Celebrate Prospect Park’s 150th Anniversary Weekend

By Sabrina Sooknanan May 1, 2017

The opening weekend of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park will bring fun and games to New York City families in early April in celebration of its 150th anniversary.

Enjoy more than a 100 local food and drink vendors, explore Prospect Park Zoo with free admission for children, take a running history tour of the park with photo ops, or join the baseball youth league parade and watch a Brooklyn Atlantics game following 1860 rules. These are just some of the many activities you and your family can do during Prospect Park’s 150th anniversary weekend April 1-2.

Landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed Prospect Park to include a 90-acre long meadow, a 60-acre lake, a bunch of scenic overviews, and many paths. Olmsted and Vaux also designed Central Park. Although not entirely finished at the time, Prospect Park opened in 1867 and garnered more than 100,000 visitors in one month. Design and construction took place from 1865-1895.

Today, Prospect Park, spanning 526 acres, is a prime destination for many in New York City. The 150th anniversary celebration is organized by the Prospect Park Alliance, a nonprofit founded in 1987 with the purpose of restoring and sustaining Prospect Park. “We preserve the natural environment, restore historic design, and provide public programs and amenities for the Park, which receives more than 10 million visits each year,” Prospect Park Alliance’s page states.

To kick off the 150th celebrations, Lola Star will bring roller disco to LeFrak Center at Lakeside on Friday, March 31 in the evening for skaters ages 21 and older. On Saturday, April 1 the celebration will open with a baseball youth league parade in the morning, followed by a Brooklyn Atlantics exhibition game, following 1860 rules. An opening day fair will provide refreshments and family-friendly fun. If you need some morning caffeine before the celebratory parade and game, bring your pup to FIDO in Prospect Park’s first “Coffee Bark” of the spring for free goodies for furry friends and their owners. Other fun opportunities include a running history tour of the park, a grill out of local fare at the Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza, volunteering opportunities, and a campfire with community conversation, music, and mulled wine in the evening.

Sunday will be an active day as well, starting with an early morning bird walk as well as a 150th anniversary run, in which the route will spell out "150" in honor of the park’s sesquicentennial. Sunday also marks the first Smorgasburg of the season, with more than 100 local food and drink vendors gathering at Breeze Hill to feature a wide selection of cuisines. Before you leave for the walking tour on the history of the park, make sure you stop by the Brooklyn Public Library to share your Prospect Park story, to be archived in the Brooklyn Collection.

Throughout the weekend you can take a ride on one of the 53 horses at Prospect Park’s 1912 Carousel. The kids will also be able to choose from a lion, a giraffe, a deer, and two dragon-pulled chariots. Families can explore the Prospect Park Audubon Center for free and start spring planting at the Lefferts Historic House, creating a small pot filled with seeds to bring home. Enjoy the last days of ice-skating at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside (and get a free pass to return later for roller skating), and check out Prospect Park Zoo, where kids get in for free with an adult.

For more information about the 150th anniversary celebrations of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park visit prospectpark.org.

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