Beattie Square

BEATTIE SQUARE
.012 ACRE

Beattie Square is named in memory of Joseph S. Beattie, who lived at 247 Schenectady Avenue in Brooklyn. Beattie served as a Private in Company G of the 305th Infantry in the United States' Army in World War I and reportedly died from wounds in France on October 5,1918, a month before armistice.

Beattie Square is one of the oldest public parks in Brooklyn. Anton and Mary Vigelius deeded it to the City of Brooklyn in 1884 for one dollar on the condition that "the same shall be enclosed with an iron fence and forever kept as a public park or place." In 1898, when Brooklyn was incorporated into the City of New York, the deed was transferred and came under the jurisdiction of Parks. At the insistence of the Beattie VFW Post, Beattie Square was named by local law in February 1st, 1921.

This woodchip-lined park, which faces the neo-classical Urban Sports and Cultural Center, lies along the boundary of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Bushwick, one of the original six towns of Brooklyn, comes from the Dutch word "boswijck," meaning "town in the woods." Chartered by Director General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant in 1661, Bushwick was settled in the 19th century by tobacco and grain farmers from France, Scandinavia, England, and Holland. By the mid-1800s, Bushwick boasted 11 breweries on a

14-block stretch known as "Brewer's Row." Manufacturer and onetime presidential candidate Peter Cooper built his first glue manufacturing factory here in the 1840s, joining the sugar, chemical, and oil industries. The subdivision of farms begun by Adrian Martenses Suydam in 1869 led to a population growth that gained even more momentum after 1888 when railway access made commuting to Manhattan easy and living in Bushwick increasingly attractive to professionals.

On May 31, 1924, a 12,000 pound German Krupp gun captured by the British in World War I was mounted on the concrete base in the center of this triangle, and subsequently melted for scrap metal to make new arms during World War II. The concrete base still stands as tribute. Coniferous evergreens, pink and white primroses, hedges and thorny bushes. make this site a woodsy escape from the surrounding streets. An elegant black and gold four-foot-high fence, encloses Beattie Square. A photograph taken in the 1930s shows street benches along all three sides of the triangle, that have been lost over time. The sole gate on the Broadway side opens to a path which leads to the center of the triangle. An American flag flies in the middle of this triangle as a patriotic tribute to a brave young man who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

NYC Parks

Submitted by @lampbane