Marine Park, Brooklyn
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- For the neighborhood of the same name, see Marine Park.
Marine Park, Brooklyn is a public park located in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Its 798 acres (3.2 km²) surround the westernmost inlet of Jamaica Bay. Most of the land for Marine Park, Brooklyn was donated to New York City to be turned into public park land by the Whitney family in 1920 and by Frederick B. Pratt and Alfred T. White, who jointly donated 150 acres in 1917. The land donated consists of the area between the current day Fillmore Avenue and Gerritsen Avenue and East 38th Street. Originally almost two thousand acres (8 km²), over half of which has been donated to the National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, the park is mainly a fertile salt marsh which is supplied with freshwater from Gerritsen Creek.
Marine Park is surrounded by the Marine Park neighborhood, bearing the same name. Marine Park consists of recreational park areas and the Salt Marsh Nature Center, where myrtle warblers, grasshopper sparrows, cottontail rabbits, ring-necked pheasants, horseshoe crabs, and oyster toadfish can be found.
[edit] Historical Background
The area was a hunting and fishing ground for Native Americans from the nearby village of Keshawchqueren. Pits for cooking and preparing food dating from 800 to 1400 AD were uncovered in Marine Park, along with deer and turtle bones, oyster shells, and sturgeon scales. In the 17th century, the Dutch began to settle in the area, which had similarities to the marshland and coastal plains of the Netherlands. The land proved to be fairly good farmland and there was an abundance of clams, oysters, and game from the region as well.
In the early 20th century, as industrialization swept the nation, developers made plans to turn Jamaica Bay into a port and prepared to dredge Rockaway channel to allow large ships into the proposed harbor. Speculators anticipated a real estate boom and bought land along the Jamaica Bay waterfront. However, donors turned the land over to the city with the stipulation that it be turned into a public park instead. Development was slow, but with new land purchases, the park grew to 1822 acres (7.4 km²) by 1937. That same year, the Board of Aldermen named the site "Brooklyn Marine Park."
The park itself, which boasts a playground, several sports fields, and a mile-long running path, was built on an ancient Keshawchqueren burial ground.[citation needed]
"Recreational facilities were built in the decades to follow, including the Pratt-White athletic field (1939) that was dedicated to the two fathers of Marine Park. A 210-acre golf course opened in 1963, and the John V. Lindsay Model Airport was dedicated in 1971. New ballfields were opened in 1979 and named for baseball lover and police officer Rocco Torre in 1997. Nature trails established along Gerritsen Creek in 1984-85 invite parkgoers to observe a wealth of flora and fauna. Ongoing improvements at the end of the 20th century include the reconstruction of basketball, tennis, and bocce courts; of baseball fields; and of Lenape Playground at Avenue U. A new nature center opened in 2000." (NYC Parks)
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