Mount Prospect Park - Brooklyn NY

City:: Brooklyn, New York City, NY
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Playgrounds
New Deal Agencies:: Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
Completed:: 1939
Quality of Information:: Moderate
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

On May 26, 1939, the Department of Parks announced the official opening of the new Mount Prospect Park behind the Brooklyn Public Library:

“At Mount Prospect Park, the exercises will start at 12:00 Noon and besides Commissioner Moses and the Mayor, Honorable Joseph Goodman, Commissioner of the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, and Honorable Raymond V. Ingersoll, President of the Borough of Brooklyn will speak. This area, formerly the site of the old Mount Prospect Reservoir and bordered by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science and the new Brooklyn Central Library, has been completely developed as a park including a small children’s playground. These exercises will also mark the completion of the new laboratory building for the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity and the adjacent playground for the Park Department…

During the various ceremonies, Commissioner Moses will announce the completion of work on several other projects in Brooklyn and Manhattan, all of which were planned by the Park Department and constructed by the Works Progress Administration.”

The park was further renovated in the 1990s and early 2000s.