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Mount Prospect Park

Posts & Stories(2)

WPA Parks and Rec image

WPA Parks and Rec
Story

One out of every seven WPA dollars was spent in New York City. Robert Moses oversaw the construction of 650 playgrounds while serving as the parks commissioner. These playgrounds, a rule-less respite for kids without backyards, are ubiquitous with WPA projects of the 1930's.
Exterior Life: A Lineage of Parks image

Exterior Life: A Lineage of Parks
Story

While most of this series has focused on some of New York's interior spaces as we've been stuck in our apartments, we thought for this one we'd try something different. So we've turned our gaze to some of the best places for New Yorkers to escape to: the parks of New York! Specifically, how three of New York's most iconic parks connect.

Photos(5)

Mount Prospect Park image

Mount Prospect Park

Board of Water Supply. Mount Prospect Water Tower. Before Catskill water reached Brooklyn in 1916, the borough received its water from areas of Long Island. The Mount Prospect Reservoir was completed in 1858 to serve the highest parts of Brooklyn, and a tower designed by Thayer and Wallace was built in 1893 to improve water pressure. Once the Catskill system was in place, the reservoir and water tower were still used but gradually phased out. The tower was demolished in 1930 and the reservoir was dismantled ten years later. April 21, 1912.
Mount Prospect Park image

Mount Prospect Park

\[Mount Prospect Park] Aerial view: caption: "Atop Mount Prospect \[Park], the eight-acre old reservoir site has been transformed into a play area. New \[main branch of Brooklyn Public] library is in \[far right] background." There are several high-rise apartment buildings in distant background.
Mount Prospect Park image

Mount Prospect Park

Brooklyn: high-angle view of Prospect Park, Flatbush Avenue, the Mount Prospect reservoir, and the future site of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, undated.
Mount Prospect Park image

Mount Prospect Park

Brooklyn: Mount Prospect water tower, undated.
Mount Prospect Park image

Mount Prospect Park

Board of Water Supply. Mount Prospect Reservoir; Mount Prospect Water Tower. Before Catskill water reached Brooklyn in 1916, the borough received its water from areas of Long Island. The Mount Prospect Reservoir was completed in 1858 to serve the highest parts of Brooklyn, and a tower designed by Thayer and Wallace was built in 1893 to improve water pressure. Once the Catskill system was in place, the reservoir and water tower were still used but gradually phased out. The tower was demolished in 1930 and the reservoir was dismantled ten years later. This is now the site of the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library. This print is dated March 1927, but the original photograph must date somewhere between 1897 and 1912. Brooklyn Museum (in background) was completed 1898, and had a portico by April 1913.
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