9. The Original Designers Were The Sons Of Fredrick Law Olmsted

Frederick Jr. and John Charles Olmsted, the sons of Frederick Olmsted, one of the famed designers of Prospect Park and Central Park, designed the original plans for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The Olmsted brothers provided the groundwork design, but did not go on to design the rest of the garden. In 1912, Harold Caparn took charge as the consulting landscape architect. The project would become his greatest achievement.

Caparn, who envisioned the garden to be an artistic and educational facility, let much of nature do the work, letting it grow over the course of a few decades, while he refurbished sections and added new sections as needed. When he left in 1945, the facility had grown to include 13 separate gardens, buildings, and museums.

Caparn also left his mark throughout the city by helping design landscape sections and the Great Steps of the Bronx Zoo, as well as design other parks around the city and neighboring areas, such as Grant and Columbus Parks in Yonkers, John Jay Park on the Upper East Side, and Lincoln and Milford Parks in Newark, NJ.