Linden Setting Area

Linden Blvd., Church Ave., E. 92 St.

Brooklyn, 11236

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

This small sitting space takes its name from adjacent Linden Boulevard. The street itself takes the name of the American linden trees (Tilia americana) that line its length. The land for the park was mapped as a public space after it was acquired in 1928 during proceedings about the boulevard.

Linden Boulevard was originally called Van Brunt Street in honor of a prominent family descended from Dutch colonists that lived in the area. Their first recorded ancestor in America was Rutger Joesten Van Brunt (c.1653-1718) who immigrated in 1653 to the town of New Utrecht, today a part of Brooklyn. Another Rutger Van Brunt (1757-1830) built the old mill on Bull Creek sometime in the late 18th century. In 1887, the Brooklyn Common Council changed the name of the street to Vienna Avenue, after the Austrian Capital. In 1924, the Common Council changed the name once again, this time calling it Lorraine Street, after the Lorraine region in eastern France.