Flashback: Old Timey Prospect Park

Tupper Thomas, who for around 30 years has been Prospect Park's administrator, has announced her retirement (which she'll embark upon next year). When we talked to her in 2005 she talked about what she has seen happen with the park since taking the position in 1980, telling us: "what was most sorely missing from Prospect Park was people — people from every neighborhood who enjoyed coming to the Park, who felt comfortable in the Park, cared about it and would give of their time and energy to helping their Park."

At some point, as the NY Times pointed out today, drugs and muggers overtook the Brooklyn institution, and by the 1970s it became more of a crime scene than a place to find peace and quiet. Thomas had a role in changing all that, and Adrian Benepe tells the paper, “Walk from Grand Army Plaza through Long Meadow into the Ravine, past the rivers and waterfalls, to the Nethermead, and to the lake and the boathouse,” he said. “If you want to understand Olmsted and Vaux, you do that. That was lost, that experiential continuum is her masterpiece.” Though dog owners might think it's the off-leash hours she instituted!

Here's a look back at what Prospect Park was like before Ms. Thomas, and before all that crime.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on April 6, 2010 4:42 PM

Comments [rss]

Rudolf

As a person who was in Prospect Park from 1946 to the present I can tell you that the thing that is different is the respect for public property. Litter is what kills the true spirit of enjoying the park, of course rowdy youngsters who throw rocks at bicyclists can ruin a great day too. The acts of vandalism to the steps on the zoo side of look out hill had to be done by a crew with tools, just as the music grove building's roof. I suspect contractors who think they should have gotten the work, and expect that the repair will open a new contract. This is your park keep it the way you want to find it and pick up other people's trash every chance you get!

Brenda from Flatbush

Wonderful stuff, esp. the WWII boys relaxing, although Margaret Hamilton playing catch is still my favorite. (Unusual to have no motion blur on the ball back then when exposure times had to be longer, no?) What was the origin for the photos without the Life watermark?

And as for the grit-nostalgic Mr Glenn, no thank you. If Starbucks and (shudder) Shrek on Broadway are the prices we must pay for not encountering a miasma of human waste in every cul-de-sac of park and subway...and for not living in constant tension and fear...I'll take it.

glen glenn

I wish NY was still gritty like back then.

Phil

I've lived near and around every side of PP for almost 35 years. So I've seen the changes. And credit should go to Ms Thomas and all the others who have worked hard bringing the park back so to speak. But truthfully there does still seem to be a white and a black section of the park even today as I walked around the inner walkways along the roadway.

Jamie McDonald

I think at some point people have to acknowledge that, even in situations like this one where no barriers exist, many (if not most) people prefer to be around other people like them, and that self-segregation is not the end of the world. I mean, what's the alternative, forcing or otherwise compelling black and white people to sit on the same side of the park?

schadenfreudian mensch

6th Pic

"Picnickers sprawled about on grass as boaters exercise their cars on a lake in the bkgd. in Prospect Park."

Just how the fuck do you exercise your cars? I bet there's a lot of cars in the bottom of that lake.

matty

look at all those stupid hipsters

Nyctini11

That 3rd pic, taken in July, she musta been HOT!

schadenfreudian mensch

Actually that's Angus Scrimm.

pinball29

What? Noone 'wilding'? Why is that? This is in the middle of a REAL war, yet everyone looks so much more peaceful (and well dressed!) than today.

JenChungsBaby

Tupper is the best.

Jamie McDonald

Is #2 old-timey Critical Mass?

Mirza

How times have changed. A gathering this large would be confronted with an equal number of police, doing their best to make sure we know THEY are in charge. We would all be issued a summons for "parading without a permit". Can you relate...?

HBHB

Actually the police wouldn't bother because there would be no constant threat of violence. Nobody would be worrying about stepping on anyone's sneakers or looking at someone's girl or breathing the same air or who had the louder system or who talked shit over on the block last night or who heard this or that. There was once a time where people could gather and just chill out with no worries.