Brower Park – Brooklyn NY

City:
Brooklyn, New York City, NY

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation, Paths and Trails, Playgrounds, Landscaping and Tree Planting

New Deal Agencies:
Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs

Completed:
1941

Quality of Information:
Moderate

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

Then known as Bedford Park, this Brooklyn Park was first established in the 1890s. Since 1899, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has been located on the property. The park was renamed Brower Park in 1923. In 1941, the Department of Parks announced that the WPA had significantly reconstructed the park and area around the museum:

“The new development, which reserves 80% of the area for passive enjoyment of broad tree-dotted lawns, also provides a new playground for youngsters where they may safely play on a variety of exercise units.

The museum…has been provided with a spacious block paved terrace extending around all sides. Affording a more adequate setting and better circulation, the terrace is edged with continuous benches backed up by formal hedges. New and broader approach walks and stairways connect with relocated park entrances at convenient points.

…Encircling the playground the paths merge with the bench lined promenade which skirts the broad oval lawn area… Two casually placed sitting areas are placed in the irregular shaped grass plots…

A special grass seed for shady areas was used in those areas where the old trees are closely spaced. Seventy new trees were planted for screening purposes and to provide additional shade around the sitting areas. The varieties used are Norway and red maples, elms and flowering dogwoods. 4,200 English ivy and ground myrtle have been planted in panels and borders around grass plots. 1,350 flowering quinces were used in hedges. Seventeen specimen hawthornes provide accent and interesting flowers. A group of delicate flowering silverbells located in a far corner across the oval lawn panel will provide a white shower of solid blossoms in the early spring. Hundreds of fragrant honeysuckles and yellow forsythias are massed around the entrances and along the boundary fences.

These improvements were carried out by the Work Projects Administration from plans prepared by the Department of Parks.”

Although it was neglected for a time, “Brower Park is once again becoming a respite for urban dwellers from the asphalt and concrete gardens and streets that surround it” (www.friendsofbrowerpark.org)

Source notes

Department of Parks, Press Release, October 6, 1941 Friends of Brower Park New York City Parks Department New Deal Projects 1934-43

Site originally submitted by Frank da Cruz on December 22, 2016.

Location Info


Kingston Ave. and Park Pl.
Brooklyn, NY 11213
Brooklyn County

Coordinates: 40.673665, -73.943200

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