Fort Greene Fall 2026: Monument Events and Neighborhood Plans

This fall, more of Fort Greene's dated events happen at the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument than anywhere else in the neighborhood. In America's 250th year, the 1908 column at the top of Fort Greene Park has a wreath-laying, an Open House New York program, two kinds of history tours and an anniversary walk on its calendar. The anniversary walk falls on November 14, the same date the monument was dedicated 118 years ago.

Most of the neighborhood's new food and drink is still waiting on paperwork. Two of the most anticipated DeKalb-area projects filed liquor license applications in the last week of September. That leaves the old granite staircase carrying the season while the storefronts catch up.

A meeting point that already runs on a schedule

Plenty of people use the monument as a landmark, but some groups have built a weekly routine around it. On Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., Coach Skye Massey leads the Run Club with Chelsea Piers Fitness on a 3 to 5 mile run that starts at the monument. Shala Yoga holds Saturday 11 a.m. sessions on the monument's Eastern Panel, according to the Fort Greene Park Conservancy calendar.

The structure under those mats is bigger than it looks from a bench on the lawn. NYC Parks' historical sign describes a 100-foot-wide granite staircase and a Doric column designed by Stanford White. It marks a crypt for more than 11,500 men and women who died aboard British prison ships anchored in Wallabout Bay during the Revolutionary War. Their remains were moved here in 1873 into a 25 by 11 foot brick vault. The 22 boxes interred there hold only a fraction of the total.

A few details on the NYC Parks monument page will change how the walk up the stairs looks:

• The bronze urn at the top of the column, by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman, is a decorative lantern that has never worked.
• Weinman's four bronze eagles were taken down in the 1960s after repeated vandalism. Two originals and two replicas now sit on the corner posts of the plaza. The other two originals are on view at the Arsenal in Central Park.
• The column once had an interior elevator and stairs, installed in 1937 and removed in 1948. The elevator pit was filled in 1970.
• The night lighting on the plaza and column dates to the full restoration completed in 2008, one hundred years after the dedication.
• President-elect William Howard Taft attended the 1908 dedication.

The park itself predates the monument by decades. Walt Whitman pushed for it from the pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The site opened as Washington Park around 1850, and Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were hired to redesign it in 1867.

The 250th already passed through in August

Brooklyn's big Battle of Brooklyn weekend came in late August. Brooklyn Paper reported that its centerpiece was a reenactment in Prospect Park on August 22, while Fort Greene's part was the memorial at the monument. That same day, the Society of Old Brooklynites and American Opera Projects held the 118th annual Prison Ship Martyrs Memorial, with a free tribute concert featuring contralto Nicole Mitchell. Brooklyn Paper noted that the program tied in Whitman's 1846 text "TO BE SUNG ON FORT GREENE," which was later set to the melody of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

August was the start, and the fall calendar is longer. The Conservancy is one of the participating institutions in Brooklyn 250, a borough-wide initiative backed by $350,000 in state funding for public-history events. In Fort Greene, that money shows up as a run of fall walks and ceremonies, and almost every one of them starts at the top of the stairs.

The fall calendar, in order

The free Urban Park Ranger events start at the park's Visitor Center, and most of the Conservancy's programs gather at or near the monument.

1. Sunday, October 4. NYC Parks hosts a free history hike through Downtown Brooklyn starting from the Visitor Center.
2. Saturday, October 10, noon to 2 p.m. The Battle of Brooklyn Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution holds a wreath-laying at the Prison Ship Martyrs Memorial. The program includes a color guard in Revolutionary War uniforms and remarks from a historian. The wreaths are reusable and are collected at the end.
3. Saturday, October 17, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Local historian Suzanne Spellen leads the Black History and Culture Tour of Fort Greene. The Conservancy says the route was developed with Spellen and its Tour Advisory Committee.
4. Sunday, October 18, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Open House New York comes to the Visitor Center for a program on the monument's history. The NYC Parks listing says registration is required in one place and not required in another, so check before you go.
5. Saturday, October 24, noon to 4 p.m. The Conservancy's Halloween Fest is free with no RSVP and offers spooky stories, face painting and games. The calendar lists it on the 24th, but the event description mentions October 25, so confirm the date closer to the weekend.
6. Saturday, November 14. This is the 118th anniversary of the dedication, and it is the fullest morning of the season. Leaf No Trace, the Conservancy's annual leaf-raking volunteer day, runs from 10 a.m. to noon. Starting at 9:30, historians Natasha Fearon and Alexandra Stevens lead America's 250th Anniversary Tour of Fort Greene, which covers the Battle of Brooklyn, the founding of the park and the prison ship martyrs.
7. Sunday, November 15. NYC Parks runs a Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument tour.
8. Saturday, November 21, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Suzanne Spellen leads the Black History and Culture Tour again.
9. Sunday, November 29. The season ends with winter birding from the Visitor Center.

The Fort Greene Greenmarket runs every Saturday, year-round, on Washington Park between DeKalb and Willoughby Avenues from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Compost and clothing drop-off close at 1:30 p.m. That means the October 10 and October 17 events and both November Saturdays all fall within an easy walk of a market morning.

The park's long-planned rebuild of its entrances, paths, plaza and drainage hasn't started yet. As of this writing, the NYC Parks capital tracker shows the project 5% through procurement, with construction at 0% and no start date set. This fall's events will take place in the park as it stands now.

BAM fills in the evenings, a few blocks south

The monument's events mostly happen on weekend mornings and middays. BAM's fall season covers the evenings, running September through December with Next Wave as its signature festival. In one case the two calendars touch directly. PRELUDE is a free outdoor performance on BAM's plaza from October 13 to 15, the week after the wreath-laying.

The rest of the fall lineup at BAM's Next Wave:

• Hewa Rwanda—Letter to the absent, October 7 to 11
• Unworlding, NYC, a public dialogue series, October 14 to 27
• How does it feel to look at nothing, October 21 to 25
• BAMboo!, a free family Halloween afternoon at the Peter Jay Sharp Building, October 31 from 2 to 5 p.m.
• La Distance, in French with English supertitles, November 18 to 29
• Einstein on the Beach—50th Anniversary Concert, November 19 to 21

Families get two Halloween options a week apart: the Conservancy's fest in the park on the 24th and BAMboo! on the 31st.

Where to go after, and what's still on the way

The new food and drink on DeKalb and Fulton is mostly still in the planning stages. Only one recent arrival is confirmed open.

Million Goods is the only one you can visit on a November evening for now. Time Out's first look describes the larger Fort Greene flagship as a menswear shop paired with a natural-wine bar. Eater reports a listening lounge, snacks and a backyard garden as well.

Triangle is the project to watch in Fowler Square. DeKalb Dispatch reported that the Strange Delight team is planning a 24-seat "neighborhood bar and grill" in the former Island Shack, with food by Strange Delight chef Ham El-Waylly. The same report covers the 235 DeKalb filing from the Miss Ada, Theodora and Thea team. Evelina Gelato, which has been a seasonal cart, plans to go year-round in the former Sushi D space with pastries, coffee and a small breakfast item. That would give the park's early risers a new stop if it opens before the weather turns.

For now, the dated plans in Fort Greene this fall are the ones in the park: a wreath-laying on October 10, a Halloween Fest on the 24th, and a leaf rake and anniversary tour on November 14 at the foot of a column first dedicated on that day in 1908. You'll find more on the park's art and green spaces in our Fort Greene guide.

If watching DeKalb fill in, one license filing at a time, has you wondering what your own place on these blocks is worth, Josie Hubschman is happy to talk it through over coffee near the park. Let's Connect.