FORT GREENE -- Between 1776 and 1783, as the British occupied New York, 16 ships anchored offshore from what is now the Brooklyn Navy Yard held thousands of Revolutionary War prisoners in cramped, squalid conditions. Over those seven years, some 11,500 died. Their bodies were buried in shallow graves or thrown overboard, only to wash up in Brooklyn, where they were collected and interred beneath a wooden memorial.

In the 1840s, Walt Whitman, who was then the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, campaigned for a more fitting monument to “the prison ship martyrs.�

“We not only feel warmly in favor of the monument,� he wrote in 1847, “but think that a united and energetic effort on the part of the citizens to whom it is left, will now secure it.�

Thanks to the efforts of patriotic Brooklynites, a permanent monument was finally dedicated in 1908. Today, the 149-foot tall Doric column still rises over Fort Greene Park, and preparations are underway to celebrate its centennial.

At a meeting of the Fort Greene Association Monday night, Ruth Goldstein, of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, announced plans for an event scheduled for Nov. 14-16, to include student art and essay contests, historical reenactments, fireworks and a musical program featuring the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

“This is the country’s largest Revolutionary War burial site,� Goldstein said. “Yet it’s a little-known secret—outside of Fort Greene most people don’t know it exists.�

Fred Lasker, recording secretary of the Fort Greene Association and a 35-year Fort Greene resident, is managing the art and essay contests. He recalled learning about Boston’s Bunker Hill Monument when he was younger, but he said, “I didn’t realize I lived so close to another important site.�

Eleanor Labine, a television writer and historical re-enactor, appeared at the meeting in 18th-century dress to describe a planned re-enactment of the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn. Acknowledging her unusual outfit, Labine explained, “It’s not all about sight gags and gimmicks. Where we show up, the public seems to follow.�

Indeed, the pursuit of tourist dollars for Brooklyn is a major goal of the centennial celebration.

“It’s all about tourism,� said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who appeared briefly at the meeting to voice his support for the centennial. The event, Markowitz said, will attract Revolutionary War buffs from around the country.

“The success of this program,� Markowitz said, “will mean for Fort Greene to showcase its beautiful neighborhood, but also for Brooklyn as a whole.�

The centennial’s organizers are deeply aware of what could happen if Brooklyn forgets about the Martyrs Monument. Though the memorial was dedicated with great fanfare in 1908 — including an appearance by President William Howard Taft — by the 1970s Fort Greene Park was falling into disrepair and disuse.

Ruth Goldstein, who has lived in Fort Greene for 37 years, remembers packs of abandoned dogs running wild in the park.

“That was a recurring problem,� Goldstein said. “There were also tons of rats. They had burrows at the bottom of the monument’s pedestal. There was a lot of drug dealing in the park, because it’s not very visible from the street. It was like a vacant lot.�

By the late 1990s, Goldstein and other members of the Fort Greene Association were working to restore the park. The group, which became the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, planted flowers, lobbied local politicians for restoration funds and hired a park manager. In 2006, the visitors’ center—which at one point had sported a “Keep Off� sign—was restored with public funds.

Goldstein hopes that the centennial celebration will cement the importance of Fort Greene Park, not only to Brooklyn but to the country as a whole. She noted that the historian David McCullough, who is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the centennial, called the Martyrs Monument one of the three most sacred sites of the Revolutionary War.

“Everything we’re tying to do is to build a constituency for the park, so it doesn’t become the mess that it was,� Goldstein said.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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