Jamaica Bay and the Rockaways

Located at the northern side of Marine Park on Fillmore Avenue, the Carmine Carro Community Center opened on March 1, 2013. The facility honors Carmine Carro (1935 – 2005), a lifelong Brooklynite and community advocate. As President of the Marine Park Civic Association for 16 years, he organized the annual Halloween Festival, which welcomed thousands of costumed visitors. He was Park Warden for Marine Park for five years and his other civic duties included service as Vice Chair of Community Board 18, membership on the local school board, as a trustee for the Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance, and as a founding member of the Hendrick I. Lott House Board.

The building’s circular shape was designed to make it a recognizable neighborhood destination. Its green roof demonstrates the City’s commitment toward environmentally-friendly building practices. The center’s additional environmentally-friendly features include solar panels and a geo-thermal heating and cooling system. It houses multi-purpose rooms for recreation and community programs, fully accessible bathrooms, a kitchen, skylights, administrative offices, parks operations headquarters, and storage space.

The center is free to the public, hosting classes on fitness, exercise, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle for adults and seniors. The facility also offers cultural and art programs such as painting, photography, music, knitting, and crocheting.

Marine Park, Brooklyn’s largest park, consists of 530 acres of protected grassland and salt marsh. Originally comprised largely of marshland around Gerritsen Creek, the 150-acre park was purchased and donated to the City by Frederick B. Pratt and Alfred T. White in 1917. Fill deposited in the marshlands in the 1930s and new land purchases increased the park’s area in the following two decades.

Among its amenities, Marine Park is home to the Salt Marsh Nature Center and the Gerritsen Creek Nature Trail, where visitors may observe unique regional flora and fauna. Recreationally, the park offers a golf course, bocce courts, active sports courts, cricket fields, and baseball diamonds. The park also contains multiple playgrounds, bicycle greenways, and opportunities for canoeing and kayaking at Gerritsen Inlet.

Know Before You Go

Paerdegat Basin Park