Eastern Parkway to the south, Flatbush Avenue to the west, and Washington Avenue to the east. The area was home to the Le-nape Indians at the time of European contact. During the 18th century, the land came into possession of a number of different owners, several of whom were slave owners. It was still predominately farm and wood lands until the middle of the nineteenth century. The two most important factors in the growth of Prospect Heights were transportation improvements—which included new links between Prospect Heights and the ferries along Brooklyn’s waterfront — and the development of Prospect Park. The original design of Prospect Park, like the original design of Central Park, was the work of the civil engineer Egbert Ludovicus Viele. In his 1861 plan, the park extended as far south as 9th Street, and as far north as Prospect Place. It included all the land between the present Prospect Park West and Washington Avenue, bisected by Flatbush Avenue. The city acquired all the land to execute Viele’s plan, but the Civil War put the execution on hold. In 1865, consultant Calvert Vaux proposed that additional land be purchased to the south (to 15th Street) and east (to Ocean Avenue), and that everything east of Flatbush Avenue be jettisoned. The City of Brooklyn agreed, and figured they would just sell off the extra land. Construction began on Prospect Park in 1866 and the park opened to the public in 1871, although it was not yet complete. During the 1880’s, the city sold off the land between Sterling Place and Prospect Place, which was developed with row houses that are now the Prospect Heights Historic District. In 1898, when the City of Brooklyn became the Borough of Brooklyn, Park Slope was largely urbanized. P.S. 9 and its Annex (both designated NYC Landmarks) stood at Sterling Place and Vanderbilt Avenue, the Brooklyn Museum had recently opened (only about a quarter as large as it is today), the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch was in place, and Frederick MacMonnies’s bronze quadriga had just been placed atop it. Prospect Heights north of Sterling Place (Butler Street) was an established area, but not the “East Side Park Lands.” The land between Eastern Parkway and St. John’s Place was mired in litigation over title to the land, and remained undeveloped until well after the turn of the century. There were buildings along Plaza Street to the west of the oval plaza, but no buildings on Plaza Street to the east. By 1908, the Museum had more than doubled in size, but the East Side Park Lands remained empty. Meanwhile, Bedford-Stuyvesant was intensely developed. This development delay led into the apartment house era. The 1920 opening of the IRT Subway extension under Eastern Parkway spurred the construction of six-story elevator apartment houses. This typology was an attractive choice for developers, as the NYC Building Code only required the first two floors of six-story buildings to be fireproof, as opposed to all floors of seven-story buildings. In 1915-16, the Martinique building, at 163- 169 Eastern Parkway, was the first building to rise on the land. Many followed, making the East Side a rare example, especially in Brooklyn, of a central area developed with apartment houses from the start.