Prospect Park

Skaters, bladers, and bikers met in Owl’s Head Park on Sunday, September 8 to inaugurate a new skate park there. For every great urban sport—baseball, tennis, basketball, and handball—there was a moment of initiation. September 8 marked that moment for skateboarding in Brooklyn. On that day Millenium Skate Park, the first entirely City-funded and designed skate park, opened in Owl’s Head Park.

Council Member Marty (Marigold) Golden set aside $1.5 million for the creation of a 14,000 square foot facility. This urban obstacle course features all the most-skated elements of the streetscape: an imitation of the Brooklyn banks under the Brooklyn Bridge, handrails, benches, and loading docks. But where once skaters risked their necks on library and church steps, in back alleys, and under bridges, now they may soar safely through a high quality course in the heart of one of Brooklyn’s premiere parks.

In designing the street and freeform bowls, Project Manager Grant (Ulysses) Anderson consulted with those who would know best: the amateur and professional skaters of New York City. Robert Ottofaro of Panda Sports, Chuck Gee, Jude Coppola, and Sal Pepe of Bay Ridge as well as Wounded Knee Skateboards and the Five Boro Skate Crew all provided helpful input in the design and execution of the new facility. Millenium Skate Park is the product of Parks’ collaboration with those individuals and groups and with the Friends and Neighbors of Owl’s Head Park.

Athletes of the featured sports demonstrated their most awesome ollies, their skillful fakies, and outlandish 540s at the ribbon cutting. Council Member Martin J. (Marigold) Golden; Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern; and Julius (Mirror) Spiegel, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner all spoke. And a special thanks to Grant Anderson; Peter (Paw) Wolpensinger, Engineer; and K.C. (Jones) Sahl, Deputy Chief of Brooklyn Operations who all helped make the opening of the skate park a success.

(Wednesday, September 21, 1988)

Children ages five to 13 are invited to Lefferts Homestead this fall to learn how children celebrated the harvest season two centuries ago in "Old Breucklen." Young visitors to the Homestead, an historic Dutch farmhouse museum located in Prospect Park, will be treated to games, songs, storytelling and crafts projects beginning Sunday, September 25 and continuing on alternate Sundays through December 4. Admission is free and all programs begin at 1:30 P.M. and end by 4 P.M.

The Harvest Season Children’s Programs emphasize traditional American pastimes and folklore. Most are led by craftspeople and folklorists dressed in period costume. Combining hands-on workshops with education and entertainment, they will offer children the opportunity to create, learn and have fun.

"New York is what Paris was in the twenties... the centre of the art world. And we want to be in the centre. It’s the greatest place on earth... I’ve got a lot of friends here and I even brought my own cash."

John Lennon (1940-1980)