The Replica of Mount Vernon in Prospect Park. Image from Brooklyn Historical Society via Prospect Park Alliance

On April 1st and April 2nd, Prospect Park in Brooklyn will celebrate its 150th Anniversary in what the Prospect Park Alliance is calling a “blowout weekend” of events. All weekend long, enjoy the start of the spring season with an Opening Day Parade and Fair, an exhibition 1860s ballgame, running and walking tours, and the first Smorgasburg of the season.

In celebration, we worked with the Prospect Park Alliance to put together a historical look at the lost and never built structures of Prospect Park, opened in 1867. This piece builds upon our previous exploration into the secrets of Prospect Park.

1. A Replica Mount Vernon

Image from Brooklyn Historical Society via Prospect Park Alliance

In 1932, Robert Moses had a replica of Mount Vernon built in Prospect Park to to mark the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. The building, constructed by Sears, Roebuck & Company (who also delivered another replica to the Exposition Coloniale Internationale in Paris in 1931 which is still standing in the country) and designed by architect Charles K. Bryant, lasted lasted a mere two years before being torn down. The house was located at the base of Lookout Hill on the Peninsula of the Lake.

Prospect Park Alliance reports that the exhibit was “complete with a Presidential impersonator. From [1932] until 1934, when it was taken down, crowds lined up to pay admission to see the elaborate gardens and meticulously recreated interiors.”

Image via Prospect Park Archives/Bob Levine Collection

The Mount Vernon replica in Prospect Park is one of the shortest lived buildings in NYC.