Prospect Park and Victorian Flatbush Tour

Required: Proof of Full Vaccination.  Bring a picnic lunch, water to drink, a mask.  Be fit enough to walk a good 5 miles.  Meeting Place:  By the Lefferts Homestead off Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Park.  Closest subway stop: Prospect Park station of the Q train.  Note: there is a restaurant in the park where we take our lunch break.

This tour is free with a voluntary donation to your guide.  Note: This tour is offered concurrently with meetup group, "Exploring NYC History and Neighborhoods".  https://www.meetup.com/Exploring-NYC-History-and-Neighborhoods/

Tour Overview

Frederick Law Olmstead, who had previously designed Central Park with his colleague, Calvert Vaux, called Prospect Park his masterpiece. We'll visit both the unique natural and human-made features of the park, including woodlands and waterways, the Camperdown Elm, Audubon Boathouse, and the recently restored Concert Grove Pavilion.  After lunch in the park we'll visit downtown Flatbush and see where Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond and other famous Brooklynites attended High School. Victorian Flatbush, truly one of New York's hidden gems, which began as a Dutch farming village in 1652 and began to develop as a residential suburb in the late 1800's. Today this group of neighborhoods makes up one of the largest collection of Victorian-era wood frame architecture in the U.S. Many of the homes contains distinctive ornamental features and thrive on lovely-tree-lined streets. You won't believe you are in the middle of Brooklyn!

 We will end on walk in the Ditmas Park neighborhood, near the Q train at Cortelyou Road for a reasonably quick ride back to Manhattan or Atlantic Avenue for other train connections.