Park Slope History & Culture
It should not surprise anyone that Prospect Park puts the “park” in Park Slope. Actually, it puts the “slope” in there, too: The area gets its name due to its location on the western slope of that expansive green space. Today, Prospect Park is a haven, its presence radiating a calmness you can feel throughout the streets of Park Slope. Grand Army Plaza sits at the park’s northern tip, its grounds once a battleground of the Battle of Long Island during the Revolutionary War. At present, the public plaza is most recognizable by its triumphal arch, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch. A crowning sculpture of a four-horsed chariot driven by the goddess of victory tops this memorial to the Civil War, recalling a similar adornment atop Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.