Sunset Park

1891
Sunset Play Center
Seventh Avenue between 41st and 44th Streets
Herbert Magoon with Aymar Embury II, Harry Ahrens and others
1934-36

In 1891, the city of Brooklyn, planning for future growth, set aside 14 acres for Sunset Park, which was enlarged to 24.5 acres in 1903. The park affords views of Manhattan, New York Harbor and, more locally, St. Michael’s tower. At the park’s eastern edge, the play center was one of several built across the city during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration. The facility was constructed of low-cost brick and cast concrete and employed details characteristic of the Art Moderne style, including sleek curvilinear forms, decorative brickwork and diamond-patterned cast stone. The bathhouse features a one-and-a-half-story center rotunda flanked by corner piers and lined with stacked cylindrical brick walls.

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