TOUR DE FOUR
Prospect launches new walk each week
Green guide: Cindy VandenBosch and her team at Turnstile Tours will lead four different tours of Prospect Park, one on each weekend
of the month, starting April 28. Martin Seck
TBy Kevin Duggan hese tours make history a
walk in the park.
Four new walking tours
will reveal Prospect Park’s rich history
and uncover its hidden gems.
Prospect Park Walking Tours,
starting on April 28, will offer a
different guided trip through the
green space each Sunday, letting
audiences focus on the marvels
of Brooklyn’s Backyard they find
most interesting.
Each two-hour tour starts at
Grand Army Plaza and takes visitors
through the park’s 150-year
history, from the halcyon days just
after landscape architects Frederick
Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
opened the green in the 1860s,
through the Park’s disrepair in the
1970s, and its rejuvenation in the
last two decades, according to one
of the guides.
“On all of the tours you learn
about the original design and how
that transformed through the different
movements — like the City
Beautiful, the Beaux Arts, the
New Deal — and became what it
is today, but with different focuses,”
said Cindy VandenBosch, the
head of Turnstile Tours, which
partnered with the Prospect Park
Alliance to create the educational
outings.
The Hidden Treasures tour, on
the first Sunday of each month,
focuses on little-trafficked parts
of the Park, including the Rose
Garden, a quiet oasis that was
a prime spot for 19th century
Brooklynites to check out exotic
f lora, before the Botanic Garden
opened on the far side of Flatbush
Avenue in 1910. It was also the site
of the park’s first outdoor wedding,
in the 1920s, which caused
a media stir because matrimonial
services were limited to houses
of worship at the time, according
to VandenBosch.
“The couple had to ask the
Parks Commissioner, who was
like ‘No one’s ever asked before,’
and let them get married. But
it had to be before 7.45 a.m.,
before the park would get busy,”
she said. “It was quite scandalous
and reporters swarmed to the
scene, the minister even backed
out last minute because of the
media attention, so they had to
get a new minister.”
On the second Sunday of the
month, curious ramblers can take
the Water and Wellhouse tour
to discover the engineering feat
behind Prospect Park’s artificial
waterways, which feed city tap
water into the lake. It includes
an in-depth tour of the historic
Wellhouse, a former pump house
which the Alliance re-purposed
last year into an award-winning
comfort station .
The Art and Architecture tour,
on every third Sunday, showcases
COURIER L 40 IFE, APRIL 26-MAY 2, 2019 24-7
the many different building and
landscaping styles that grace the
526 acres of the park, including
the LeFrak Center, first built in
1868 to provide a safer spot to ice
skate than the nearby lake. The
winter sport boomed during the
early years of the park, due to its
popularity in Olmsted and Vaux’s
first joint project, Central Park
on the distant isle of Manhattan,
according to another guide.
“The rink was opened a year
after the original opening of
Prospect Park, because skating
had become this sensation after
it took off in Central Park,” said
Andrew Gustafson.
The fourth tour, Brooklyn’s
Backyard, kicks off the season
on April 28. The kid-friendly tour
starts with turtle-spotting at Music
Island, continues with a scavenger
hunt through the park’s zoo,
and explores the historic carousel
— including a ride, according to
VandenBosch.
“We’ll go to the carousel, learn
about its restoration, and then ride
it, because you can’t learn all about
it and then not ride it,” she said.
Prospect Park Walking Tours
start at Grand Army Plaza Flatbush
Avenue at Prospect Park West, (347)
903–8687, www.turnstiletours.com.
April 28–Nov. 24; Sundays at 10:30
a.m. $20 ($30 “Brooklyn’s Backyard”
tour, which includes admission to the
zoo; kids half-price).
For the birds: Kids can search for birds on their spring migration
routes, at Prospect Park’s Audubon Center on April 28. Martin Seck
Down to earth
More activities for Earth
Day in Prospect Park
By Kevin Duggan After the season’s
first guided tour
on April 28, there
is still plenty to do in
Prospect Park! Grab some
grub, visit the zoo, or join
the environmental extravaganza
that is the park’s
Earth Day Celebration,
at the Prospect Park
Boathouse and Audubon
Center, where a deejay
will spin tunes all afternoon
while you indulge
in some educational
activities:
Go fish
Grab fishing tips from
reel anglers, and cast your
line into Prospect Park
Lake for some catch-andrelease
style fishing.
Bug out
Discover Prospect
Park’s creepy-crawly bugs
and reptiles, under the
tutelage of its Urban Park
Rangers. The tour includes
a visit with Pepper, a diamondback
turtle.
Feather rest
Talk a short walk
through the park while
experts show you how to
spot urban birds. Prospect
Park is an important stop
as our feathered friends
migrate north for the summer,
so this is a prime time
for spotting rare birds.
Water works
Brooklyn’s only lake
needs some help! Pitch in
by pulling garbage from
the waterway, and take
care of the trash by adding
it to the Park’s compost
heaps.
Earth Day events at the
Audubon Center (101 E. Dr.
in Prospect Park, enter at
Lincoln Road and Ocean
Avenue, www.prospectpark.
org/audubon) April 28; 1–4
p.m. Free.
Chow down
From the Audubon
Center, it just a short
walk to some of the borough’s
finest grub, at
Smorgasburg. The collection
of more than 100 vendors
serves an enormous
variety of small dishes
and desserts, and a beer
hall offers beverages for
adults, on Breeze Hill each
Sunday afternoon.
Smorgasburg on Prospect
Park’s Breeze Hill (enter at
Lincoln Road and Ocean
Avenue, www.smorgasburg.
com). Sundays, 11 a.m.–6
p.m. Free.
Animal collective
Stop by the Prospect
Park Zoo for Signs of
Spring, a series of games
and interactive activities
you can do while the
animals are waking from
their winter hibernation.
Be sure to visit the sea lion
court, and keep an eye out
for the normally nocturnal
Pallas cat.
Prospect Park Zoo (450
Flatbush Ave., enter at
Flatbush Avenue and Empire
Boulevard in Prospect Park,
www.prospectparkzoo.com).
Sundays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
$10 (kids $7).
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