The Then and Now series and the last few photos of Sunset Park in decades past have been some of the most popular posts on this site. They've also brought out some other history buffs around the neighborhood (and in farther flung places).I received a lovely PDF link in my inbox from a neighbor. The PDF is the 1902 Annual Report for the Parks Department. It details work done on Sunset Park, as well as the acquisition of the space from 43rd to 44th Street - which completed the square footage of the Sunset Park we know today.
And here's the "rustic stairway" leading up to the park from 5th Avenue.
So cool.
1 comment:
Those pictures are great. But I will have to question the words of the park commissioner (Richard Young - commissioner of brooklyn & queens parks) when he calls the former lake "a natural lake". most historic references to the lake indicate that it was originally a "kettle hole" - a depression left by the melting glacier 14,000 years earlier and that the local community expanded it and made it into the lake we see in the 1902 report. locals actually stocked the lake with carp. enterprising kids would catch the carp and sell them to the local fish market on fifth Ave. by the way, the 1902 report also tells how 20 "parks" were created on 4th Avenue in Sunset from 40th to 60th Street. These patches of green were in the center of the avenue and were each a little over 200' long. The City planted 200 trees and 642 shrubs in these tiny parks. And in typical city planning style - tore them all up a few years later to build the 4th Avenue subway...tony
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