HISTORY
EDEN IN BROOKLYN
Philanthropist Alfred Tredway White Planted the Seeds of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
story by SUZANNE SPELLEN (AKA MONTROSE MORRIS)
Horticulture and the study of botany have been a part
of Brooklyn since its inception. Following a long history
of European colonizers bringing their favorite plants to
new lands, the Dutch, English and other settlers carried
a tradition of horticulture to New York. Once settled in,
they piggybacked on the practices and plants used by the
Lenape people, and also introduced species of plants new
to the continent.
Farms spread across Long Island in the eighteenth century.
Here in Brooklyn, wealthy gentlemen farmers planted ornamental
orchards and lush gardens on their suburban estates.
One of the most celebrated was that of merchant Philip
Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who
owned a large 40-acre estate complete with orchards and
formal gardens on the bluffs of Brooklyn Heights.
The idea to establish a botanic garden in Brooklyn dates
back to 1825, when one Andre Parmentier established
a garden in what is now Prospect Heights. As Brooklyn
expanded, farmland was replaced by urban development.
The demand for specialty plants and flowers was filled
by commercial nurseries and greenhouses established
primarily in sparsely developed neighborhoods with lots
of open land.
But the idea of a European-style botanic garden remained.
In 1855, two prominent Brooklynites, Thomas
Hunt and Henry A. Kent, raised almost $60,000 to
establish a botanic garden near the western end of Green-
Wood Cemetery. But it was never built. Another garden
was planned near Litchfield Manor, in Prospect Park, but
that one went nowhere, too.
Wealthy Brooklynites still wanted exotic gardens. By the
end of the century, Brooklyn Heights was home to expansive
private greenhouses and gardens that masked the
warehouses lining the river below them. Similar private
gardens and greenhouses dotted the estates of Bedford
and Flatbush. The greatest garden of all, Prospect Park,
was filled with specialty gardens, vales and plantings,
magnanimously open to the public. The creation and
growing popularity of the park was directly tied to the
creation of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
BOTANICAL ONE-UPMANSHIP
Brooklyn’s movers and shakers saw the beauty and
benefit of a large public park like Central Park and did
Manhattan one better with the creation of Prospect Park.
The original designer of Central Park, Egbert Viele, was
chosen to plan the new park. He incorporated Mount
Prospect Reservoir as well as Flatbush Avenue into his
design. Land was purchased, but before construction
could begin, the Civil War started.
While Viele was off designing fortifications for the Union
Army, Calvert Vaux was asked by the park committee to
look at the plans. As we all know, he and Frederick Law
Olmsted took over the project, just as they did for Central
Park, and created the park we know today. They moved
the boundaries to the west of Flatbush Avenue, excluding
the entire Mount Prospect area.
The city was left with a lot of land around Mount Prospect
Reservoir, which they named the Eastside Lands.
The Parks Department had been using some of the land
as an ash and refuse dump while they built Prospect
Park. It was marshy and pockmarked with ponds, as was
most of the land used in Prospect Park, all the legacy of
the glacial activity that created Long Island.
In 1890, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science began
laying plans for a huge structure that would be a combination
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum
of Natural History, and a university-like setting for artistic
and scientific study and display. It was to be built on
the Eastside Lands, which were renamed Institute Park.
They petitioned the state and private citizens for funds
and held an architectural competition in 1892, which
was won by McKim, Mead & White. The first section of
the museum opened to the public in 1897. The building
we know today as the Brooklyn Museum is only a
quarter of the planned campus. Had it been completed
according to plan, it would have been the largest museum
in the world.
Philanthropist Alfred Tredway White, one of Brooklyn’s
most important businessmen, established a committee
to advocate for a botanic garden near the Institute. In
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