Fort Hamilton Athletic Field

What was here before?

During the 19th century, this land was the site of the Crescent Athletic Club. Following the Civil War, Bay Ridge’s highland and seaside vistas made the area well suited to serve as a summer retreat area for New York’s wealthy citizens. High society settlers built mansions atop the bluffs overlooking the bay. At the center of this community stood the Crescent Athletic Club, which provided its members a place to exercise and participate in a range of sports. By the 1920s, Bay Ridge had transformed from a summer resort into a neighborhood of middle-class workers who could travel by subway into Manhattan every day. The athletic club closed, and the Bowery Savings Bank took possession of the land.

How did this site become an athletic field?

The City of New York first made plans to acquire this land for school purposes in March 1938 and bought the property three months later. The Board of Education proposed the construction of a high school to occupy a large portion of the land and agreed to divide the remaining property into an athletic field and the adjacent community playground. With Fort Hamilton High School already built, the playground (named for Russell Pedersen in 1969) opened in the summer of 1941, while relief workers carried on the construction of the athletic field.

The athletic fields were rebuilt in 2001, which included a new synthetic rubber track and an artificial turf field with regulation markings for football, soccer, and two baseball diamonds in addition to a new set of bleachers. The track and field were renovated again in 2020, and in 2022 the two basketball courts and two tennis courts on the north side of the property were renovated.

What is this athletic field named for?

The field, like the school it serves, takes its name from nearby Fort Hamilton, one of the oldest, continuously garrisoned federal military posts in the United States. The fort honors Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), the distinguished colonial statesman and first Secretary of the Treasury. Fort Hamilton was built at the Brooklyn shore of the narrows between 1825 and 1831. During the Civil War (1861-1865), it served as a training ground for volunteer New York State regiments.