Bed Stuy Brevoort Playground Gets Facelift

Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilwoman Darlene Mealy, and students from P.S. 21 and P.S. 40 last week to break ground on improvements to Brevoort Playground on Ralph Avenue and Chauncey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The improvements to Brevoort Playground are funded by $2,183,000 allocated by Mealy and an additional $360,000 allocated by the mayor. It will fully reconstruct this neighborhood park with play equipment for toddlers and young children, swings, an adult fitness exercise area, and basketball courts.The playground’s improvements will also include a new spray shower area with decorative columns and a glass rock wall. A fully landscaped central garden and a new performance space will make the park a more inviting place. Drinking fountains, lighting, improvements to the handball courts, a new flagpole and fencing will round out the improvements.New York City acquired this parkland along with the site for the adjacent housing development in February of 1951. The New York City Housing Authority leased the playground to the Parks Department in 1957 and it was named after the Brevoort family, who settled in what was then New Amsterdam in the 17th century.