10. Joyce Kilmer Triangle is one of the city’s smallest parks
Measuring a grand 0.0001 acres, Joyce Kilmer Triangle is one of the city’s smallest parks, located along Kings Highway. The site became parkland in 1934 and was dedicated to Sergeant Joyce Kilmer in 1935. The park includes just a few benches and trees in the middle of the crowded street. Kilmer, who died in World War I, was a Columbia University and Rutgers University graduate who, after a few years working as a professor and literary editor, joined the New York Times in 1913.
That year, his poem “Trees” struck a chord with millions across the country, beginning with “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.” In 1917, he enlisted as a private in the 7th Regiment of the New York National Guard before transferring to the “Fighting Irish.” He gained the rank of Sergeant, but just a year later, he was mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Marne. A park a few blocks from Yankee Stadium on Grand Concourse also is named for Kilmer.
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