About Park Slope, New York

Upper class New Yorkers discovered Park Slope following the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 and built so many Victorian mansions on Prospect Park West, Eighth Avenue, and other streets that the area soon earned the distinction as Brooklyn's Gold Coast. Although some mansions were torn down after World War I to make way for high rise apartment buildings, blocks and blocks of brownstones have been lovingly restored by new owners in recent decades, and many of the larger homes converted to co-ops or condos or taken over by institutions. In recognition of the unique architectural gems that Park Slope offers―principally homes in the late Italianate, French Second Empire, neo-Grec, Victorian Gothic, Queen Anne, and Romanesque Revival styles―44 blocks of the neighborhood were designated as the Park Slope Historic District in 1973.

Prospect Park borders Park Slope along Prospect Park West and it is one of the neighborhood's greatest assets. The 585-acre jewel was designed in the 1860s by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who also designed Central Park, and in the last 25 years has been restored to its original grandeur by a dedicated group of administrators, government officials, volunteers, and donors.

Today Prospect Park is the destination for millions of people annually including weekend athletes, who walk, jog, roller blade, or bicycle along Park Drive traveling the same route that soldiers in the Continental Army under George Washington took in August 1776 as they fled the British; children, who play on the parks playgrounds and soccer, baseball, and softball fields; picnickers, who celebrate birthdays and holidays with family and friends; ice skaters at the Wollman Rink; and visitors to the Prospect Park Zoo, Carousel, Lefferts Historic House, Picnic House, and Prospect Park Audubon Center & Visitor Center at the Boathouse. The 40-acre Parade Ground on the southeast side of Prospect Park features basketball courts, baseball, softball, and soccer fields, and tennis courts.

Grand Army Plaza, which was designed in the style of dramatic European plazas like the Parisian Etoile, which showcases the Arc de Triomphe, provides a grand, sweeping introduction to Prospect Park and is a visible landmark for Park Slope. Park Slope also is a short walk from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway, and Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library at Grand Army Plaza.