Wallabout Walking Tours Return This Weekend; Only Four Tours Left This Summer!
The Wallabout Historic Walking Tours are back and spots already selling out!
Held monthly on the last Saturday of the summer months (May through September), the free guided walking tours take you from Fort Greene Park through the historic Wallabout neighborhood, led by a guide tapped by the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership (MARP) in partnership with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, and sponsored by a grant from the New York Council for Humanities.
Tours begin in Fort Greene Park at 11am and go on for 1.5 miles, concluding at 99 Ryerson Street.
The tour description gives hints about what you can look forward to:
The guided walk will explore 400 years of history through the area’s historic architecture and landmarks and will venture into the neighborhood’s beautiful mix of pre-Civil War homes and late 19th century industrial district just outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The tour will focus on how the neighborhood has developed from when the Dutch first arrived in the early 1600’s and highlight notable residents, such as Author Walt Whitman and Doo-Wop Singer Little Anthony. Information on Whitman, along with the reciting of some of his works during the tour, is provided by the Walt Whitman Project and the American Opera Projects.
Many local residents are aware of some of the neighborhood’s notable historic events or people, such as the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument and Walt Whitman, but many lesser known stories are widely unknown. The tour will highlight these stories. For example, the tour will pass the home of the first professional baseball player, the birthplace of Michael Jordan, and The Chocolate Factory, a factory that once made Tootsie Rolls.
Reservations are required. The May tour is sold out, but there are still spaces in the June, July, August and September tours. Grab one while you still can!