Brownstoner takes on Brooklyn history in Nabe Names, a series of briefs on the origins and surprising stories of neighborhood nomenclature.

Marine Park Brooklyn
Record-breaking aviator Roscoe Turner’s racer at Floyd Bennett Field on September 1, 1934. Photo via Airfields-Freeman

The increasingly-hard-to-find dropped R’s and blunt deliveries of the Brooklyn accent live on in the borough’s water-bound, blue-collar southern enclave of Marine Park.

Renowned for the large, eponymous public park that hugs Jamaica Bay’s westernmost inlet, Marine Park’s watery perimeters and comparatively undeveloped residential streets combine for a lush landscape and great diversity of natural environments largely unheard of in Brooklyn.

Indeed, the nabe even includes the uninhabited Mau Mau Island, a bitty dot of land between Gerritsen and Mill creeks partially composed of aging trash. Also within Marine Park’s perimeters lies Floyd Bennett Field, a former municipal airport that today is part of the sprawling Gateway National Recreation Area and has many of its structures on the National Register of Historic Places.

While some sources merely attribute the park’s title to the area’s location near the Atlantic, according to the Marine Park Civic Association the name was assigned by the Board of Aldermen in 1937, when they dubbed the expanding green space “Brooklyn Marine Park.”

Far from any train, Marine Park is no easy trek for most Brooklynites, but for those who pine for fresh air and greenery the neighborhood won’t disappoint.

Marine Park Brooklyn
Park-goers enjoy a sunny day in Marine Park. Photo via NYC Parks
Marine Park Brooklyn
A salt marsh in Marine Park in July 2006. Photo via NYC Parks

Related Stories
Camping at Marine Park’s Floyd Bennett Field
Park Slope Can’t Measure Up to Marine Park
Marine Park’s Hendrick I. Lott House

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