This Historic Tour Will Turn You Into a Prospect Park Expert (Smugness Optional)

 Fallkill Falls, where the park's mile-long watercourse begins / Photo by Matt Cooper

When my friends visit from out of state, I always promise to give them a tour of one New York City landmark. Because large crowds give me hives, I tend to stay away from heavily trafficked areas, like Times Square and Rockefeller Center. Instead, I take my visiting guests to Prospect Park, which is only a 2 minute walk from my apartment. Still, these wide-eyed out-of-towners, cameras clenched excitedly in hand, are expecting historical-sounding facts during the tour. So I make them up:

"Prospect Park was built by the Russians in 1537," I'll declare while grandly gesturing toward the Long Meadow. "In 1866 they gave the land to Brooklyn in exchange for 12 cases of Alabama Moonshine."

After a while though, I grow tired of my own bullshittery and begin to wonder about the real history behind Prospect Park. Lucky for me, and for you, and for all of my grossly misinformed houseguests, a great resource is right at our fingertips.

Park Slope resident Kate Papacosma is an actual expert on Prospect Park. So much, that the landscape historian is writing the first comprehensive book on its history and design. She also happens to give an amazing walking tour of the park, and not long ago, I had the pleasure of accompanying her on one. 

"I'm hoping that people will learn that the park is much more than just a pretty place to visit," Kate told me when I asked what she hoped people would gain from her tours. "That it's a living artwork created to provide mental and physical relief to harried city dwellers of all ages and walks of life. What's particularly touching is that it still serves that purpose nearly 150 years after it was designed. I also want people to really understand how hard it is to maintain a landscape like this and learn more about the work of the Prospect Park Alliance."

Kate's tours cost $20/person ($15/person for groups of 5 or more), and last for approximately 90 minutes. In this time, she provides an entire history of different areas of the park, including Grand Army Plaza, The Long Meadow, The Ravine, The Nethermead and the Concert Grove. You'll learn about Brooklyn as an independent city, the park site before construction began, different plans for the park, and how master designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux took charge on a design that was about landscape first, and architecture second. She explains the park's transformation through the years, from its original design in 1865 to both early- and mid-20th century additions, to the park's fall and subsequent restoration by the Prospect Park Alliance starting in late the 1980's. And she carries a folder full of great historic visuals along for the ride. 

Without spoiling all of the interesting facts I learned about the park, here are a few that I found particularly noteworthy.

The Long Meadow

1. THE LONG MEADOW'S DESIGN WAS CAREFULLY PLANNED, AND SHEEP ONCE GRAZED THERE.

The Long Meadow, which is nearly a mile long, was designed in a way so that one could never see it in its entirety. Trees were planted and hills sculpted in very specific places to make the classic pastoral landscape seem larger than it was. This contributed to a sense of mystery that drew people into the park and made them want to see what was just over the next hill or around the bend. At one time sheep even roamed the grass (which totally wouldn't fly today, unless they did so only during off-leash hours).

2. THE EXISTING BOATHOUSE WAS NOT THE ORIGINAL.

Vaux's Original Boathouse

The original boathouse, which stood across the water from where the current stands, was an open, rustic structure. This was the type of architecture that Olmsted and Vaux intended for the park -- something subordinate to the landscape that wasn't too grandiose or distracting. The current Neoclassical structure was built in 1905 by Helmle and Huberty, the same firm that designed the Tennis House (1910), and was based on the Library of St. Mark in Venice.  In 1964, the building was falling apart, so the city decided to have it razed. In the 11th hour, a citizen group, including Brooklyn resident and poet Marianne Moore, banned together and saved it from demolition. Though the building was saved, it remained largely unused until 2002, when the Audubon Center -- the first Urban Audubon Center in the United States -- moved into the space (side note: Kate claims that the center sells some of the most delicious M&M cookies that she's ever tasted).

3. THE PARK'S NEW LAKESIDE CENTER INITIATIVE INCLUDES A 26-ACRE LANDSCAPE RESTORATION AND THE RETURN OF MUSIC ISLAND

1871 Concert Grove Plan

When the park was built in the 19th century, musicians played free weekly concerts on The Lake's Music Island, just offshore from the Concert Grove. The concerts were wildly popular, and people flocked to this park destination on foot, horseback, in carriages, and even in boats, to listen. Music Island and the nearby shoreline were demolished in 1960 to make way for the Wollman Rink, and the main view in the most formal part of the park was lost. The Alliance's new Lakeside Center restoration includes the return of Music Island, a 26-acre shoreline restoration, a new skating rink and education center, and more. 

These are just a few of the many captivating facts that I learned from Kate during our time together. She's extremely knowledgeable and charismatic, and had concise responses to my many questions. So if you have friends visiting from out of town and don't feel like bullshitting your way through a bogus tour, I recommend letting the real expert handle it for you. Or if you yourself enjoy the park and have always wanted to know more about it, this walking tour will be 100 times better than plopping down in a library and thumbing through some guide book. 

To make reservations, please e-mail Kate at tourprospect@gmail.com. Tours are $20.00 per person. Tours comprising five people or more are $15.00 per person. Children's tours and custom tours are also available. Payment is due just before the commencement of each tour. March tours will occur on Sunday the 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. April tours will occur on Sunday the 1st, 8th, 22nd, and 29th. All tours commence at 1:00 p.m. (Please contact Kate if you are interested in a different date or time.) Tour dates will also continue year-round.