McCarren Park

McCarren Park — Greenpoint’s shared backyard and the pool that came back

Thirty-six acres of ball dust, running lanes and Saturday market awnings, stretched along the seam where Greenpoint meets Williamsburg. McCarren Park has no single grand monument and does not need one: the whole place works as one continuous backyard for two neighborhoods that otherwise live indoors, up staircases, behind buzzers. At the eastern end stands the long brick bathhouse of the McCarren Play Center, a landmarked survivor of the 1930s whose enormous municipal pool sat dry for twenty-eight summers and now fills again every June. Around it the park runs on its own rhythm — dawn runners on the track, dog people at eight, softball leagues by six in the evening, and a farmers market that has never missed a Saturday since the nineties.

Highlights

• McCarren Play Center — the 1936 bathhouse designed by Aymar Embury II for Robert Moses under the Works Progress Administration, with a brick facade, granite sidewalls, twin locker pavilions and a bronze ornamental ticket booth in the courtyard; designated a New York City landmark in 2007.
• The pool — the original basin measured 330 by 165 feet and was built for 6,800 swimmers; the rebuilt C-shaped pool that opened in 2012 holds over a million gallons across some 38,000 square feet and takes about 1,500 people at a time.
• The running track — a resurfaced oval wrapped around the ballfields, in use from before sunrise until long after the floodlights snap on, and the single most reliable place in North Brooklyn to find company for a workout.
• McCarren Park Greenmarket — a farmers market that has set up beside the track and dog run every Saturday, year-round, since 1997, with regional produce, dairy, meat and bread, plus cooking demonstrations and food-benefit matching.
• The playing fields — baseball and softball diamonds, soccer pitches, volleyball, handball walls and bocce courts, permitted solid through the warm months for leagues that have run here for decades.
• Vincent V. Abate Playground — the busiest children’s ground in the park, named for a lifelong Greenpoint resident and community activist, sitting on the same block as the Play Center.
• Mary Temple’s “Double Sun” — a 2016 mural inside the bathhouse, a quiet piece of contemporary art tucked into a Depression-era building.

What you’ll find

The park spreads across four city blocks and reads as several linked zones rather than one lawn. The athletic core is dense and hard-surfaced; the edges soften into shaded seating, planted strips and the low-key lawns where blankets appear the moment the temperature crosses sixty.

• A large outdoor swimming pool with a landmarked bathhouse, locker rooms and courtyard, open through the summer season.
• A running track circling turf and dirt fields used for baseball, softball, soccer, football and kickball.
• Tennis courts, handball walls, bocce courts and an outdoor fitness area with fixed equipment.
• A fenced dog run, one of the most heavily used in North Brooklyn, near the market footprint.
• Playgrounds with spray showers that run through the hot months, plus benches and shade for the adults attached to them.
• Open lawns and tree-lined walks that absorb picnics, guitar practice, birthday parties and the overflow from the surrounding bars and cafés.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Swimmers and families with kids — a free municipal pool of genuinely serious size, with a shallow area and a bathhouse that is worth looking at even when you are only there to get wet.
• Runners and interval trainers — a measured, lit track with a permanent unofficial club of regulars; no membership, no booking, no excuse.
• League players and pickup crowds — softball, soccer, handball and bocce all have entrenched communities here, and the handball and bocce corners in particular welcome walk-ups.
• Weekend cooks and market shoppers — the Saturday greenmarket is a full food errand, not a novelty stall, and it runs in January as well as July.
• Dog owners — the run is a social institution, at its busiest early morning and just after work.
• Architecture and history walkers — the bathhouse is one of the best-preserved artifacts of the 1936 WPA pool program anywhere in the city, and it stands where you can circle it slowly.

Getting there & practical

The park straddles the Greenpoint–Williamsburg border in northern Brooklyn and is about as transit-simple as a New York park gets. The L train stops at Bedford Avenue and Lorimer Street, both short walks; the G train stops at Nassau Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue, closer still to the northern and southern ends respectively. Local buses including the B24, B43, B48 and B62 serve the surrounding avenues. Entry to the park is free and always has been; the outdoor pool is also free during its season, though it runs on its own daily hours and its own rules, and the golf-free simplicity of the place means there is nothing to book and nothing to pay unless you are permitting a field for a league. The park itself is open daily from early morning until one in the morning. Allow an hour for a walk and a market run, half a day if you are swimming or playing.

When to visit

Summer is the park at full volume: the pool opens in late June and runs to the Sunday after Labor Day, the spray showers hiss all afternoon, and every field is spoken for by evening. Spring is arguably better for anyone who dislikes crowds — the track dries out, the trees along the walks come in, and the market fills with early greens and rhubarb. Autumn is the local favorite: the light goes long and gold across the ballfields, league play peaks, and the greenmarket hits its apples-squash-cider stride. Winter strips the park to its bones and reveals how good the bones are — the bathhouse looks best under bare branches, the track stays plowed and used, and the Saturday market keeps going with root vegetables, storage apples and bread while everyone else stays home.

Good to know

The park opened in 1906 as Greenpoint Park and was renamed in 1909 for Patrick H. McCarren (1849–1909), the state senator who ran the Brooklyn Democratic organization until his death. Through the 1910s the city equipped it with a half-mile track, tennis courts, a dance platform, playgrounds and a field flooded for ice skating each winter. The defining chapter came in the mid-1930s, when Robert Moses and architect Aymar Embury II built the McCarren Play Center as one of eleven monumental WPA pools opened across New York City in a single summer. It was dedicated on 31 July 1936 and drew the largest crowd of any of that season’s openings. The pool closed after the 1983 season amid disrepair and neighborhood conflict and sat unused from 1984 to 2012 — in the mid-2000s, the empty basin found a second life as a concert and performance venue, beginning with choreographer Noémie Lafrance’s site-specific piece “Agora” in the summer of 2005 and running through the 2008 season. The bathhouse was designated a New York City landmark on 26 June 2007, and after a full reconstruction the pool reopened on 28 June 2012. One further curiosity: the subway’s Crosstown Line tunnel, opened in 1937, runs directly beneath the park.

Visitor tips

• If you plan to swim, bring a padlock — a lock is required for the lockers, and bags, strollers and food are not allowed on the pool deck. Plain white T-shirts are the only shirts permitted in the water.
• Come to the greenmarket before ten if you want the good bread and the short lines; the same stalls at one in the afternoon are a different, slower experience.
• Fields are permit-controlled at peak times, so if you are turning up with a ball and a group, aim for the handball walls, bocce courts or the open lawns rather than the diamonds on a summer evening.

Questions & answers

Is McCarren Park free to enter? Yes. The park is free and open daily from early morning until 1 a.m. The outdoor pool is also free — New York City’s public outdoor pools charge no admission at all.

When is the pool open? The outdoor season runs from late June to the Sunday after Labor Day. Pools operate daily in the late morning through early evening with a scheduled afternoon break for cleaning and staff changeover.

Why was the pool shut for so long? It closed after the 1983 season, worn out and caught in a long neighborhood argument about safety and cost, and stayed empty from 1984 until 2012. Landmark designation in 2007 and a full reconstruction brought it back.

Is there a farmers market? Yes — the McCarren Park Greenmarket has run every Saturday, all year, since 1997, beside the running track and dog run. It accepts food benefits and matches them with produce coupons.

Can I bring my dog? Yes. There is a fenced dog run inside the park; elsewhere in the park dogs must be leashed, and they are never allowed in the pool area or on ballfields.

Which neighborhood is it actually in? Both. The park sits on the boundary, with Greenpoint to the north and Williamsburg to the south, which is exactly why it functions as common ground.

Is it good for small children? Very. Vincent V. Abate Playground and the spray showers cover the toddler end, the shallow section of the pool covers the next age up, and there is enough flat lawn for a first bicycle.

Do I need a permit to play? For organized play on the diamonds and pitches at busy hours, yes — those are permitted through the parks department. The track, handball walls, bocce courts and fitness area are open to anyone, first come.