Prospect Park

Came across this recently. The thing that struck me on the list was the 300-year old Black Oak on Elephant Hill. That must have been a hell of a tree. I assume it’s the black oak noted as kaput in 1990 by Carsten Glaeser when he updated M.M. Graff’s Notable Tree list of 1972.

I’d never heard of “Elephant Hill” before this. And I’m a total park nerd, one who can tell you that Payne Hill is also known as Sullivan Hill; that Lookout Hill was once Vanderbilt Hill, and that Breezy Hill was a.k.a. Briar Ridge and in the park’s early years was home to a camera obscura. So I dug up “Elephant Hill,” and found that it was a name for Payne/Sullivan, upon whose eastern flank the Menagerie used to be. There were, obviously, elephants. Here’s a vintage photo and informative blurb from the PPA archive. “Bear Pits” sound pretty grim.