Gerritsen Beach Playground

Gerritsen Beach Playground is a community park in Gerritsen Beach, one of the most isolated and tightly knit neighborhoods in Brooklyn, a small community on a peninsula between Shell Bank Creek and Plumb Beach Channel.

Gerritsen Beach is often described as Brooklyn's hidden village: a community of small houses on narrow streets, surrounded by water, with only one road in and out. The neighborhood's geographic isolation has preserved a working-class, small-town character that is unique in the borough.

The community was founded as a summer bungalow colony in the early 20th century, and many of the original small houses have been winterized and expanded into year-round homes. The neighborhood retains a beach-town atmosphere.

Gerritsen Beach was significantly impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, with storm surge flooding the entire peninsula. The community's recovery demonstrated the tight bonds between residents who share this isolated geography.

Gerritsen Beach Playground serves one of Brooklyn's most unexpected communities: a beach-town village of small houses on a peninsula, connected to the rest of the borough by a single road.