Fort Stirling Park

In March 1776, American Revolutionary forces built Fort Stirling on this site to protect both civilian and military ships passing through the East River. Originally named Fort Half-Moon for its crescent shape, it soon fell from American hands. After its fall in the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn, American forces were ousted from Brooklyn in August 1776. The fort remained under British control until 1783, when, according to tradition, residents of Kings County demolished what remained after the British evacuated. Before American colonists tore down the remains, they renamed the fort for American Revolutionary General Major General William Alexander, known widely as Lord Stirling for his claim to succeed the sixth Earl of Stirling. Although the British House of Lords repeatedly rejected that claim, his standing among American forces remained strong. Lord Stirling had served in the French and Indian War and was noted for leading the Fourth Brigade in the Battle of Long Island in 1776, where a skillful maneuver allowed 300 men to escape, though he was pinned down, surrendered to British forces, and was later freed in a prisoner exchange. He later fought at Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and was renowned for supporting General George Washington during the Conway Cabal, the supposed effort to replace Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army with General Horatio Gates. In 1867, the City of Brooklyn designated this parkland Brooklyn Heights Park. Twenty-one years later it was acquired by the newly consolidated City of New York. In 1925, the Board of Aldermen renamed it Fort Stirling Park in recognition of its significance as a pivotal site throughout the American Revolution. Though the park had existed since 1867, it did not open to the public until 1935, when Parks Commissioner Robert Moses developed six pocket parks bordering Columbia Heights and Clark, Pierrepont, Pineapple, Orange, Cranberry, and Middagh streets. A 0.074-acre plot containing the commemorative tablet had been separated from the main park when the IRT Clark Street Tunnel was built in 1904. In 1966, the Brooklyn Heights Association urged that this parcel be restored to the park to preserve its river views. The plot appeared on the city's surplus auction list in 1971 and was subsequently added back, bringing the park to its current acreage. A black iron fence surrounds the park, and visitors can view the Brooklyn Bridge, the East River, and the Manhattan skyline.

New York, New York · United States