Leif Ericson Park

Parks Cuts The Rubbon On Leif Ericson Park

Commissioner Adrian Benepe today joined Council Member Vincent Gentile, Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann, and the Junior Choir from the Leif Ericson Day School to cut the ribbon on $1.4 million in renovations at Leif Ericson Park in Brooklyn.

“Leif Ericson Park has been completely redesigned with a Viking ship theme, thanks to more than $1 million in funding from Council Member Gentile, $145,000 from Council Member Gonzalez and $235,000 in Mayoral funding,” said Commissioner Benepe. “We hope that this playground will delight the children of Brooklyn and help their imaginations set sail.”

The new playground design includes Viking ship-themed play equipment, swings, safety surfacing and a volleyball court. In addition, the project features new basketball keys, game tables, benches, and a steel perimeter fence and gates. New asphalt pathways lead to a picnic area with accessible seating. Perimeter gardens and landscaping include flowering pink redbuds, white downy service berry, white fringe tree, crabapple trees, Serbian spruce, chartreuse burning bush and white Virginia sweetspire.

In a separate project, Parks also has plans to renovate the Leif Ericson field across the street. This project will reconstruct the ‘dust bowl’ field with new synthetic turf for multi-purpose play, misting stations, upgrade the recreational lights, and improve the fencing.

Leif Ericson Park was dedicated as a public park in 1925. During World War II, the U.S. Army occupied the property and it was rehabilitated by Parks in 1945.

The park is named for the Viking, Leif Ericson (c.960-c.1020), who is known as the first European to set foot on the North American continent, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. In keeping with the day's theme, the children in attendance wore Viking helmets.