Fort Greene Park Fort Greene Park is a municipal park in Brooklyn , New York , comprising 30 . 2 acres ( 122 , 000 m² ) . The park includes part of the high ground where the Continental Army built fortifications prior to the Battle of Long Island , during the early days of the American Revolutionary War . The site was chosen and construction supervised by General Nathanael Greene and it was named Fort Putnam . During the War of 1812 , when the possibility of a British invasion led to the re - use of the site for defense , the newly rebuilt fortification was named Fort Greene in his honor . In 1847 , the site became Brooklyn ' s first park ( but see also Commodore Barry Park ) under the name of Washington Park . Walt Whitman , then the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle , was a strong advocate of claiming the space for a public park . In 1867 , Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux , who also designed Central Park and Prospect Park , prepared a design for the park . Its name was changed to Fort Greene Park in 1896 . One of the park ' s distinctive features is the Prison Ship Martyrs ' Monument . During the Revolutionary War , the British had kept American prisoners on ships in Wallabout Bay under terrible conditions . Around 11 , 500 prisoners died from disease and malnutrition . Olmsted and Vaux envisioned a crypt to hold their remains , with an appropriate monument . The crypt was built , and the remains of the prisoners were re - interred there in 1873 . There was also a small monument . Eventually , funds were raised for a larger monument . The architectural firm of McKim , Mead , and White won a design competition , and the monument was unveiled in 1908 by President - elect Taft . It is a 149 foot ( 44 m ) high granite Doric column over the crypt . At the top is an eight ton bronze urn . At night the monument is illuminated by four electric lights set in four granite shafts . Bronze eagles graced each shaft , and two cannons guarding the plaza and the Martyrs crypt below . Two of the four eagles are replicas , the two originals were removed in the late 1960s due to vandalism and are now guarding the lobby of The Arsenal building in Central Park . Copies of the eagles may be found in several parks in NYC , such as the Veterans Triangle on Queens Blvd . and Greenpoint Avenue , and the front entrance to the Queens Dept . of Parks Headquarters . The neighborhood around the park is also known as Fort Greene . Across the street from the DeKalb Avenue entrance at Ft . Greene Place is Brooklyn Technical High School . To the west is the oldest hospital in Brooklyn , Brooklyn Hospital Center . North of the Park are the Walt Whitman Houses , one of the largest housing projects in New York City . Fort Greene Park is host to the annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival , an event featuring young writers aged 7 – 18 reading alongside established writers , such as Sonia Sanchez , Amiri Baraka , Jhumpa Lahiri , Sapphire , Gloria Naylor and Jennifer Egan . The Fort Greene Park Conservancy operates a summer concert series . The Greene Glass Project was started in 2010 to address the thousands of shards of broken glass in the park . The organization hosts annual cleanups in the summer .