Landscape Information
This 80-acre park is situated 1.5 miles east of the Hudson River atop Mount Ida and borders the Poestenkill Gorge to the south. Surrounded to the west, north, and east by residential communities, its dramatic topography and dense canopy of mature deciduous tree plantings (including European beech, catalpa, magnolias, oaks, and sycamore) can be experienced via a network of curvilinear roads that connect to recreation facilities and a Modernist comfort station. Visitors access the park through the gated Congress Street entrance where the park’s primary route, Prospect Park Road, originates. The network of drives and paths terminate at the park’s 285-foot summit, where trees have been managed to safeguard western and southern views of the Hudson River Valley.
In the nineteenth century this plot hosted the Vail and Warren estates, which the city acquired by 1903. Approximately 500 trees and stumps were cleared, and the city engaged Garnet Douglass Baltimore as landscape engineer to design a public park. The decision to retain Baltimore, among the first African American graduates from the nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, came amidst efforts to establish a broader park system in Troy. Baltimore’s contributions include a fountain and naturalistic water feature, a play area, tennis courts, and two rustic pavilions. With local architect H.P. Fielding, Baltimore converted the preexisting residences into a museum and casino (both destroyed in the mid-twentieth century). An aboveground swimming pool designed by engineer Wesley Bintz was installed in 1926; though closed in the 1990s, it is one of the few extant pools designed by Bintz.
By the 1980s the park had fallen into disuse. In 1998 the Friends of Prospect Park was founded, dedicated to the site’s stewardship and revitalization. In 2018 a historic road was restored and named the Garnet Douglass Baltimore Trail, connecting Prospect Park to the city’s southwestern Little Italy and South Troy neighborhoods.
