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.

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.

This Italianate mansion, located just inside the entrance at Prospect Park West and 5th Street, was built for Edwin C. Litchfield between 1855 and 1857. A prominent Brooklyn real estate developer and landowner in present-day Park Slope, Litchfield was responsible for the expansion of the Gowanus Canal from a tidal creek into a shipping channel

General Warren Statue, date unknown. Gouverneur Kemble Warren was a New York-born Union Army General. After participating in a number of early Civil War battles, he was named Chief Topographical Engineer of the Army of the Potomac in 1863. Later that year, he was wounded at Gettysburg. Referred to as the "Hero of Little Round Top," he survived the war (and the humiliation of being relieved of his command during the 1865 Battle of Five Forks). His later career included building railroads near the Mississippi River in the Corps of Engineers. He died in 1882. He is one of three Civil War monuments in Grand Army Plaza. His statue was commissioned in 1896 by the G.K. Warren Post, No. 286, Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization. Created by German sculptor Henry Baerer, the memorial was dedicated on July 4, 1896. Baerer's likeness of the Warren is similar to an earlier statue erected at Gettysburg in 1888. The statue's pedestal is made from granite quarried at Little Round Top, the site of his heroic moment.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

The House that Gum built! In the late 1860s, Thomas Adams carried out a series of experiments with chicle, which is extracted from Mexican Sapota trees, hoping he could make the rubber-like substance into toys, boots or bicycle tires. The trials were a failure. He was just about to throw the chicle into the East River when he remembered that his boss, who was the ex-dictator of Mexico, regularly chewed it. Experimenting by adding sugar, he created a better-tasting gum than any other available at that time. Adams and his son, Thomas Jr. began production of the gum in 1871 and in 1888 they opened a factory in Brooklyn, which was one of the largest of its kind in the world. With his gum fortune, Thomas Jr. built a mansion at 117 Eighth Avenue. This house, located across the street from the photo above, was designed as a double house in the Romanesque Revival style by C.P.H. Gilbert, with one entrance facing 8th Avenue and the other facing Carroll Street, it is decorated with stained glass windows and dragon ornaments. It was also the first on the block to have an elevator. The home pictured is similar in style and was constructed as its neighbor, though this building was demolished to make way for a new apartment building in the 1950s. The story around the neighborhood goes that one summer the family came home from vacation to find their calls for the servants went unanswered. When they went to look for them, it transpired that the elevator had stuck. The servants were all trapped, no one had heard their calls, and they were all dead inside the contraption! Residents of the building have claimed to hear voices crying in an Irish brogue, "Mary Mother of God help us!" Though there is little proof that this actually happened, it sure is an interesting tale. In 1897, Thomas Jr. sold his home for $75,000 and moved to New York City. Thomas Sr. retired from the business in 1898, leaving his sons in charge. On February 7, 1905, he died of pneumonia at the age of 87. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

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."

“Beth Elohim Temple House. Temple exterior, September 16, 1929." Congregation Beth Elohim was founded in 1861 as a Reform breakaway from Congregation Baith Israel, first meeting on Myrtle Avenue, and later worshiping in renovated church buildings on Pearl Street (1862) and State Street (1885). In 1908, the congregation purchased land for a purpose-built and permanent home at the corner of Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope. The Classical Revival synagogue was completed in 1910, with a verse fragment from the Book of Isaiah carved above the sanctuary entrance: “Mine house shall be an house of prayer for all people.”

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.

Litchfield Villa, unknown date. This stucco mansion, located just inside the entrance at Prospect Park West and 5th Street, was built for Edwin C. Litchfield between 1855 and 1857. A prominent Brooklyn real estate developer and landowner in present-day Park Slope, Litchfield was responsible for the expansion of the Gowanus Canal from a tidal creek into a shipping channel. In 1855, Litchfield hired acclaimed architect Alexander Jackson Davis to construct an Italianate estate for his family. In addition to the hilltop mansion, Davis also built a coach house, greenhouse, and chicken house (none of which remain today). When completed in 1857, the structure was named Grace Hill, after Edwin's wife Grace Hill Hubbard Litchfield. In 1869, the Litchfields reluctantly ceded their home and its grounds to the City of Brooklyn, but were granted permission to lease the property until 1883. Those 50 acres of Litchfield land now constitute over five percent of the park's present acreage. In 1882, Litchfield's Brooklyn Improvement Company — the firm that oversaw the Gowanus Canal project — moved into the former NY & LI Coignet Stone Company building at Third Avenue and 3rd Street (adjacent to the present-day Whole Foods). In 1883, a year after Grace Litchfield's death, Edwin Litchfield moved abroad and his villa was passed on to the City Park Commissioners. The Litchfield Villa, as it is now known, is now the Brooklyn borough headquarters of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and also the home of the Prospect Park Alliance.

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.

Litchfield Villa ARCHITECT: A.J. Davis DATE: 1856 STYLE: Italianate This romantic mansion commanding a small hill in Prospect Park is one of the finest “Italian Villa” style houses in the country. Unique in plan, the two irregular shaped towers and a tall slender turret are all attached to the main building and combine to form a picturesque architectural composition. One of the unusual features of this mansion is to be found in tops of the columns of the colonnade in which the Classical decorations are replaced by our native plants, corn and wheat.

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