Prospect Park (Troy, New York)

Prospect Park was originally designed in 1903 by local landscape engineer Garnet Douglass Baltimore, the first African-American graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

[1] He had also designed the 200-acre Forest Park Cemetery on Pinewood Avenue in Brunswick in 1897, which is now neglected and far from its picturesque days.

The park today includes the following recreational areas: 14 tennis courts, four handball courts, two basketball courts, playground, picnic areas, soccer field, comfort station, spray pool, nature trail, a roadway which surrounds the park with eight parking areas, and finally Uncle Sam memorial pavilion which overlooks the city of Troy below.

Inside the gazebo were panels with patriotic words inscribed ~ Honesty, Justice, Republic, Independence, Freedom, and Faith.

Over the next few years, Garnet Baltimore implemented his designs, adding winding roads and four entrances to the park, fences, a man-made lake, a band shell, observation tower, tennis courts, and playgrounds.

It is a nonprofit group responsible for improvements to the children's playground, the sign welcoming patrons as they enter the park, renovations of bathrooms and comfort stations housed beneath the swimming pool, yearly bulb plantings, and many more.

[5] However, since then, Prospect Park has lost its popularity among the Troy community and has begun to deteriorate over the years.