Bath Beach Park

Shore Pkwy. bet. Bay 14 St. and Bay 16 St.

Brooklyn

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

This park is named for the surrounding neighborhood of Bath Beach, once a fashionable retreat for Manhattan’s elite, and later a suburban area developed by real estate investors.

In 1862 the Brooklyn, Bath, and Coney Island Line connected this region with Manhattan, prompting its transformation from a sleepy farming community into a weekend outpost for New York City high society. Throughout New York’s Gilded Age, the shoreline of Bath Beach boasted yacht clubs, villas, and the famous Captain’s Pier Restaurant at the base of 19th Avenue. Bath Beach also had the Bath House resort, opened by Doctors Barley, Rogers, Tillery, and Bard in the late 18th century near Gravesend Bay, a popular destination for convalescents.