Vale of Cashmere, ca. 1913.

Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School for Girls, 1929. This Beaux Arts style school building was constructed between 1924 and 1925. Designed by Robert J. Reiley, one of the go-to architects for Catholic buildings in this period, the classical building with a columned facade fits in very well as the neighbor to McKim, Mead and White's Brooklyn Museum, just across the street. Known as “Bishop," the school opened for the fall term in 1926. It was a scholarship only institution until the 1960s and served the large Irish and Italian communities of Crown Heights, but also of nearby Flatbush and Park Slope. The school closed in 1973, which coincided and was likely prompted by the massive Catholic exodus to the suburbs that was occurring in that period. Today the building is the St. Francis De Sales School for the Deaf, an elementary and middle school for deaf children.

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.

Eastern Parkway Greenway, Brooklyn. Eastern Parkway was designed with a 20-foot wide foot and bicycle path flanking either side, adorned with park benches and octagonal tiles under the shade of elm and maple trees. Frederick Law Olmsted described the road he co-designed as "a shaded green ribbon, absolutely formal or strikingly picturesque." It is the first parkway meant exclusively for personal and recreational traffic. Designers Calvert Vaux and Federick Law Olmstead were inspired by Under den Linden in Berlin and Avenue Foch in Paris. The parkway met Ocean Parkway, which was designed simultaneously. The two roads connected Prospect Park with East New York

Central Library, BPL Grand Army Plaza at Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway Designed by Alfred Morton Githens & Francis Keally, 1941; sculptural elements: Thomas Hudson Jones and C. Paul Jennewein NYC IL, NR-P The original 1907 design for the BPL’s Central Building was the work of Raymond F. Almirall, the architect of the Pacific, Park Slope, Bushwick and Eastern Parkway Branches. The grand Beaux Arts design, inspired by contemporary libraries in Europe, with a domed roof and colonnaded entrance, was meant to fit in stylistically with the nearby Brooklyn Museum and Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch. Though construction began in 1911, the project was beset with political and financial troubles and stalled in 1929. In 1935, architects Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally were commissioned to redesign the building, incorporating the completed foundations and steel structure. The resulting Modern Classical, limestone-clad building features a concave front façade with a 50-foot-tall entrance portico and striking sculpted Art Deco ornamentation. It is one of Brooklyn’s most well-known and frequently used public buildings. The Central Building was designated a New York City Individual Landmark in 1997 and is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

"What is it I associate so keenly with the summer smell and sensual keenness of Prospect Park? – Alfred Kazin The construction of Central Park prompted the city of Brooklyn to raise funds and political support for a park of its own. This effort was led by municipal official James S. T. Stranahan, who argued that such a park “would become a favorite resort for all classes of our community, enabling thousands to enjoy pure air, with healthful exercise, at all seasons of the year…”\[2] Prospect Park takes its name from Brooklyn’s second highest point, Mount Prospect, at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue. The original site plan for the park included Mount Prospect. But in January 1865 Stranahan asked Calvert Vaux to survey the site. (Vaux and his colleague Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park.) Vaux opposed the Flatbush Avenue bisection of the park and immediately set about creating a new plan. He also convinced Olmsted to join him once again, and they submitted their recommendations the following year.

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 Central Library has many inscriptions. The one to the right of the main entrances says: "Here are enshrined the longing of great hearts and noble things that tower above the tide, the magic word that winged wonder starts, the garnered wisdom that never dies." -Roscoe C. Brown

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.

Endale Arch, Prospect Park, ca. 1890. Located just 200 feet from Grand Army Plaza, Endale Arch was one of the first architectural elements built within Prospect Park. It was created by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to serve as a passage from the busy surrounding city into the park’s peaceful Long Meadow. Today, the archway continues to provide a layer of protection for pedestrians in the park from vehicular traffic nearby. Completed in the late 1860s, the Endale Arch is comprised of alternating bands of black walnut and yellow pine. The function of this design avoids "the drip which would occur from the condensation of moisture,” according to the 1870 Annual Report of the Brooklyn Park Commissioner. Along with other arches in the park, this archway was first envisioned as a room with seats for people to hide from the scorching summer heat. As the New York Times put it in 1869, it was a place “where weariness may be lounged off."

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.

New park benches Father and son, mother with baby carriage, and other pedestrians sitting on benches under leafy trees along median strip; convertible automobile in left background. Caption: "New park benches and new footpaths add to the comfort of residents of Eastern Parkway from Ralph to Washington Aves."

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.

St. Francis De Sales School for the Deaf 260 Eastern Parkway Designed by Robert J. Reilly 1925 The construction of this large school was inspired by Crown Heights South’s inexpensive land, nearby public transportation and a growing Catholic population, while the building’s Beaux-Arts design was inspired by that of the Brooklyn Museum across the street. Its most striking feature is an impressive colonnade running almost the entire length of the building. Originally constructed as the Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School for Girls, its students were known as “Memorialites” and were all awarded tuition-free scholarships until the 1960s. In another design nod to the museum, whose façade is engraved with the names of historic figures known for their contributions to the arts, philosophy, science and literature, the school features the names of female saints engraved above the third-floor windows. The high school closed in 1973, and was repurposed as a school for the deaf. The building’s architect, Robert J. Reilly, trained at Columbia University and worked extensively with the Catholic diocese of New York. Reilly was also a protégé of Ernest Flagg, known as much for his mastery of Beaux-Arts design as for his advocacy of urban reform and the social responsibility of architecture.

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.

Turner Towers, 1928. This imposing apartment building was constructed in 1926 and was considered Brooklyn's first residential high rise. Built by developer Morris Turner the apartments were originally rentals. It became a coop building in the early 1980s when the owners were forced to declare bankruptcy and a group of savvy residents sponsored a coop conversion. The cost to purchase an apartment that you were already renting/living in? $7,600. That same four-bedroom apartment sold for the first time since it was originally purchased in 2015 and the asking price was $2.15 million. The 16-story building was the childhood home of comedian Joan Rivers.

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.