Part Of Fort Greene Park Could Be Run By Feds, Under New Proposal

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — Are we about to see federal security in Fort Greene Park? The United States National Park Service next week is holding a local community meeting to let Brooklyn know how they'll be deciding whether a monument in the park should be made a part of the country's national park system. The meeting's purpose is to educate residents of Fort Greene and surrounding neighborhoods about the criteria that the National Park Service will use when deciding whether the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument is eligible to be considered worthy of federal designation.

The Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument is a centuries-old memorial featuring a 100-foot-wide granite staircase and a column 149 feet high that is dedicated to the more than 11,500 Americans who died in British prison camps in New York City during the Revolutionary War. It is currently overseen by the NYC Parks Department. Remains of several soldiers who died in captivity from contaminated water, overcrowding, disease and starvation are buried under the base of the monument. Historians estimate that as many as 18,000 soldiers might have died in the prison camps in NYC, three times as many soldiers who were killed in battle.

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Canarsie, East New York and Ocean Hill, East Flatbush, along with Howard Beach, Marine Park and Mill Basin, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Ozone Park and Coney Island) requested the "special resource study" on the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, which is a set of criteria through which to analyze whether the monument should be federal. The National Park Service will analyze the monument's national significance, "suitability and feasibility for inclusion within the national park system" and whether federal management should be brought to Fort Greene Park, according to a statement from the National Park Service. After the study, the Secretary of the Interior will submit the findings to Congress, where they will ultimately determine whether the monument should be federal.

It is unclear what types of federal security would be added to the monument or the park as a whole if the monument is designated a federal "unit." A representative from the National Park Service said it was "too early in the process to know how the park may be structured," security-wise.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. in the Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building in Fort Greene; 55 Hanson Place, Brooklyn.

Lead photo via NYC Parks Department