Grecian Shelter

96 Parkside Avenue | also 95 Prospect Park West | Prospect Park | built 1931

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1860

    The Promenade Drive Shelter stands on the lake shore before the colonnade replaces it

    In the 1860s a covered shelter called the Promenade Drive Shelter stood along the southwest shore of the Prospect Park lake. It occupied the spot where the present colonnade, finished in 1905, now stands. That later building was put up as a temporary refuge from rain and sun for park visitors.

    “…built on the site of the 1860s-era Promenade Drive Shelter along the southwest shore of the Prospect Park Lake…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1905

    McKim, Mead & White complete a marble colonnade on Prospect Park's south shore

    The firm of McKim, Mead & White finished the shelter in 1905. Twenty-eight marble columns with Corinthian capitals, plus square piers at the corners, carry a terra cotta entablature, and the vaulted ceiling uses Guastavino tile. It stands on a platform two steps above the paths, looking north over the lake.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1966

    Parks monuments officer Walter Beretta oversees the shelter's rehabilitation

    After years of neglect, the Parks Department rehabilitated the shelter in 1966 under its Monuments Officer, Walter Beretta. Writing in Civic News that September, he noted a puzzle: the original park plans labeled the building a Croquet Shelter, yet all the croquet was played on the Long Meadow at the far end of the park. Nobody, he said, knew why.

    “Why it was called the Croquet Shelter, when all croquet was played on the Long Meadow at the other end of the Park, nobody knows…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1968

    December 10

    The Landmarks Commission designates the Grecian Shelter a city landmark

    On December 10, 1968, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the shelter and its land a landmark, after a February 1966 public hearing at which three witnesses spoke in favor and none against. The Commission called it a superb example of early twentieth-century classical architecture, handsomely sited and faithfully restored.

    “The Grecian Shelter is a superb example of early Twentieth Century classical architecture, that it possesses great dignity and stately proportions…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 17 buildings with stories in Prospect Park