COVID-19 UPDATE: Prospect Park Alliance is working closely with NYC Parks and other city agencies to monitor developments related to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The safety and well-being of our staff, patrons and entire community is our top priority. As part of this effort, Turnstile Tours with Prospect Park Alliance has postponed the start of the Prospect Park tour season. Turnstile Tours is offering daily paid and free online programs, including ones about Prospect Park, learn more on the Prospect Park Alliance Tour Page.

Discover Prospect Park’s hidden treasures, natural wonders and little-known history on guided tours of the park, presented by Turnstile Tours in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance. Explore everything about Prospect Park, from its flora and geology, to the architectural movements that shaped the park, to the evolution of recreation and play. See how use of the park has changed over time from designers Olmsted and Vaux’s original vision all the way to present day and Prospect Park Alliance’s sustainability, historic preservation, and recreational projects that make the park the world-class destination it is today.

Learn more and RSVP for a tour at the Turnstile Tours website!

First Saturdays: Park Art and Architecture
For over 150 years, Prospect Park has been a showcase for beautiful buildings and artwork, with representations from architectural movements including Beaux-Arts, City Beautiful, New Deal Modernism, and contemporary LEED-certified projects. On the Park Art and Architecture Tour, we will put these architectural movements in context by looking at examples of each located within the park. With stops at the Prospect Park Zoo and LeFrak Center at Lakeside, you’ll get to closely examine fine architectural details, learn more about current construction and restoration projects, and experience public art in Prospect Park.

Second and Third Saturdays: Hidden Treasures of Prospect Park 
The park is a living, constantly changing place, and as public interests have changed over the past 150 years—in sports, food, music, entertainment—the park has adapted to provide new amenities to continue to be “a means of ready escape” as Olmsted put it. This tour will visit many areas of the park that were once prime attractions but are now quiet corners, look at the history of sports and recreation in the park, and examine the layers of history still visible in the landscape. We will also learn how Prospect Park Alliance restores and stewards the park today, with a focus on current projects to revitalize the park’s east side, including the Vale, Children’s Pool and Lakeside.

Last Saturdays: Sustainable Prospect Park
This tour focuses on the natural landscape of the park and the manmade systems that support this hotspot of biodiversity. We will look closely at Prospect Park’s ingenious drainage system and chain of manmade streams and ponds that terminate in Brooklyn’s largest lake, follow the watercourse, and go behind the scenes at one of the most unique features of the park: the 1869 Wellhouse. We will also learn about management of the park’s forest and how it is impacted by climate change, see projects to improve water quality such as the innovative ecoWEIR filtration system, and learn how Prospect Park Alliance monitors and protects the park’s plants and wildlife.

Learn more and RSVP for a tour at the Turnstile Tours website!