Gravesend Square

Gravesend Square is a small historic park in the Gravesend section of southern Brooklyn, near the site of one of the original six towns of Brooklyn established during the Dutch colonial period.

Gravesend was founded in 1645 by Lady Deborah Moody, an English noblewoman who established one of the first settlements in the New World to guarantee religious freedom. Moody was the first woman to receive a land grant in the New World.

The original town of Gravesend was laid out in a distinctive square pattern with a central common, and Gravesend Square preserves a portion of this colonial-era town plan, making it one of the oldest public spaces in Brooklyn.

The neighborhood retains traces of its colonial origins in its street patterns and place names, though the surrounding area has been built up with the apartment buildings and row houses typical of southern Brooklyn.

Gravesend Square connects modern Brooklyn to the earliest European settlement of the borough, preserving the memory of Lady Deborah Moody's pioneering commitment to religious freedom.