Posted in Misc, tagged brooklyn, brooklyn park, frederick law olmsted, litchfield villa, ny summer, photography, prospect park on August 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A trip to the country fell through, so I went to the park in search of some nature. The lawns and playing fields are scorched, in need of rain, but the more woodsy areas are dense and thriving. It didn’t seem like Brooklyn behind Litchfield Villa, and might have felt like the middle of nowhere, if little voices from the 3rd Street Playground hadn’t been wafting uphill.
Posted in Misc, tagged brooklyn, brooklyn parks and recreation, edwin litchfield, litchfield villa, ny harbor view, photography, ppw, prospect park, prospect park west on January 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Built in 1857, Litchfield Villa was nearly torn down eleven years later during the construction of Prospect Park. Brooklyn was mostly farmland then, and the weathly Edwin Litchfield owned the land all the way down to the Gowanus. He built his mansion on a hill so that he could see the harbor. Litchfield wasn’t happy, being forced to give up his house, but he didn’t have a choice.
Currently the headquarters of Brooklyn’s Parks and Recreation and Prospect Park Alliance, Litchfield Villa, with its porch columns decorated with corn cobs and wheat stalks, is considered a stellar example of 19th century romantic Italian architecture.
Pix and other images 