Prospect Park

Park · Brooklyn

Laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Prospect Park is a landscaped public park rather than a neighborhood, bordered by Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush and Windsor Terrace.

  • 0.98 square miles
  • 21 street corners
  • 3 subway stations
  • 9 bus routes

Work began in 1866, and the first section opened on October 19, 1867. Its 90-acre Long Meadow, 146-acre Ravine and 60-acre Prospect Lake, Brooklyn's only lake, share the grounds with a zoo, the Boathouse and Lefferts Historic House, an 18th-century Flatbush farmhouse moved here in 1918. The area also takes in the Central Library, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Museum, on land the original park plan included.

Sources: Prospect Park (Brooklyn) (Wikipedia); Prospect Park (The Cultural Landscape Foundation); Lefferts Historic House (Prospect Park Alliance).

Map

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Prospect Park borders seven areas, and East Drive holds more of its corners than any other street, eight of 21.

Street map of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, outlined among Windsor Terrace-South Slope, Park Slope, Prospect Lefferts Gardens-Wingate and Crown Heights (South), with its paths, the streets around it and its three subway stations.Prospect HeightsCrown Heights (South)Prospect Lefferts Gardens-WingateFlatbushFlatbush (West)-Ditmas Park-ParkvilleWindsor Terrace-South SlopePark Slope
  • Prospect Park
  • A neighboring area
  • Park
  • A station in the list
  • Another station

Neighborhood areas and streets: NYC Department of City Planning. Parks: NYC Parks. Stations: MTA.

Neighboring areas

Subway stations

  • Eastern Pkwy-Brooklyn Museum lines 2 3 accessible
  • 15 St-Prospect Park lines F G
  • Parkside Av lines Q

Getting around

Three subway stations and buses on nine routes stop in or at the edge of Prospect Park.

  • 3 subway stations
  • 1 of them listed by the MTA as fully accessible
  • 9 local bus routes

Local bus routes

  • B12
  • B16
  • B41
  • B43
  • B48
  • B61
  • B68
  • B116
  • T464

Safety record

Between 2021 and 2025, its corners averaged fewer police-reported crashes than the average Brooklyn corner.

  • 32 police-reported crashes at its corners
  • 1.5 a corner, on average
  • 10.5 the average Brooklyn corner
  • 14 corners with a clean record

Signal or safety changes on City record, at six of its corners

Barnes Dance all-way crossings
4
Accessible pedestrian signals
3

Camera tickets

In 2025 the Department of Finance recorded no red-light, school-zone speed or bus-lane camera ticket at its corners.

Parks and landmarks

Parkland
478.7 acres of Prospect Park, as NYC Parks maps it within the area's boundary
Designated landmarks
The Lullwater Boathouse (now the Prospect Park Audubon Center); the Brooklyn Public Library, Central Building; the Peter Lefferts House; and the Brooklyn Central Office, Bureau of Fire Communications, among others

Streets and trees

Trees
12,955 in NYC Parks' records, most often black cherry, American elm and northern red oak
Street with the most corners
East Drive, with eight of the area's 21
Height above sea level
From 54 feet at Parkside Avenue & Park Circle to 156 feet at West Drive & Prospect Park Driveway

Libraries

The City lists two libraries in Prospect Park.

Libraries
Central Library and Central Library Learning Center

Bike share and public art

By the station list of October 3, 2026, 13 bike-share stations stand in Prospect Park. The City's public art inventory lists 21 works in the area, among them Abraham Lincoln (1869), Washington Irving Memorial (1871) and Thomas Moore (1879).

  • 13 bike-share stations
  • 21 works of public art

Street corners

How the figures above are measured: Methodology.