Plans for the reconstruction of Bridge Park II near Brooklyn Bridge are now outlined. The park was renamed after Susan Smith McKinney Steward, the first Black woman in New York State to receive a license to practice medicine.
The project will reconstruct the play equipment, swings, and spray shower and construct a new adult fitness area, a multi-purpose synthetic turf field with a performance stage, benches, fences, drainage, water supply and add new plantings. The reconstruction is being privately funded in the amount of $7.5 million by Watchtower.
Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park was one of several parks in the city named or renamed last year after notable Black figures. A native of Crown Heights, Steward graduated from the New York Medical College (formerly the New York Medical College for Women) in 1869. She ran her own practice in Brooklyn from 1870 to 1895.
Steward died in 1918 at age 71.
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