BY BEN VERDE
The Concert Grove Pavilion
in Prospect Park reopened
April 7 after a year-long restoration
effort, breathing new life
into a gathering space that central
Brooklyn was deprived of
for more than half a decade.
Thanks to a $2 million makeover
secured by the Brooklyn
City Council delegation and former
Council Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito, the pavilion is
open to park-goers for the fi rst
time since 2014 when its ancient
roof began to fall apart —
and just in time for the warm
weather.
“This is the gateway to our
community,” said Seth Kaplan,
a member of the Prospect Park
Community Committee and an
organizer in Prospect Lefferts
Gardens. “People would come
here for birthday parties, for
weddings, for so many events.
Restoring it is kind of like restoring
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the heart of this side of
the park.”
The pavilion was an original
part of landscape architects Olmstead
and Vaux’s 1874 design
of Brooklyn’s Backyard and has
been restored multiple times,
including after it was wrecked
by a fi re in the 1970s. It features
eight cast-iron columns and a
decorative, arched metal and
wood roof with a stained-glass
skylight added during a 1988
restoration.
The architect behind the
most recent restoration said
his team worked to correct
a feature from the 1988 overhaul
that caused water to
drain incorrectly and damage
the roof, causing much of the
harm that forced the pavilion
to be fenced off for years.
The newly renovated Concert Grove Pavilion in Prospect Park. Paul Martinka/Prospect Park Allianc
“Because it was done
wrong, water sort of poured
down the wood in the wrong
direction, and water will just
destroy wood,” said Alden
Maddry of the Prospect Park
Alliance. “That led to most of
the damage at the perimeter.”
The restoration also repaired
the pavilion’s lights,
which were broken for years
before, allowing for use after
dark.
The pavilion — long-referred
to as the “Oriental Pavilion”
due to some of the
Hindu and Chinese motifs
found in its architecture —
also has a better name, said
one Park Slope pol.
“They got a lot of things
right but they got some things
wrong, too,” said Councilmember
Brad Lander of
those who built and made
famous the pavilion. “They
named this place the Oriental
Pavilion, and they could have
known even then that that
was not what Asian-American
Brooklynites of that time
wanted to be called … so we
have one thing we’re doing
better.”
“It is not going to be
called that anymore,” The
councilmember went on.
The Prospect Park Alliance
has completed multiple renovations
of park features over the
past year, including restorations
of the Endale Arch and
the ballfi elds, and the opening
of a new entrance to the park on
Flatbush Avenue.
Welcome back!
Restored Concert Grove
Pavilion in Prospect Park
reopens after six-years
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