As a border between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, one can learn a lot about the two neighborhoods by looking at the park. Here is a brief history:
McCarren Park as contemporary New Yorkers know it came into existence around 1910, when the city built “state-of-the-art athletic facilities, including a ΒΌ-mile track, a field that was adapted for use as an ice rink in winter, tennis courts, a platform for dancing, play equipment for small children, and fields for baseball, football, and soccer.” And in 1914, the first children’s farm garden in Brooklyn was opened.
The most famous of McCarren Park’s amenities, though, is probably the McCarren Park Pool. Opened in the summer of 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, along with ten others. While the pool was closed in 1984, it opened as a concert space in 2005, and in 2008 the city began work on renovating it so that it could once again be used for its original purpose.
While for many years McCarren Park was relatively unused, and considered somewhat “dilapidated,” it was always something that the people of Williamsburg and Greenpoint could rally around, as something worth maintaining. One way in which the populations of Williamsburg and Greenpoint have made the park their own is by erecting statues of people who are considered heroes to the neighborhood’s people. For example, one well-known McCarren Park statue is that of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a Polish Catholic priest who was martyred by the Communists. The presence of this statue obviously reflects the large Polish immigrant population in Greenpoint. McCarren Park is an excellent example of how a public space that is imposed on a neighborhood by outside forces can, over time, become a vital aspect of the community.
-Zoe Johnson
