Flashback Friday: Fort Greene Park Before The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument Was Built

Fort Greene Park has a long and significant history in Brooklyn, New York, and American history, first serving as the site of several forts — including Fort Greene, named after General Greene — during the War of 1812, then as a park designed by famed Central Park designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux — named Washington Park — and finally as both a public park called Fort Greene Park and the final resting place for 11,500 Revolutionary War soldiers who died as prisoners of war on British prison ships.

That final resting place is now known as the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, but as we can see here in this photo by the Detroit Photographic Company from 1904, the crypt and monument haven’t been built yet. It would be another four years before President-elect William Howard Taft attended its dedication.