3. It Was The 4th Botanic Garden Planned In Brooklyn

Prospect Park section of 1869 map of Brooklyn. Full map can be viewed on Wikimedia Commons

Before the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was established, and before New York State reserved that particular 39-acre plot of land in 1897, there were three other gardens planned that were never complete. The first one was created in 1825 by Andre Parmentier in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn. In 1855, a prominent Brooklynite, Thomas Hunt, launched an effort to create a botanic garden.

The latter garden was to be built between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 57th and 60th Street had the additional $87,500 endowment from Parmentier’s garden together with funds from Henry A. Kent, yet even with all that money, the project was never able to get off the ground. Little is known about the third plan except that it was to be built near the Litchfield Mansion within the borders of Prospect Park. It appeared on an 1869 city map of Brooklyn, but not any maps in the years following.

With the creation of Prospect Park, the idea of separate botanic garden came to mind and the efforts by citizens and the state allowed the development of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as we know it today.