I’ve lived practically next door to Prospect Park in Brooklyn for over 40 years, but I’m constantly finding new things to see, or new ways to see some I’ve known before.
One of last year’s discoveries was one of Brooklyn’s World War I memorials, tucked away in a corner that became much more noticeable with the construction of a new skating center nearby. There’s a lot more to the memorial (see below) but the rest adds nothing to the simple and sad message of the statue by Augustus Lukeman. Sadly, Lukeman was also the sculptor of the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia.
But the park’s formal sculptures, including a dozen or so composers in the Music Grove, are not any better treat than all the myriad of sculptural detail that the 19th-century endowed the park with. Here are just a few samples.
‘Chinese Lantern’ built into a wall along the east side of the park; a cornucopia of sorts pouring from a pillar near the Music Grove.
A bronze beacon light ornamenting a wall, and below the inside of one of the arched tunnels connecting sections of the park.
