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Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Lincoln Terrace / Arthur S. Somers Park

Located in the eastern corner of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, Lincoln Terrace Park is 17 acres of grass and trees, paths to wander, ballfields and tennis courts. A park since the 1890s, it was expanded in the first half of the 20th century, and in 1932 the city renamed the western portion Arthur S. Somers Park after the local philanthropist and education advocate (1866-1932) known, according to his family website, for driving the streets at Christmastime handing out silver dollars to children.

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

The neighborhood could use some of those silver dollars now. The western half of Crown Heights has been gentrifying, but things are still pretty working-class around here. Or, at least in this spot, derelict.

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But the park – at least the passive-recreation part – seems in pretty decent shape, and a nice place to walk through, though I visited on an early-July day so hot I felt I was melting even in the shade. It was a weekday, and there was no one else in the park but a couple of guys walking their dogs.

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

Points of interest are few. I did take note of a sideways tree.

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

Why should a tree grow like that in Brooklyn? Maybe it was leery of the anti-aircraft gun bases that were positioned here in "serviceable but inconspicuous locations" during World War I. (Except that this doesn't look like a 100-year-old tree.)

As the April 8, 1918 issue of Aerial Age Weekly reported, "Action has been taken by the War Department toward protecting New York and vicinity from possible air raids." The White Fireproof Construction Company was hired to build concrete anti-aircraft gun emplacements in sites around the city including Lincoln Terrace Park, Green-wood Cemetery, and Tompkins Square Park. The article doesn't say whether guns were ever in fact placed in the emplacements here.

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

A more peaceful association arises from the nickname the park acquired from the area's Yiddish-speaking residents in the old days. "Kitzel Park" ("Tickle Park") was a favorite spot for "hanging out and flirting." Former resident Jack Wilson recalled in 1999, "Sometimes we would stop by Lincoln Terrace Park otherwise known as 'Kitzel' park. Unfortunately we moved[,] so being so young at the time, I don't have memories of kitzels at the park." Others were luckier. Ron Ross specified in his book Bummy Davis Vs. Murder, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mafia and an Ill-Fated Prizefighter that Kitzel Park was "the area of Lincoln Terrace Park noted for its nighttime necking and related activities."

I imagine these benches have seen their share of kitzeling and kanoodling over the years.

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

At least one living person presumably retains such memories. A racehorse born in 2014 is named Kitzel Park.

In recent years Lincoln Square Park's reputation hasn't been so nice. A DNAinfo article from 2013 called it "bustling" and quoted a precinct commander who described is as "beautiful" and "lively" but also termed it "the Bermuda Triangle of crime" because of its location at the intersection of four police precincts. The site makes it easy for criminals – smartphone thieves, for example – to swipe something and duck into another radio division, making it harder for police to track them down.

I don't know why this weathered steel plate is here.

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

It looks old, but the "NuTemper" trademark dates only from 2008. So what this sheet of metal marks, or commemorates, if anything, I have no idea.

Renovations are taking place at some of the athletic facilities. A couple had foregone the park's greenery to take some shade on the steps. I wondered why. Something made me take their photo. We all have our reasons, sometimes mysterious ones, for going to a park. Or its fringes. What was theirs?

lincoln terrace park arthur s somers park crown heights brooklyn nyc

A kitzel, maybe?

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media

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