40°41′31″N73°58′32″W / 40.691897°N 73.975474°W /40.691897; -73.975474
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Fort Greene Park is a city-owned and -operatedpark inFort Greene,Brooklyn. The 30.2-acre (12.2 ha) park was originally named after the fort formerly located there, Fort Putnam, itself was named forRufus Putnam,George Washington'schief of engineers in the Revolutionary War.[1]
Renamed in 1812 forNathanael Greene, anAmerican Revolutionary War hero,[2] it was redesigned byFrederick Law Olmsted andCalvert Vaux, architects ofCentral Park andProspect Park, in 1867. Fort Greene Park contains thePrison Ship Martyrs' Monument, which includes a crypt designed by Olmsted and Vaux, holding the remains ofPatriot prisoners of war who died while being held on Britishprison ships inWallabout Bay during theAmerican Revolutionary War.
Across the street from itsDeKalb Avenue entrance at Fort Greene Place isBrooklyn Technical High School. To its west is the oldest hospital in Brooklyn, now called theBrooklyn Hospital Center. North are theWalt Whitman Houses, one of the largesthousing projects in New York City.
Fort Greene Park includes part of thehigh ground where theContinental Army built fortifications prior to theBattle of Long Island, during the early days of the Revolutionary War. The site was chosen and construction supervised by GeneralNathanael Greene, and it was named Fort Putnam, after Rufus Putnam, George Washington's chief engineer. During theWar of 1812, when the possibility of aBritish invasion of New York led to the re-use of the site for defense, the newly-rebuilt fortification was named Fort Greene in General Greene's honor.
After the fort's military use had waned, poetWalt Whitman, then the editor of theBrooklyn Daily Eagle, strongly advocated for reclaiming the space for use as apublic park.[3] TheCity of Brooklyn had, by 1842, bought property around the fort from the Cowenhoven family, and in 1847 established what was then calledWashington Park, Brooklyn's second park,[2] after City Park (today'sCommodore Barry Park).
In 1867,Frederick Law Olmsted andCalvert Vaux, designers ofCentral Park andProspect Park, prepared a plan for the redesign of the park, the name of which was changed to Fort Greene Park.[2][4]
In the aftermath ofHurricane Sandy, many parts of New York City were destroyed, including several trees in the park and the surrounding Fort Greene area.[5]
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In February 2017, Parks Without Borders (PWB), the design unit ofNYC Parks, proposed renovating the park.[6] The renovation was to cost $24 million and include new paths, sidewalks, and recreation facilities, in addition to upgraded bathrooms and drainage systems.[7] Public opposition gave rise to an advocacy group,Friends of Fort Greene Park.[8][9] TheLandmarks Preservation Commission took no vote, with one commissioner observing that the plan was "against every historic moment in the design of the park".[10][11][12] At issue was that the renovations would eliminate design details from the late landscape architectArthur Edwin Bye's 1970s redesign of the park.[13] The LPC approved the plan, which would entail demolishing Bye's landscape, in November 2017.[14][15]
Controversy again arose in early 2018 when NYC Parks announced plans to cut down some park trees,[16] and a group of residents successfully sued to force the release of an internal report about the trees,[17] a decision upheld upon appeal.[18] As of August 2018[update] the renovation was in theprocurement process.[19] In January 2020, aNew York Supreme Court judge ordered the city to reassess the park renovation plans to raze more than 80 trees, including 58 mature trees in the northwest section nearest the Ingersoll andWalt Whitman houses.[20] The move was lauded by the Atlantic Chapter of theSierra Club,[21] as well as local residents.[20] The city filed a notice of appeal in February 2020.[22] State AssemblymanWalter T. Mosley contacted the city's law department and asked for a redesign.[23]
In 2023, Friends of Fort Greene Park sued NYC Parks, claiming the agency had not conducted an environmental review for the redesign.[7] Several residents further sued the city in April 2025 to prevent the destruction of 78 trees in the park.[24][25] Friends of Fort Greene Park's lawsuit against the redesign was dismissed that July.[7][26]
One of Fort Greene Park's distinctive features is thePrison Ship Martyrs' Monument. During the Revolutionary War, the British kept Americanprisoners on ships inWallabout Bay under terrible conditions. Around 11,500 prisoners died from disease andmalnutrition. Olmsted and Vaux envisioned acrypt to hold their remains, with an appropriate monument. It was built, and the remains of the prisoners were re-interred there in 1873. A small monument was also built.[27]
Eventually, funds were raised for a larger monument. The architectural firm ofMcKim, Mead, and White won a design competition, and the monument was unveiled in 1908 byPresident-elect William Howard Taft. It is a 149-foot (45 m) highgraniteDoriccolumn over the crypt. At the top is an eight-ton bronzeurn. At night the monument is illuminated by four electric lights set in fourgranite shafts. Bronze eagles grace each shaft, and two cannons guard the plaza and the Martyrs' crypt below.[27]
In 2015, a bust of the formerNational Security Agency contractorEdward Snowden was illicitly erected in the park and taken down by park officials the same day.[28] The next day, it was replaced by a projectedhologram.[29]
The park is host to the annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival,[30] an event featuring young writers aged 7–18 reading alongside established writers, such asSonia Sanchez,Amiri Baraka,Gloria Naylor,Jhumpa Lahiri, andJennifer Egan, the last two being residents of the neighborhood. The Fort GreenePark Conservancy also operates a summer concert series. The Greene Glass Project was started in 2010 to address the then-thousands of shards of broken glass in the park. The organization was hosting annual cleanups in the summer as of 2015.[31]
