Sunset Park (Brooklyn park) facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Sunset Park
Exterior of the Sunset Play Center
Location	Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York
Nearest city	New York City
Area	24.5 acres (9.9 ha)
Created	1891
Operated by	New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Open	7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Status	open

Sunset Park is a large public park in Brooklyn, New York City. It covers about 24.5 acres (almost 10 hectares). You can find it in the Sunset Park neighborhood between 41st and 44th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues.

Today, the park has a fun playground, a recreation center, and a swimming pool. The recreation center and pool are together called the Sunset Play Center. This center is special because it's recognized as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. This means its unique design is protected. The park is managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as NYC Parks.

The land for the park was bought between 1891 and 1905. At first, the park had a pond, a golf course, a small shelter, and a carousel. These were removed in 1935–1936. That's when the current pool was built. It has a mix of neoclassical and Art Deco styles. Aymar Embury II designed it as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The swimming pool and play center were updated again from 1983 to 1984.

What Can You Find at Sunset Park?
- Sports and Fun at the Park
- The Sunset Play Center: Pool and Bathhouse
  - The Bathhouse Building
  - The Swimming Pool Area
How Sunset Park Was Created
Images for kids
See also

What Can You Find at Sunset Park?

Sunset Park is located on top of a 164-foot (50-meter) tall hill. This hill is part of the Harbor Hill Moraine, which was formed during the last glacial period. Because it's so high up, the park offers amazing views! You can see New York Harbor, Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and even the hills of Staten Island and New Jersey in the distance.

The park used to have a pond, but it was probably man-made. This pond was removed in 1935 when the swimming pool was built. In 2002, the Sunset Park Memorial Grove was planted. This was done to remember the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Sports and Fun at the Park

Sunset Park has many places for sports. Inside the recreation center, you'll find an indoor basketball court. There are also seven table tennis tables, a gymnasium, and a billiard table.

Outside, the park offers four basketball courts and two handball courts. There are also two soccer fields and a baseball field. One soccer field and the baseball field share space. You can also find a playground near Sixth Avenue. The outdoor areas are free for everyone to use. However, some indoor activities might need a membership.

The Sunset Play Center: Pool and Bathhouse

The Sunset Play Center is a major part of the park. It includes a bathhouse and a large swimming pool area.

The Bathhouse Building

The bathhouse is on the eastern side of Sunset Park. It's built with brick in a pattern called Flemish bond. The building has a round central part, called a rotunda. It also has one-story wings on its north and south sides, making it look a bit like an "I" shape.

The main entrance is on the east side, facing Seventh Avenue. You walk up a short granite stairway to reach it. There's also a ramp for easy access. This entrance leads right into the rotunda. A back entrance on the west side leads directly to the swimming pool.

Around the top of the building, there's a cool design. It's made of stone and brick in a pattern of diamonds and triangles. Inside the rotunda, you'll see a similar design near the top of the wall. The rotunda itself is a round brick structure. Above the main entrance, the words "SUNSET PLAY CENTER" are carved into a stone tablet. The western entrance, facing the pool, looks very similar. It has a large NYC Parks logo above its metal doors.

Inside, the lobby is in the rotunda. It has three parts: an entrance area, the central round space, and an exit area to the pool. The entrance and exit areas are one story tall. The central part is one and a half stories tall. The walls are mostly brick with a granite base. Lights hang from the white ceiling. Near the top of the lobby, there are 16 small windows. The floor has dark blue and terracotta tiles.

The north and south wings of the bathhouse look almost the same. The north wing goes downhill and has a garage in the basement. Both wings have steel windows with metal screens. These wings connect to brick walls that surround the pool area. The men's locker room is south of the rotunda, and the women's locker room is to the north.

The Swimming Pool Area

West of the bathhouse is the enclosed pool area. The main swimming pool is rectangular. It measures about 256 feet (78 meters) long and 165 feet (50 meters) wide. It's about 3.5 feet (1 meter) deep.

There used to be two other pools: one for wading and one for diving. They were semicircular and about 165 feet (50 meters) across. These are no longer used for their original purpose. The area around all the pools is made of cement.

On the west side of the pool deck, there are concrete bleachers with seven rows. The filter house, which cleans the pool water, is underneath these bleachers. A brick wall is behind the bleachers, next to the handball courts. A pump house is north of the bleachers. There was also a building that used to be a comfort station (like a restroom). It's now used for storage. Its old entrances for boys and girls have been bricked up.

The diving pool, which was south of the main pool, has been filled in. It's now used as a volleyball court. The wading pool, north of the main pool, is still there but has no water. Instead, it has spray fountains. Both the old diving and wading pools are surrounded by a metal fence with brick posts. A brick wall separates the wading pool from the main pool. Steps go along the curved side of the wading pool, and there's a concrete ramp leading to it.

How Sunset Park Was Created

Early Days of the Park

Sunset Park first covered four city blocks. It stretched from Fifth to Seventh Avenues, between 41st and 43rd Streets. The city of Brooklyn bought this land on May 15, 1891. This was part of a plan to build several parks across the city.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper praised the park's location. It said it had "one of the finest views in the city." A reporter for The New York Times in 1894 also admired the "magnificent views of earth and sky and water" from the park's high point.

Sunset Park quickly became a popular spot for local residents. Many early visitors were Polish and Scandinavian immigrants. However, developing the park was tricky because of its uneven land. By 1893, the city decided to make Sunset Park bigger by extending it southward.

In 1899, New York City built a six-hole golf course in the park. Other improvements were made, like installing retaining walls. But the Eagle noted that the park still needed basic things like benches and drinking fountains. The park was expanded south to 44th Street in 1904. In the early 1900s, new features were added. These included new landscaping, a pond, a classical-style shelter, and a carousel. Concerts started in 1906, and a grand staircase to Fifth Avenue was finished by 1910.

The area around the park was mostly undeveloped at first. But after the Fifth Avenue elevated train line was extended in 1893, the neighborhood grew quickly. Many homes were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By 1909, there was a lot of development around the park. When the New York City Subway's Fourth Avenue Line was planned, two-story houses were built south of Sunset Park. This type of house was popular for families who wanted smaller apartments but didn't want to live in large apartment buildings. The Fourth Avenue subway opened in 1915. This helped the neighborhood grow into a middle-class area, especially for the Finnish community living south of the park.

The Great Depression and Park Changes

In 1934, Robert Moses became the commissioner of the unified New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The United States was in the middle of the Great Depression. Moses wanted to create jobs and improve the city. He planned many projects, including building new pools.

Moses was very interested in building new swimming pools. He made a list of 23 pools to build across the city, including one at Sunset Park. These pools would be built using money from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was a federal program created to help people find work during the Depression.

Eleven of these pools were designed at the same time and opened in 1936. Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke, created a similar design for all of them. Each location would have separate pools for diving, swimming, and wading. They would also have bleachers for watching and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gyms. The pools were designed to be at least 55 yards (50 meters) long. They would have underwater lighting, heating, and water filters. They also used cheap building materials. The buildings combined Streamline Moderne and Classical styles.

Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934. At Sunset Park, the old pond, golf course, shelter, and carousel were removed to make space for the new pool. The plans for the Sunset Park pool were submitted in August 1935. WPA workers were already on site. During construction, some old Native American artifacts were found where the pond used to be.

By mid-1936, most of the WPA pools were finished. The Sunset Pool was the sixth one to open. It opened on July 20, 1936, with 3,500 people watching. The center had a bathhouse that could hold 4,850 people. It also had a 256-by-165-foot (78 by 50 m) pool. There were also two semicircular pools for wading and diving.

In 1938, the city announced plans to rebuild the western part of Sunset Park. By the next year, WPA workers were busy there. A steep 65-foot (20 m) slope was made less steep to prevent erosion. A soldiers' monument was moved. New concrete paths and drainage systems were installed. An old comfort station was removed. By the early 1940s, the WPA workers had finished landscaping the park. This included new plants and lawn repairs.

Recent Years and Renovations

By the 1970s, many city parks, including Sunset Park, were in poor condition. This was partly due to the New York City financial crisis in 1975. NYC Parks started a project in 1977 to fix up pools in several parks. They planned to spend about $5.8 million on Sunset Park. However, these projects didn't happen due to a lack of money. By 1981, NYC Parks had far fewer employees than before.

Even though the surrounding neighborhood was improving, the park was still seen as run-down. Graffiti and vandalism were common. In 1982, the NYC Parks budget increased a lot. This allowed them to start many restoration projects, including the Sunset Park pool. Work began in early 1983. The complex was closed for two summer seasons while the work was being done.

The play center reopened on August 8, 1984. Besides the renovated play center, the diving pool was filled in and turned into a volleyball court. Spray fountains were installed where the wading pool used to be in 1988. Murals were also added in the locker rooms.

NYC Parks continued to face money problems in the following years. The pools still had a reputation for being unsafe. In 1991, Mayor David Dinkins planned to close all 32 outdoor pools in the city. This decision was only changed after a large donation from real estate developer Sol Goldman and other sources.

In 2007, the Sunset Play Center's inside and outside were officially named city landmarks. This means they are protected because of their historical and architectural importance. A renovation of the playground was finished in 2017. In the same year, a $4 million renovation of the Sunset Park Play Center was approved.

Images for kids

Looking northwest from Sunset Park
Looking north toward Manhattan