This 85 acre park is a multi-use complex with baseball and softball fields, basketball and tennis courts, a skate park, playground, splash-pad, and nature trails. In an effort to remove himself from the bustle of the city’s center, the prominent New Bedford Quaker, Daniel Ricketson built a country estate in what is now Brooklawn Park. Literary greats, such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, often visited Ricketson at his estate. Responding to the needs of a rapidly growing population due to the success of the textile industry, this land became a city park at the end of the 19th century.
