Arriving at South Street Seaport

This is South Portland Avenue looking in the direction of Fort Greene Park.

We left Maine at 8 a.m. and rode a bus to New York City, arriving at the Best Western Seaport Inn by 3:00 p.m. The weather for the trip was great; sunny to partly cloudy. Geographically, the Seaport Inn is in lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge spanning the East River.  Shortly after arriving we headed to the 2 & 3 subway line to travel to Brooklyn. Scholar Ed O'Donnell led us from Peck Slip down Front Street to the subway station.

We purchased subway passes good for seven days and caught a train to the Atlantic Avenue stop. We walked several blocks and met Scholar Charles Calhoun who led us down South Portland Avenue toward Fort Greene Park. South Portland Avenue is a beautiful block, lined with brownstones and sycamore trees on either side of the street. The stoops leading to these homes and the wrought iron work on and around them are typical of a Brooklyn middle class neighborhood.

At Fort Greene Park we strolled passed a dusty make-shift soccer field and found some steps to sit on near a very tall monument where we heard from Charles. He told us how during the Revolution it was called Fort Putnam. It was a fort of mostly earthworks that the Patriots were unable to hold once the British troops attacked. Captured Patriots were offered parole if they were willing to swear allegiance to the King. The alternative was getting sent to a floating prison of ships in Wallabout Bay to endure nasty conditions. Dead from battles were buried in shallow, sandy graves along the East River. Many years later, bones unearthed from these graves were more properly interred in a crypt at Fort Greene Park. The park's tallest monument, Prison Ships Martyrs' Monument, was dedicated in 1908  with President-elect William Howard Taft in attendance. More about the history of Fort Greene Park, including the Revolutionary War general it was named for can be found at the New York City Parks web site.  http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/FortGreenePark/history

This shows the base of the monument.

We walked eastward from the park to Charles's apartment where we enjoyed refreshments and hors d'ouevres in the backyard garden.

The impressive set of steps below the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument can be either a place to sit, or a challenge for runners trying to improve their conditioning.