New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [283]
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Follow dog walkers and bicyclists to idyllic 585-acre Prospect Park, designed by Olmsted and Vaux of Central Park fame. Along with rolling meadows, shady forests, and a series of lakes, there are concerts and kids’ programs.
Adjacent to the park are two of Brooklyn’s main attractions: the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a must-see during its springtime Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Brooklyn Museum, known for its Egyptian and feminist art collections.
The neighborhood that literally slopes down from the park, Park Slope is known affectionately as “Stroller Land.” This family-friendly neighborhood is full of academics, writers, and late-blooming couples pushing Bugaboo strollers to its cafés and designer boutiques.
One of Brooklyn’s most comfortable places to live, Park Slope contains row after row of immaculate brownstones that date from its turn-of-the-20th-century heyday, when it had the nation’s highest per-capita income. To see some of the neighborhood’s most beautiful houses, walk between 7th Avenue and Prospect Park along any of the streets between Sterling Place and 4th Street.
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EXPLORING PROSPECT PARK/PROSPECT HEIGHTS/PARK SLOPE
Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
The 52 acres of this beloved Brooklyn retreat, one of the finest botanic gardens in the country, are a must-see, especially in spring and summer. A major attraction is the beguiling Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden—complete with a pond, blazing red torii gate, and Shinto shrine. Nearby, the Japanese cherry arbor turns into a breathtaking cloud of pink every spring; the Sakura Matsuri, a two-day cherry blossom festival, is a hugely popular event.
Also be sure to wander through the Cranford Rose Garden (5,000 plants, 1,200 varieties); the Fragrance Garden, designed especially for the blind; and the Shakespeare Garden, featuring more than 80 plants immortalized by the Bard. At the Steinhardt Conservatory, desert, tropical, temperate, and aquatic vegetation thrives. Don’t miss the extraordinary C. V. Starr Bonsai Museum for close to 100 miniature Japanese specimens, some more than a century old. Near the conservatory are a café and a gift shop, with bulbs, plants, and gardening books as well as jewelry.
Entrances to the garden are on Eastern Parkway, next to the subway station; on Washington Avenue, behind the Brooklyn Museum; and on Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard. Free garden tours meet at the front gate every weekend at 1 pm. | 900 Washington Ave., between Crown and Carroll Sts., Prospect Heights | 11225 | 718/623–7200 | www.bbg.org | $8; free all day Tues., Sat. before noon, and weekdays from mid-Nov. to mid-Mar. Combo ticket with Brooklyn Museum $16 | Mid-Mar.–late Oct.: grounds Tues.–Fri. 8–6, weekends 10–6; conservatory daily 10–5:30. Nov.–mid-Mar.: grounds Tues.–Fri. 8–4:30, weekends 10–4:30; conservatory daily 10–4. Closed Mon. except holidays | Subway: 2, 3 to Eastern Pkwy.; B, Q to Prospect Park.
Brooklyn Museum.
The Brooklyn Museum has long stood in the shadow of Manhattan’s Metropolitan. With more than 1 million pieces in its permanent collection, from Rodin sculptures to Andean textiles and Assyrian wall reliefs, the city’s second-largest art museum now has a welcoming new design, more populist shows, and neighborhood events. The city is finally starting to appreciate this hidden gem.
Along with changing exhibitions, highlights include Egyptian art, one of the best collections of its kind in the world; African and pre-Columbian art; and Native American art. Seek out the museum’s works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, George