Sunset Park

Sunset Park — the hill that gave the neighborhood its name

Some parks borrow a name from the district around them. This one handed its name over. Sunset Park is twenty-four and a half acres of grass and terraces draped over a glacial hill in western Brooklyn, and from its crest the city arranges itself into one of the great free views in New York: the towers of Lower Manhattan, the harbor, the Statue of Liberty standing small and unmistakable in the water, the hills of Staten Island and the low blue edge of New Jersey behind them. Below the crest sits a monumental 1936 bathhouse and swimming complex; around it, a neighborhood of Chinese and Latin American families uses the slope the way villages use a square — for exercise at dawn, football at dusk, and a nightly congregation to watch the sun go down over the water.

Highlights

• The hilltop panorama — the summit reaches about 164 feet on the Harbor Hill Moraine, high enough to clear the rooftops and deliver the Lower Manhattan skyline, New York Bay, the Statue of Liberty and the Staten Island ridge in a single sweep.
• Sunset Play Center — the pool complex dedicated on 20 July 1936, designed by Aymar Embury II as part of the Works Progress Administration building campaign, its brickwork laid in Flemish bond with Neoclassical and Art Deco detailing.
• The pools — a rectangular main pool 256 by 165 feet, flanked by two semicircular basins 165 feet across, one for wading and one originally for diving, with a bathhouse built to handle thousands of swimmers a day.
• Landmark status — the Play Center’s exterior and its interior were both designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on 24 July 2007, a double designation few municipal buildings receive.
• Courts and fields — outdoor and indoor basketball, handball walls, a soccer field, a baseball field, table tennis and a gymnasium, all in near-constant use.
• The evening congregation — the informal, entirely reliable habit of the neighborhood gathering along the upper terraces at golden hour, which is the closest thing Brooklyn has to a public balcony.

What you’ll find

The park is essentially a slope with a flat crown. The upper level is for looking — terraces, benches, paths that follow the contour. The lower level is for playing, and it is where the bathhouse and the courts live. The two halves are connected by stairs and ramped walks that make the climb the whole point of a visit.

• A large outdoor swimming complex with a landmarked bathhouse, main pool and two semicircular pools.
• A recreation center with indoor court space, a gymnasium and program rooms open outside the summer season.
• Four outdoor basketball courts plus indoor play, handball walls, a soccer field and a baseball diamond.
• A children’s playground with a splash pad that runs through the hot months.
• Terraced overlooks and long benches along the crest, oriented at the harbor.
• Open lawn on the upper level used for tai chi in the morning, picnics all afternoon and impromptu music in the evening.

Things to do — and who it’s for

• Photographers and first-time visitors — a skyline-and-Liberty view with no ticket, no queue and no glass in the way, best in the hour before sunset.
• Swimmers and families — a free municipal pool with a genuine wading basin, which makes it workable for very young children as well as lap-minded adults.
• Morning exercisers — the upper lawn fills with tai chi and stretching groups at first light; nobody will look at you strangely for joining the general routine.
• Basketball and handball players — courts with a strong pickup culture and, unusually, an indoor option when the weather turns.
• Food explorers — the park sits between the neighborhood’s Chinese commercial spine and its Latin American one, so lunch before and dinner after can come from two different continents within a few blocks.
• Local history walkers — the bathhouse rewards a slow circuit, and the hill itself is a legible piece of the glacial ridge that shaped this side of Brooklyn.

Getting there & practical

The park sits in the middle of Sunset Park, the neighborhood it named, in western Brooklyn above the harbor. The D, N and R trains all stop at 36th Street, a walk of several blocks; the R also stops at 45th Street and 53rd Street, both closer to the park’s edges. Local buses including the B63, B70, B11, B35 and B37 run along the surrounding avenues, and the B63 in particular drops you at the foot of the slope. Entry to the park is free at all hours, and so is the outdoor pool during its season, which keeps its own daily schedule and its own list of rules. The recreation center indoors operates on a membership basis separate from the park itself. The park is open daily from early morning until one in the morning. Budget an hour for the view and a walk, two or three if you are swimming, playing or waiting for sunset.

When to visit

Summer belongs to the pool and the splash pad, and the crest becomes a nightly amphitheater — the sun sets over New Jersey and the harbor turns copper. Autumn is the connoisseur’s season: the air clears, the skyline sharpens to the point of looking cut out, and the sunset moves early enough that you can catch it after work without waiting until nine. Winter delivers the single best visibility of the year — cold, dry days push the horizon far back, and on a clear January afternoon you can pick out details across the bay that summer haze hides completely; bring gloves, because the hill is exposed. Spring brings the courts and fields back to life, the lawn greens up, and the terraces refill with families before the pool has even opened.

Good to know

Brooklyn acquired the first four blocks of the site on 15 May 1891 and extended the park southward by 1904. The early park looked nothing like today’s: it had a small six-hole golf course laid out in 1899, a pond, a Neoclassical shelter and a carousel. All of it was demolished in 1935 and 1936 to make room for the Sunset Play Center, one of eleven monumental swimming complexes that Robert Moses’s parks department opened across New York City in the summer of 1936 with Works Progress Administration funding. Architect Aymar Embury II gave it a bathhouse capable of handling thousands at once and a pool group of one rectangle and two half-circles that still reads as a piece of civic sculpture. A major overhaul followed in 1983 and 1984, and on 24 July 2007 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated both the exterior and the interior. The neighborhood around it changed just as sharply: early users were largely Polish, Scandinavian and Finnish industrial families, and from the 1980s onward the district was remade by immigrants from Fujian and from across Latin America, whose two commercial corridors now bracket the park.

Visitor tips

• Arrive at the crest forty-five minutes before sunset — the light on the towers changes fastest in the last half hour, and the best benches are taken early on clear evenings.
• Approach from the low side and walk up rather than arriving at the top: the view unfolds instead of simply appearing, and the climb is short.
• If you are swimming, bring a padlock for the lockers and leave bags, food and strollers behind — they are not permitted on the pool deck, and only plain white T-shirts may be worn in the water.

Questions & answers

Did the park name the neighborhood or the other way around? The park came first. The surrounding district took its name from the park, which is unusual in Brooklyn and tells you how central the hill was to the area’s identity.

Can you really see the Statue of Liberty? Yes, from the upper terraces on a clear day, along with the Lower Manhattan skyline, the sweep of New York Bay, the Staten Island hills and the New Jersey shoreline behind them.

Is the pool free? Yes. New York City’s outdoor public pools charge no admission. The outdoor season runs from late June to the Sunday after Labor Day, with daily hours and an afternoon cleaning break.

Is there anything to do here in winter? The view is at its sharpest in cold, dry weather, and the indoor recreation center and gymnasium operate year-round. The outdoor pool and splash pad do not.

How steep is the climb? Manageable but real — the summit is around 164 feet above sea level. There are stepped routes and gentler ramped paths, so strollers and less mobile visitors can reach the top without stairs.

What makes the bathhouse special? It is one of eleven Works Progress Administration pool complexes opened across the city in 1936, designed by Aymar Embury II, and one of the few whose interior as well as exterior carries landmark protection.

Is the park good for young children? Yes — there is a dedicated playground with a splash pad, and one of the two semicircular pools is a shallow wading basin.

What should I do afterward? Eat. The park sits between the neighborhood’s Chinese and Latin American commercial districts, so dumplings and tacos are equally short walks in opposite directions.