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Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and I

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Speaker 1: would like to apologize for my slight cold voice today.

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Speaker 1: You can just start singing a torch song in the

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Speaker 1: middle horse, it'll be good. Uh. This week, we are

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Speaker 1: going to be celebrating a major milestone in a prominent

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Speaker 1: park in the United States, because it is the hundred

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Speaker 1: and fiftieth anniversary this year of Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and

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Speaker 1: there's so much celebrating to do that we're actually going

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Speaker 1: to take two episodes to do it. So here's how

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Speaker 1: that's gonna work. In this first episode, we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about Prospect parks beginnings from an idea born of

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Speaker 1: a little bit of competitive civic pride to a realized

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Speaker 1: public space that could serve the recreational needs of the community.

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Speaker 1: And then, uh, we're gonna jump a little bit because

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Speaker 1: if we tried to tell the comprehensive story of press

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Speaker 1: Peg Park, it would be its own podcast for several months. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot that's happened in its history. But then

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Speaker 1: we're gonna jump a little bit in the second episode,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about how Prospect Park is

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Speaker 1: so much part of Brooklyn's historical and cultural identity, and

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Speaker 1: how the last several decades in particular, have been a

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Speaker 1: time of great effort to rejuvenate and restore the park

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Speaker 1: after it experienced a period of decline. In some ways,

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Speaker 1: the story of Prospect Park really begins with Central Parks

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Speaker 1: creation in the late eighteen fifties that catalyzed a competitive

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Speaker 1: desire for a similar space in Brooklyn, But even before that,

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Speaker 1: as early as the eighteen twenties, there was a lot

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Speaker 1: of serious discussion about the need for a park space

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Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. In the eighteen thirties, the Governor of New York,

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Speaker 1: William L. Marcy, tasked a commission with exploring the possibilities

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Speaker 1: of a park system for Brooklyn, and the result was

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Speaker 1: a plan for eleven parks. But that plan was only

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Speaker 1: partially executed. A lot of the proposed parks that were

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Speaker 1: on it were really quite small, and the allotted space

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Speaker 1: that they had would not meet the needs of the

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Speaker 1: area's growing population. And one of the parks that did

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Speaker 1: come to fruition from that plan was Fort Green Park.

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Speaker 1: Which was championed by none other than Walt Whitman, who

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Speaker 1: wrote of the need for this park in his role

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Speaker 1: as editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the eighteen forties.

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Speaker 1: Fort Green is actually where Whitman is said to have

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Speaker 1: written Leaves of Grass. But once Manhattan's Central Park was

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Speaker 1: created in eighteen fifty seven, that really lit the competitive fire.

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn wanted to develop a comparable space for its blue

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Speaker 1: collar residents who wouldn't necessarily have the option of traveling

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Speaker 1: to a resort in the summer, and in eighteen fifty nine,

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Speaker 1: a new Brooklyn Park Commission was authorized by the New

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Speaker 1: York Legislature. One of the parcels of land that the

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Speaker 1: committee acquired was a large plot that included the reservoir

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Speaker 1: at Mount Prospect, although not Mount Prospect itself. After another

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Speaker 1: plot of land, which was actually larger, was d to

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Speaker 1: be too far from the center of Brooklyn to be

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Speaker 1: ideal for the project, the Prospect Park location was chosen

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Speaker 1: for development, and James Stranahan, who was a prominent civic

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Speaker 1: leader of Brooklyn, was chosen as chairman of the Park Commission.

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Speaker 1: Throughout the late eighteen hundreds, James Stranahan works to bolster

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn's image. New Yorkers looked down on Brooklyn and its citizens,

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Speaker 1: and he wanted to change that. When it came to

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Speaker 1: Prospect Park, he thought that unless Brooklyn developed its own

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Speaker 1: impressive green space, it would just be relegated to a

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Speaker 1: role as a quote second rate suburb of a greater city. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: He's a really interesting figure and could easily be an

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Speaker 1: episode of his own. He might be in the future.

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Speaker 1: Uh And the Park Commission hired Egbert L. V Lay

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty two plan this new park, and Valet

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Speaker 1: had actually worked on the design of Central Park, but

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Speaker 1: his plans were abandoned in favor of a design by

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Speaker 1: Frederick Law Olmstead and Couvert Vox. V Lay had some

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Speaker 1: better arnus about Olmsted and Box, and and his writing

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Speaker 1: about Prospect Park, he took an opportunity to dig at

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Speaker 1: his rivals. Some of the elements of the Central Park

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Speaker 1: design that Olmsted and Box had created were man made,

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Speaker 1: including the creation of a lake. Valet wrote that this

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Speaker 1: was not only an expensive idea that should not be

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Speaker 1: copied in Prospect Park, but also that doing so would

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Speaker 1: be quote an infringement upon good taste and upon that

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Speaker 1: regard for the beauties of nature possessed by every cultivated mind.

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Speaker 1: It's a little snooty. Uh yeah, there, there's definitely some

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Speaker 1: some cattiness there. But unfortunately, the Civil War actually swarted

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Speaker 1: Vlay's Prospect Park plans. There was a construction moratorium due

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Speaker 1: to the war effort, and during the years of delay,

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Speaker 1: the Park Commission looked at other designs and ultimately, out

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Speaker 1: of this sense of competition with Central Park, decided that

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Speaker 1: they wanted a bigger park in Brooklyn than what they

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Speaker 1: were initially looking at. And so once the Civil Or

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Speaker 1: ended and they were able to move forward with plans,

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Speaker 1: the Commission staged another design competition. They basically um asked

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Speaker 1: people to submit their ideas for a new, bigger plan.

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Speaker 1: In In eighteen sixty five, Let's rival Calvert Vox was

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Speaker 1: chosen as Prospect Parks designer, which really had to be

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Speaker 1: like just a kick in the teeth after after Central Park.

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Speaker 1: Before we get into the Prospect Park project, we should

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Speaker 1: give a quipment of background on Calvert Vox and his

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Speaker 1: most famous partner, Frederick law Olmstead. Yeah, if you are

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Speaker 1: a New Yorker, you probably know their names, and if

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Speaker 1: you are at all into landscape or architecture, you probably

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Speaker 1: know both of their names. They're pretty famous. But in

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Speaker 1: case you don't know anything about them, we have you covered.

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Speaker 1: In particular. One is one who immediately jumps to mind. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're definitely famous names in this arena. Vox was born

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Speaker 1: in England in eighteen twenty four. He was the son

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Speaker 1: of a London apothecary surgeon, and as a young man

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Speaker 1: he left his studies at the Merchant Taylors School in

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty three so that he could pursue an architecture

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Speaker 1: apprenticeship under Lewis Knuckles Cottingham, who influenced Vox's work For years.

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Speaker 1: While Vox learned his chosen profession and worked under Cottingham,

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Speaker 1: he also worked odd jobs, including as a calligrapher working

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Speaker 1: on maps and signs. In eighteen fifty, Vox met American

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Speaker 1: landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing at a London art exhibit

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Speaker 1: where some of Fox's drawings were on display. Downing wanted

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Speaker 1: to expand his firm and he needed an architect, and

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Speaker 1: in Box's work, he thought he'd found the right man

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Speaker 1: for the job. He offered Calbert Vox a position on

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Speaker 1: the spot, which he accepted, and so the young Englishman

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Speaker 1: moved to New York, and before long Vox was actually

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Speaker 1: made a partner at the firm, and he and Downing

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Speaker 1: collaborated several times, including on a project to improve the

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Speaker 1: public grounds that surrounded the White House and Smithsonian Institution,

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Speaker 1: and the pair most likely would have continued their partnership

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Speaker 1: into the design of Central Park, but Downing died in

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Speaker 1: a boiler accident while he was aboard the steamer Henry

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Speaker 1: Clay in eighteen fifty two, so even though they became

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Speaker 1: very close and worked closely together, they really only had

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Speaker 1: a two year relationship. Vox, however, would later name one

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Speaker 1: of his children after his friend and collaborator. Fox married

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Speaker 1: Mary Swann McKenzie in eighteen fifty four, and the couple

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Speaker 1: had four children, two sons and two daughters. They moved

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Speaker 1: to a house on the New Jersey Palisades with a

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Speaker 1: view of the Hudson River. His friends were poets, painters,

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Speaker 1: and journalists, and he was a member of the New

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Speaker 1: York's of New York's Century Association, which promoted the arts

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Speaker 1: of literature and Caldert. Vox found the US to be

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Speaker 1: a little too obsessed with financial wealth and too void

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Speaker 1: of artistic education, and that mentality really fueled his work

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Speaker 1: and his home designs that he was doing really broke

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Speaker 1: with tradition, so they favored fewer of the rarely used

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Speaker 1: formal spaces, think like formal dining rooms and formal sitting rooms,

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Speaker 1: and instead he designed in more beautiful everyday room so

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Speaker 1: they were just as lovely as any of those far

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Speaker 1: more rooms, but they were intended for everyday use. He

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Speaker 1: also designed the original building for the Metropolitan Museum of

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Speaker 1: Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Unlike Fox,

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Speaker 1: Frederick law Onstead born in eighteen two in Hartford, Connecticut

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Speaker 1: did not attend school to become a landscape designer an architect.

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Speaker 1: He lost his mother at the age of three, and

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Speaker 1: his father and stepmother sent him away to a religious

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Speaker 1: school at age seven. He stayed in the tutelage of

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Speaker 1: the clergy until he was fifteen. Young Olmsted was really

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Speaker 1: intensely curious, and he was an explorer of both the

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Speaker 1: outdoors and of information by his nature. But he wasn't

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Speaker 1: terribly disciplined, and that's one of the reasons probably that

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Speaker 1: he opted not to attend Yale when he was accepted there,

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Speaker 1: but that outgoing free spirit of his would later serve

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Speaker 1: as the perfect balance to Voxes English propriety and reserve.

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Speaker 1: He drifted from job to job as a young man,

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Speaker 1: working as a surveyor, a farmer, and a journalist, among

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Speaker 1: other things, while his father, a dry goods merchant, supplemented

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Speaker 1: his income. He had no intention of ever designing parks,

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Speaker 1: and even after he and Vox design Central Park, he

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Speaker 1: left New York and eventually became a manager of the

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Speaker 1: Mariposa Mining estate in California. Yeah. I find it so

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Speaker 1: interesting that even after creating Central Park, he wasn't like,

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Speaker 1: this is my job now. He was like, well, next,

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Speaker 1: what's next. He had married Mary Perkins O Instead in

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine, who was his brother John's widow, taking

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Speaker 1: on parenthood of John and Mary's three children in the process,

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Speaker 1: and Mary and Frederick would go on to have four

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Speaker 1: children of their own together, although two of them died

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Speaker 1: in childhood. Once Vox had been approved for the Prospect

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Speaker 1: Park project, he insisted that Olmstead joined, but Olmstead, who

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Speaker 1: was busy with his California job, wasn't particularly eager to

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Speaker 1: take on the task. He had taken a few landscape

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Speaker 1: jobs while he was in California, including chairing a commission

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Speaker 1: to oversee Yosemite State Park. But Vox, who would not

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Speaker 1: take Olmsted's no for an answer, continued to work on

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Speaker 1: persuading his friend to join him. Eventually, Vox's promise that

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Speaker 1: the Prospect Park project would give them a chance to

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Speaker 1: create a park for all of the people of Brooklyn,

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Speaker 1: cutting across social strata and with the freedom to do

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Speaker 1: as they wish, convinced Olmsted to take the job. And

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Speaker 1: an added factor was the fact that the mining operation

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Speaker 1: was failing. In eighteen sixty six, Olmsted made his way

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Speaker 1: back across the country and he and Vox started work

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Speaker 1: in earnest On Prospect Park. And before we get into

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Speaker 1: the hard work that Olmsted, Vox and their team put

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Speaker 1: into turning a blank slate into a park for all people,

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Speaker 1: we're first going to pause and have a quick word

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Speaker 1: from one of our sponsors. Vox's initial plan for the

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Speaker 1: park augment the plan that Vla had created by adding

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Speaker 1: several hundred acres. He was quick to point out that

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Speaker 1: he had found Vlay's design clumsy and inelegant, so clearly

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Speaker 1: those two did like to snipe at each other. Uh

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Speaker 1: Voxes proposed layout is more or less how the park

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Speaker 1: is today, with a large meadow, a wooded ravine, and

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Speaker 1: a lake on the southern end of the property. The lake,

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Speaker 1: vox promised Stranahan would be twice the size of Central

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Speaker 1: Parks Lake. For inspiration, as they developed their vision, Fox

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Speaker 1: and Olmsted turned to eighteenth and early nineteenth century British landscapes.

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Speaker 1: Fox had grown up among them, and Olmsted had visited

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Speaker 1: and interviewed landscapers in Britain. Birkenhead Park in Merseyside, England,

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Speaker 1: was of particular interest to them. Like the Prospect Park project,

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Speaker 1: it had started out on an undeveloped plot that basically

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Speaker 1: was considered wasteland. In a report to the Brooklyn Park

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Speaker 1: Commission written in eighteen sixty six, Olmsted wrote quote, although

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Speaker 1: we cannot have wild mountain gorges, for instance, on the park,

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Speaker 1: we may have rugged ravines shaded with trees and made

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Speaker 1: picturesque with shrubs, the forms and arrangement of which remind

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Speaker 1: us of mountain scenery. We may perhaps even secure some

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Speaker 1: slight approach to the mystery, variety and luxuriance of tropical

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Speaker 1: scenery by an assemblage of certain forms of vegetation, Gay

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Speaker 1: with flowers and intricate and Maizie with vines and creepers, ferns,

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Speaker 1: rushes and broad leaved plants. As the pair worked on

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Speaker 1: their design, they focused on the visual. The park was

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Speaker 1: intended to offer both beautiful views of the surrounding city

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Speaker 1: as well as pastoral tableau within the park itself. Every feature,

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Speaker 1: from footbridges, to artists, to their to the placement of

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Speaker 1: shrubbery was considered with how visitors would see it. There

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Speaker 1: was also a very very conscious effort to make the

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Speaker 1: park a place that transcended social convention. It was intended

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Speaker 1: that the rich and the poor would enjoy this space

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Speaker 1: together and find commonality as a community. Drives, walkways, and

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Speaker 1: paths were designed to bring people together and create a

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Speaker 1: democratized experience for one and all. There had been a

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Speaker 1: section included in Let's park designs called the east Side Lands.

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Speaker 1: This area sat on Flatbush Avenue. Ohmstead and Box did

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Speaker 1: not include this in their design, but instead suggested that

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Speaker 1: the city set aside that property for things like libraries

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Speaker 1: and museums. Instead, Stranahan saw us as an opportunity to

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Speaker 1: pay for the additional acreage that was included in Fox's

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Speaker 1: initial layout. They could sell that tract of land and

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Speaker 1: use the money for additional land acquisition. But this was

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Speaker 1: not a universally accepted plan. There were arguments that it

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Speaker 1: should be included in the park, and some of the

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Speaker 1: landowners who had given up that land for the park

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Speaker 1: wanted it back if it if it wasn't going to

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Speaker 1: be used for this big green space for the community.

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Speaker 1: That battle over the tract of land went on actually

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Speaker 1: for more than two decades, but finally in that flat

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Speaker 1: Bush parcel was sold. Prospect Parks construction started on July one,

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty six. It was a chadic times as there

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Speaker 1: were so many workmen on the grounds. They were up

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Speaker 1: to workers there on any given day, along with mules

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Speaker 1: and horses. They worked a ten hour day and made

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Speaker 1: a dollar and seventy cents per day for their labor. Additionally,

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Speaker 1: one of the early challenges was rounding up the wandering

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Speaker 1: livestock from neighboring properties and returning them to their home

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Speaker 1: turf so that the work could be done without these obstacles,

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Speaker 1: these little living, wandering obstacles. Um. Yeah, there was a

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Speaker 1: thing that I read in in one of my sources

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Speaker 1: that said that Stranahan was particularly pleased with himself because

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Speaker 1: the workmen at Prospect Park, we're working a longer day

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Speaker 1: for less than what Manhattan had paid for Central Parks workers.

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Speaker 1: I think they paid two dollars a day for eight

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Speaker 1: hours of labor. So he was he was very pleased

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Speaker 1: that they had managed to make this budgetary move, even

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Speaker 1: though from the from this standpoint of the workman, that

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Speaker 1: kind of sucks. Kind of not a bragging point. They're right. Uh.

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Speaker 1: One of the major efforts in those early days of

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Speaker 1: the construction was the development of a drainage system under

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Speaker 1: the meadow. Olmstead was in charge of the installation of

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Speaker 1: the park system of specially treated clay drain pipes, which

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Speaker 1: was designed to handle as much as two inches of

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Speaker 1: rain per hour, taking runoff through a series of pipes

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Speaker 1: to drain into the waterways. This system, designed to run

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Speaker 1: into existing bodies of water rather than a sewer system,

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Speaker 1: was considered way ahead of its time. The meadow was

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Speaker 1: cleared of peat and replaced with a mixture of soils

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Speaker 1: designed to create a fertile bed. Carriageways and a walking

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Speaker 1: path along the meadow were given the best possible sight

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Speaker 1: lines through careful placement, often routing them too raised up ground.

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Speaker 1: Dead trees were removed and surviving trees were pruned, and

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Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of trees were brought in. More than

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Speaker 1: forty thousand trees, for example, were planted in the park

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty nine at and at that time there

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Speaker 1: were more than a hundred thousand more in the nursery

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Speaker 1: that were being prepared for future placement. The lake was

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Speaker 1: the biggest construction challenge, had to be excavated, and as

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Speaker 1: it reached to depth of seven feet which is a

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Speaker 1: little more than two meters in some places, a temporary

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Speaker 1: rail track for horse carriages had to be developed to

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Speaker 1: carry away the mass amounts of earth that the workers

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Speaker 1: were removing. And the lake had some problems initially, so

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Speaker 1: the liner of the lake, which was made of this

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Speaker 1: clay paste, was too porous and it leaked. And the solution,

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Speaker 1: it turned out, was silt which was settled into the

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Speaker 1: clay liner and created a seal. And that liner, repaired

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Speaker 1: with silt, is actually still there. The other issue of

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Speaker 1: the lake was that even though the drainage design fed

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Speaker 1: into it, there was still too much water evaporation, as

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Speaker 1: much as five thousand gallons a day and warm weather.

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Speaker 1: To address this issue, an impressive well was built. It

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Speaker 1: was fifty four feet or sixteen point four meters in diameter,

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Speaker 1: and its descent into the ground was carefully controlled, dropping

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Speaker 1: an inch at a time as workers dug out the

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Speaker 1: ground beneath it, until it reached a depth of seventy feet,

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Speaker 1: which is twenty one point three meters. Vox designed the

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Speaker 1: well and boiler house for the well, and that house

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Speaker 1: actually still stands. The well itself provided water to the

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Speaker 1: park until nineteen eleven, when the increasing demands of the

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Speaker 1: park catalyzed a switch to city provided water. While the

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Speaker 1: well and boiler house remains, some of the structures designed

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Speaker 1: by Box, such as the thatched shelters, no longer exist.

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Speaker 1: But consistent throughout the buildings that he designed was their

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Speaker 1: integration into the natural landscape. In some cases, such as

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Speaker 1: the concert grove, the landscape and architecture came together to

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Speaker 1: create one cohesive design. The park commissioners opened the park

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Speaker 1: to the public on October nineteenth of eighteen sixty seven

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Speaker 1: while it was still under construction. It took several more

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Speaker 1: years for most of the structures to be completed, but

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Speaker 1: by eighteen seventy three, the majority of the buildings were finished.

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Speaker 1: But in that year, the banking firm of J. Cook

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Speaker 1: and Company, which was heavily invested in the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Railroad industry, closed due to bankruptcy. The collapse of such

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Speaker 1: a giant in the finance room caused a panic and

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Speaker 1: catalyzed a decade long depression that meant that some of

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Speaker 1: the elements of Prospect Parks architectural design were shelved indefinitely.

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Speaker 1: Fox had designed a restaurant, a stone observation tower, and

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Speaker 1: a carriage concourse that would never come to fruition because

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Speaker 1: of the panic of eighteen seventy three. Yeah, they basically

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Speaker 1: finished any projects that were in process already when that

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Speaker 1: panic happened, but nothing else got added to the roster.

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Speaker 1: And coming up, we're gonna get into how this new

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Speaker 1: space was actually used in its early years and what

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Speaker 1: happened to its creators after they moved on to other projects.

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Speaker 1: But first we are going to take a quick little

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Speaker 1: sponsor break. So before the break, we were talking about

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Speaker 1: the panic of eighteen seventy three and how it stopped

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Speaker 1: construction on the remaining buildings that have been planned for

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Speaker 1: Prospect Park. But even with that new construction halted, the

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Speaker 1: park really was still a fully realized public space that

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Speaker 1: had been open for several years at that point and

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Speaker 1: was drawing crowds. Anyone could enjoy the spectacular landscape and

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Speaker 1: the lovely walking paths, or any of the other amenities

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Speaker 1: of Prospect Park without spending any money at all. New

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00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:22,640
Speaker 1: Hampshire and Southbound sheep wandered in the long meadow. Archery

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Speaker 1: and croquet were also popular there. The dairy offered sandwiches

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Speaker 1: and fresh milk for purchase and was situated in a

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Speaker 1: spot where no cares lanes approached it, so the area

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Speaker 1: immediately surrounding it became a popular place for families to

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Speaker 1: relax the let children play out of the way of danger.

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Speaker 1: Picnics in the park or of course particularly popular, but

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Speaker 1: that was in part because Central Park didn't allow picnicking,

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Speaker 1: so some New Yorkers from Manhattan would go over to

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn to enjoy a meal while relaxing outdoors, and this

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Speaker 1: actually caused some issues as some of Brooklyn's residents were

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Speaker 1: not super enthused to have their park used by the

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Speaker 1: Manhattan crowd, laiming that they often dressed too casually and

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Speaker 1: they left behind trash from their meals and with people

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Speaker 1: who had the finances to put toward park diversions. Carriage

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Speaker 1: rides around the park were immensely popular, particularly in the

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Speaker 1: evenings the sun as the sun went down and the

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Speaker 1: gas lamps came on too light the lanes. A carousel

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Speaker 1: powered by an elderly blind horse was installed in eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy four. Yeah, that carousel was so popular that they

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Speaker 1: were like, we need another one of those. The park's

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Speaker 1: parade ground, which had been added to the south end

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00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: of the park in eighteen sixty seven, was put to

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Speaker 1: use from military parades, which drew crowds of spectators, but

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Speaker 1: with increasing frequency in the park's early years, the parade

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Speaker 1: ground also became a popular spot for sporting events such

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Speaker 1: as baseball, rugby, and even polo. Throughout the eighteen seventies,

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Speaker 1: there were concerts in the park on Saturday afternoons at

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Speaker 1: the Concert Grove on the Music Island stage, although the

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Speaker 1: acoustics combined with breezes on the lake's water We're Not

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00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,320
Speaker 1: are a good They made for kind of a mediocre

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Speaker 1: listening experience. Eventually, musical performances were moved to a temporary venue,

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Speaker 1: and then a dedicated music pagoda was built in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen eighties with much better sound. Olmsted and Box dissolved

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Speaker 1: their partnership in eighteen seventy three, but they remained friends

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Speaker 1: and they did occasionally collaborate on special projects together. Their

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Speaker 1: last endeavor as a team, which also included their sons John,

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Speaker 1: Charles Olmstead and Downing Vox, was the Andrew Jackson Downing Park,

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Speaker 1: located in Newburgh, New York. After Prospect Park went on

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Speaker 1: to become an incredibly sought after and famous landscape designer.

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Speaker 1: He worked on parks throughout the United States and Canada.

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Speaker 1: Vox designed estates and their surrounding grounds, and eventually became

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Speaker 1: the chief architect of the New York City Park Commission.

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Speaker 1: Vox died in eight at the age of seventy, and

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Speaker 1: his cause of death was not determined. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: one of those sort of weird situations. After he had

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Speaker 1: gone for a shoreline and walk at Gravesend Bay while

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00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 1: he was visiting his son, his body was found by

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Speaker 1: a peer with a bruise on his head and a

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00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 1: cut over one eye. He was also missing a shoe,

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Speaker 1: his hat, and his glasses. And while it's entirely probable

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Speaker 1: that Vox, who was not intremendously good health at this point,

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Speaker 1: might have tripped or fainted and had an accidental drowning situation,

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00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,879
Speaker 1: there were sort of gossipy theories that started circulating at

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Speaker 1: the time that he might have committed suicide. As Olmsted's

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00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:30,919
Speaker 1: aide advanced, the fame landscape designer developed dementia. He was

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Speaker 1: confined at the McLean Asylum in Massachusetts in at the

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Speaker 1: request of his wife, and he died there in nineteen

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Speaker 1: o three. The landscape of the McLean Asylum had been

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Speaker 1: designed by none other than Olmsted himself when he was

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Speaker 1: a younger man. Author David P. Collie wrote of the

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Speaker 1: creative relationship of Olmsted and Box quote, one could imagine

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00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,359
Speaker 1: Prospect Park is the product of a perfect collaboration between

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Speaker 1: two partners at the peak of their abilities, an alliance

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00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: so effective that Knee their man was ever as creative

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00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 1: as when they worked together. Here it was Prospect Parks

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00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: champion on the park commissioned James Stranahan, who had perhaps

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00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,720
Speaker 1: the most point for farewell to the project. After he

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00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,440
Speaker 1: died in his summer home in Saratoga Springs, New York,

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00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,359
Speaker 1: Stranahan was laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: His funeral procession passed through the park on route to

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00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: the cemetery, and his friends and employees of the park

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00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:29,880
Speaker 1: lined the road. And while Stranahan isn't mentioned in association

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00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 1: with the park the way Olm staid in box usually are,

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Speaker 1: there is a statue of him at the Grand Army

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Speaker 1: Plaza entrance with a Latin inscription that reads translated reader,

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00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,399
Speaker 1: if you want my monument, look around you. And that

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00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 1: is incidentally a copy of part of the epitaph of

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Speaker 1: seventeenth and eighteenth century architect Christopher Wrenten. Like his his

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Speaker 1: Christopher Wren's son wrote that and then it was copied

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Speaker 1: on Stranahan's uh statue in the park. So that's the

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00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,679
Speaker 1: early years of Prospect Park. Okay, yeah, what are we

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Speaker 1: doing next time? Holly? So next time, as I mentioned

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Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about some of the more modern stuff that went on

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00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 1: that's gone on in Prospect Parking and sort of how

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Speaker 1: it it has been a part of Brooklyn's uh community

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Speaker 1: and cultural identity. UH. And we'll have some guests on

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00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,120
Speaker 1: the show from the Prospect Park Alliance UH as well

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00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:25,240
Speaker 1: as another guest. We're going to have some people talking

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00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:29,120
Speaker 1: with expertise about Prospect Park and what it's what it's

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00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,600
Speaker 1: meant for Brooklyn over the year. So join us for that.

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Speaker 1: That's in part two. UH. And I will say now

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Speaker 1: and I will say again then thank you to the

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00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,160
Speaker 1: Prospect Park Alliance for helping us put this episode together. UH.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, join us for that and close out this episode.

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Speaker 1: I also have a little Bettle listener mail. It's a

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Speaker 1: short one and it's a correction. Uh. It is from

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00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: our listener Kristen, and it is about our John Kidwell

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00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,639
Speaker 1: Pineapple episode. She writes a Dear Tracy and Holly, I

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00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: just want to say how much I love your podcast

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00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,679
Speaker 1: and thank my daughter for introducing me to it a

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00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:58,880
Speaker 1: year ago. I have one small issue with the kid

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00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: Well Pineapple episode. Minoa Valley which is very near Wakiki.

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00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 1: It is the valley directly above It is, however, not

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00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 1: near the north shore. Waikiki is on the central leeward

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00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 1: side of Oahu. In the north shore is on the

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00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:12,679
Speaker 1: windward side and about as far apart as you can

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00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 1: get running north to south on the island. After living

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00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,359
Speaker 1: in Minoa Valley for four point five years, I was

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00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,159
Speaker 1: really thrilled to hear a podcast about Hawaii. This is

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00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,200
Speaker 1: one of those times one that's my fault and I'm sorry,

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00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:26,400
Speaker 1: But it is also one of those times where, um,

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00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 1: I realize how much near is a relative term, because, ohaha,

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00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 1: who is very small in the big picture lake if

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00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,280
Speaker 1: you live somewhere you know, for example, like I live

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00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 1: just outside the main city of Atlanta. I'm laughing because

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00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: I know where you live to Atlanta, so it takes me,

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00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,919
Speaker 1: you know, thirty minutes to get to work, which I

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00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 1: would say is near, right, But I met other people

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00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 1: would not. So that's some of it is that when

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00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 1: I look at Oahu, it all looks kind of near

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00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:00,920
Speaker 1: to each other to me. So that's my fault for

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00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:07,119
Speaker 1: not really thinking about them the relative distance. If you

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00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,119
Speaker 1: are on Owahoo, of what is near and far apart,

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00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 1: it all looks near to each other. So I'm so sorry. Yeah,

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00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: it's funny to me how people who live in different

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00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 1: places frame the distance that things are from one another.

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Speaker 1: Like the folks I know who live in Texas will

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00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: just drive an hour and a half to get somewhere

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00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,880
Speaker 1: because Texas is big, things are spread out, and that's

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00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 1: that's near. It's sure, it's near. One of the first

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00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 1: trips that I made to Massachusetts before moving here, we

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00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 1: were going to go to a water park uh, and

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00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,280
Speaker 1: my now husband was asking me to put in the

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00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,680
Speaker 1: directions into his his car GPS uh and he said, okay,

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00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: start with the state. It's in New Hampshire And I

474
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: was like, what, we're going to New Hampshire today. That's

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00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: a whole other state that's forever away, not in New England. Yeah, yeah,

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00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it's a We had a discussion with one

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00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: of our our drivers while we were in a wah

478
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:04,439
Speaker 1: who in December, where he was saying, um, we were

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00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: asking how long it would take to drive around the

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00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: whole island and he said something like two and a

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00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 1: half three hours, and my husband said, that's how long

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00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: it takes to drive around the perimeter in Atlanta. So

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00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 1: that's why my near and far is is very skew.

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00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,639
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Grover because it's all right, who I mean,

485
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: I'm always thinking about Grover a little. But but thank you,

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00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,960
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. I'm so sorry that I framed

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00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: that in a way that made it sound completely inaccurate,

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00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:32,239
Speaker 1: and thank you Kristen for fixing that for me. UH.

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00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:33,880
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can

490
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcast at how stuff Works dot com.

491
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:40,159
Speaker 1: You can also find us across the spectrum of social

492
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 1: media as at missed in History, so that applies to

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00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 1: UH Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, Pinterest. I think that's all

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00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,440
Speaker 1: of them. If it's not wherever you go, it's still

495
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: Missed in History. If you would like to visit our

496
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: parents site, which is how Stuff Works, you can do that.

497
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: You can type in almost anything you're interested in the

498
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: search bar are going to get articles about it because

499
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 1: there's so much information from years and years of writing

500
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: and research that's gone on a house to works. You

501
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,160
Speaker 1: can visit us at missed in history dot com, where

502
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,639
Speaker 1: we have UH the back catalog of every episode of

503
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: the show that has ever existed, as well as show

504
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 1: notes for any that Tracy and I have worked on,

505
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:19,919
Speaker 1: and if you have been listening recently, we combined it

506
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: so that our our sources, and any pertinent show note

507
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,720
Speaker 1: type items are actually on the show page now, they're

508
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,440
Speaker 1: not two separate entries on our our website, so it's easy,

509
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: one stop shopping for history information. Uh and we encourage

510
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:33,360
Speaker 1: you come and visit us at how stuff works dot

511
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: com and missed in history dot com for more on

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00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff

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00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: works dot com