A: When it's Bartel-Pritchard Square.
Which is the traffic circle located at the juncture of Prospect Park West and Prospect Park Southwest. How this circle got to be named a square seems to be lost to history. Perhaps it was rectangular once upon a time. No more. Now it's very round.
While we're on this subject, I'm always curious to know the origin of names of places and streets that we take for granted. Like, who was Van Wyck, Major Deegan (of their relative expressways fame), and Cortelyou (a road with that name in Brooklyn) - not to mention The Bronx family (from you-know-where)? Then there's the Outerbridge Crossing, the bridge that connects the southern tip of Staten Island with New Jersey. It's named after Eugenius Outerbridge, the first chairman of the NY-NJ Port Authority and a resident of Staten Island (thank you, Google!). Because of his last name that span is referred to as a "crossing" and not a "bridge." Can you imagine? "To get to New Jersey, just take the Outerbridge Bridge." That doesn't work, does it?
I'm getting off the subject again. Let's see what Google had to say about the origin of the name of the quite pretty, artchitecturally un-Brooklyn, Bartel-Pritchard square. Just who were or was Bartel-Pritchard? --
This site, at the intersection of Prospect Park West and Prospect Park Southwest, was named by the Board of Aldermen on April 10, 1923 after two young Brooklyn natives, Emil Bartel (1895-1918) and William Pritchard. Bartel and Pritchard both died in combat in France during World War I (1914-1918). Bartel resided nearby at 251 Windsor Place and Pritchard lived at 128 Linden Street in Bushwick. The men were close personal friends, both enlisting in Brooklyn’s 13th Regiment of the National Guard. During the War, they served in the 59th Regiment, Coast Artillery. - NYC Department of Parks website
Speakng of things Brooklyn, this Sunday we are participating in the Tour De Brooklyn - a lovely organized bike ride that showcases Brooklyn's greatest bike routes. It takes off at 9:00 a.m. from Grand Army Plaza, heads for the seashore and then back north again for a festival with live music and eats in Fort Greene. Care to join us? For more information click here. See you on the bike path.
Bartel Pritchard Square ? Not so.
Circle in a square. The two columns frame one of Prospect Park's west side entrances.
2 comments:
Hi guys. Wish we could join you on the Brooklyn Tour bikeride, but alas, it isn't in the cards. Someday, when we do get up there again we would like to take such a ride (if not to strenuous) with you. Is it easy to rent bikes near you?
We are not at the lake today. To many thunderstorms in the area, so we'll go up tomorrow for a few days. Care to join us? Love to all, Mort
If you keep a sharp look out when you cross the Outerbridge(Crossing) there's a sign attributing the engineering of the span to Robert Outerbridge. A relative? or did google get it wrong? I find more interesting the stop light for horses, at Ocean Pkwy & Caton Pl (I think)
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