Like many of New York's greatest green spaces, the juxtaposition of Prospect Park's natural and manmade beauty is captivating. On this walk, we'll take you on a scenic path that winds through some Prospect Park's most picturesque landscapes, as well as its landmarked bridges, historic arches, and boulder spans.

Prospect Park is one of Brooklyn’s most treasured destinations with more than 10 million visitors each year. Since it opened in the mid-19th century, the park has been the site of celebrations, demonstrations, and everyday activities. From monuments and statues to pastoral vistas, this walk will guide you through Prospect Park's historic points of interest. More information about Prospect Park's history can be viewed here.

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.

James S. T. Stranahan Statue in Grand Army Plaza, unknown date. Stranahan was a Congressman from New York between 1855 and 1857 and later was an influential municipal official in Brooklyn. He was president of the Brooklyn Park Commission and helped secure funds and political capital for the planned Prospect Park. As a trustee of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company, he presided over the dedication of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. The bronze statue, designed by Frederick William MacMonnies with a pedestal by Standford White, was dedicated in 1891.

The Army: Genius of Patriotism Urging American Soldiers On To Victory" group on the south pedestal of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, ca. 1975.

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.

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, ca. 1904. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch is a Civil War memorial located at the entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. Designed by John H. Duncan with sculptures by Frederick MacMonnies, the granite arch began construction in 1889 and was dedicated on October 21,1892 to honor the Union soldiers who perished in the Civil War. Additional statuary groups and smaller bronze pedestals were added between 1892 and 1901.

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.

50 Prospect Park West, 1972. Financier Henry Hulbert built his grand Romanesque Revival mansion in 1889. Designed by one of Brooklyn's architects to the wealthy, Montrose W. Morris, the mansion was rendered in a gleaming white limestone, unlike the dark red and brown tones of most Romanesque Revival buildings. The home also features a number of telltale Morris features including extensive stained glass, wrought iron, and carved detail. A number of schools and cultural organizations have called the asymmetrical building home since the mid-century. Since 1995 it has been home to the lower school of Poly Prep.

Meadowport Arch, ca. 1870.

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.

Towering over the northern entrance of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch was built between 1889-1892 in the Beaux-Arts style as part of Prospect Park Plaza, known today as Grand Army Plaza.

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

Helen and Hugh L. Carey and family posed in front of the Stranahan Monument during the Prospect Park Centennial celebrations, 1966.

Meadowport Arch, date unknown. Located along Prospect Park’s West Drive between Union Street and Montgomery Place, Meadowport Archway opens out onto the 75-acre Long Meadow. This Victorian Orientalist double-archway was designed by park architects, Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, and completed by 1870. The arch has since been landmarked and registered as a National Historic Place. In the 1980s, the arch was restored with its original cedar planking.

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.

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, ca. 1977. This full-fledged triumphal arch bearing aloft a sculptured quadric is a symbol of civic pride as well as a memorial to the soldiers and sailors it honors. It makes the principal entrance to Brooklyn's most beautiful park and closes the long vista of Flatbush Avenue most effectively.

Rose Garden, Prospect Park, ca. 1916.

Nellie's Lawn, ca. 1890.

Swiss Thatched Cottage, unknown date. This cottage was one of many small rustic shelters with thatched roofs that were once scattered throughout Prospect Park. Constructed in the 1860s by Olmsted and Vaux, the cottage was a popular spot for scenic picnics. The cottage burned down in 1937 and was not rebuilt.

The Prospect Hill Water Tower, unknown date. The Prospect Hill Water Tower once stood at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue. First built to supply nearby houses with water, by the late 1800s the towering 30-foot gothic structure had become a famed Brooklyn sight. It stood adjacent to Mount Prospect Reservoir, which no longer exists today, and afforded Brooklynites with a view that overlooked the the entire city. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the 20-feet deep Mount Prospect Reservoir contained “just about enough water to cook the breakfast of the people of Brooklyn for a week.” In fact, back when Brooklyn was an independent city, most drinking water was pumped from Long Island, into a large receiving reservoir in Ridgewood, Queens, and eventually fed into this reservoir. During water shortages, including an acute episode in January of 1893, the tower was pressed into service to relieve parched residents. In 1930, the Water Tower was demolished to make way for the expansion of the Brooklyn Public Library.

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.

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, ca. 1907.

The Hampton Apartments, ca. 1905. While Prospect Park West was developing in the early 20th century, the housing stock was made up of attractive rowhouses and mansions. In 1902 real estate developer Carl J. Zimmerman changed all of that with his plans for an upscale apartment house. The Hampton was six-story brick and limestone structure with an elevator. It was designed by Schwartz & Gross, who would go on to become one of the city's most prolific apartment house designers (particularly on the Upper West Side). The Hampton remained one of the few large apartment houses on PPW for the next 20 years. The late 1920s saw an brief influx in the construction of these types of buildings and the Hampton was victim to that development. It was purchased by developer Samuel Wander, demolished in 1928, and replaced with a 15-story (plus penthouse) building the next year.

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.

Parade honoring the pennant-winning Brooklyn Dodgers passes under the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch at Grand Army Plaza, September 29, 1941.

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.