SATURDAY: Sketch Fort Greene Park

Stunning Fall Colors at Fort Green Park

Many thanks!  This sketch event was 

suggested and researched by Julie Kessler

The Prison Ship
Martyrs’ Monument

Fort Greene's history is rife with important names--Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Greene, Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, William Howard Taft, and McKim, Mead and White, to name a few--hinting at the important role the park has played in the city's history. Originally the site of forts built for the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the community surrounding the land started using it as public space shortly after the threat of the War of 1812 passed. By 1847, it was designated a park (Brooklyn's first), and twenty years later, famed landscape architects Olmsted and Vaux began designing its new layout. In 1897, the park, formerly known as Washington Park, received its name.

The park includes part of the high ground where the Continental Army built fortifications prior to the Battle of Long Island, during the early days of the American Revolutionary War. The site was chosen and construction supervised by General Nathanael Greene; it was named Fort Putnam. During the War of 1812, when the possibility of a British invasion led to the re-use of the site for defense, the newly rebuilt fortification was named Fort Greene in his honor.

After the fort's military use had waned, poet Walt Whitman, then the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, was a strong advocate of reclaiming the space for use as a public park.[2] The City of Brooklyn had, by 1842, bought property around the fort from the Cowenhoven family, and in 1847 created what was then called Washington Park, Brooklyn's second park,[1] after Commodore Barry Park.

In 1867, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who also designed Central Park and Prospect Park, prepared a plan for the redesign of the park, the name of which name was changed to Fort Greene Park.

A neighborhood of beautiful brownstones

DETAILS

WHEN:   This coming Saturday, November 2, 2019 we'll meet at 10 AM. Sleeping late?  Come anyway, we'll be there!

WHERE: Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park.  We will meet at the corners of Myrtle and Washington.  If you come late, anyone with a sketchbook is almost certainly with NYC Urban Sketchers  (see map below).

HOW: There are loads of subways that stop within a few blocks of the park, including:
   A - C trains to Lafayette Avenue
   G - train to Fulton St
   2, 3, 4 or 5 trains to Nevins
   A, C or G trains to Hoyt Schermerhorn
   2 or 3  trains to Hoyt
   R or W trains to Jay St / Metrotech

LUNCH:  12:00  Noon - Bring your own or take advantage of the many shops and deli's in the area.  We will pick an area of the park where we'll eat outdoors.

AFTERNOON:  1 PM - Back to sketching

SHOW and TELL:  3 PM.  We'll meet outdoors - probably at our lunch spot to share our day's drawings and tell stories.


NOTES:

-  Anticipate sun.  Bring a hat.  Sketching can be like sunbathing.  Be prepared.
-  Bring a stool if you own one. It gives you so many more options.

Click to Enlarge

If you can’t find us

call or text Mark at 973-809-9128

There are no fees.   All drawing skill levels are welcome.