Ridgewood Reservoir, 1916. The history of the land that today forms the Ridgewood Reservoir and Highland Parks dates back (truly) to its creation by the Wisconsin Ice Sheet tens of thousands of years ago. In the more recent era, Highland Park was created over decades in the 19th and early 20th century as land was added piecemeal to the park. In 1856 the city of Brooklyn first purchased land for the construction of the reservoir. Completed in 1858, it operated as a water supply for Brooklyn between 1858 and 1959. Water supplies from upstate began providing the city with water in the first half of the 20th century and after 1959 the reservoir was relegated to backup supply for Brooklyn and Queens. It was decommissioned in 1990 and has since because a public park area, known for its native plants and wildlife.

Isaac Cornel Schenck Homestead, 1946. In 1771, Isaac Cornel Schenck's father Johannes purchased a farm in New Lots and ten years later gave it to his son. The farmland included a house of unknown age. Supposedly in 1791 while Isaac was expanding the home, he discovered musket and a rapier blade marked "1649" in the wall and cannon balls buried in its yard. The farm and farmhouse remained with Isaac Cornel's descendants through 1891 when it was sold to the city of Brooklyn and became part of the newly developed Highland Park. The Parks Department used the structure for park functions for some time. In 1945, Maud Esther Dillard in her book The Dutch Houses of Brooklyn wrote, "Now it stands vacant and desolate and will probably be torn down unless some responsible organization takes it under its wing and furnishes it as a museum." Still standing in 1951 when it was again captured for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the home was likely demolished soon after.