Here’s our regular weekly post from the Center for the Urban Environment about the great tours they run:
Bats in Brooklyn! Friday, June 27, 7:45- 9 pm – with Paul Keim. Naturalist Paul Keim of the Brooklyn Bird Club leads a Prospect Park adventure in search of the fascinating bats that live behind the fences of the Ravine. Join us for this rare opportunity to enter Prospect Park at night in search of the nocturnal animals that call the park home. Paul will bring his eco-locator to help us find them. Bring your flashlights! Meet at the Ninth Street and Prospect Park West entrance to Prospect Park. Take the F train to Seventh Avenue Station (Exit at Eighth Avenue) and walk up one block to Park.
Weeksville: Past, Present, Future. Saturday, June 28, 1-3:30 pm – with Jennifer Scott. Slavery in New York ended in 1827 and by the early 1830s a new Free Black community was formed in the area known as Weeksville. The historical significance of this community was all but forgotten until the land was about to be cleared for a housing project in the late 1960s. We will see what was unearthed from the archeological dig and how it affects the community today. The highlight will be a visit inside the original Hunterfly Road houses. (Admission to the houses is an additional $4). Meet in front of Boys and Girls High School on Fulton Street and Stuyvesant Avenue. Take the A/C train to Utica Avenue.
Cypress Hills & Highland Park. Sunday, June 29 – 11am-1pm – with Joe Svehlak. This tour will take us through some surprisingly lovely and eclectic architecture in the area of Brooklyn known as the Eastern District. Fine civic buildings, grand mansions, interesting row houses, and even a church by Richard Upjohn are to be found there. The varied hilly topography is due to the terminal moraine of the Ice Age and makes for an interesting walk up and down the streets. At the beginning of the tour we will briefly visit the Cemetery of the Evergreens, one of the city’s first garden cemeteries, whose park–like setting is the final resting place of some of Bushwick’s renowned citizens. Meet in the assembly room of the Broadway/Eastern Parkway station, which serves the A/C/ L trains. From Manhattan, take the first car of the A/C train to Broadway/East New York Station. Walk up stairs; assembly room is just before the exit turnstiles. The L train is the same station: go down escalator to assembly point.
Fees are $13.00 for non-members, $10.00 for members and $8.00 for seniors and students.
