The 10-columned (5 on one side, 5 on the other) Music Pagoda in Prospect Park was, once upon a time, the park’s chief concert venue. It can be found on the east end of the lengthy central meadow called the Nethermead, set back in the woods, and a bit north along park paths from the Lullwater Bridge and Boathouse. It was built in 1887 on a stone foundation in a vaguely East Asian style.
Throughout the mid-20th Century this was the site of popular concerts by Edwin Franko Goldman, whose radio shows were popular enough to attract Brooklyn Dodger listeners away from the radio in pre-TV days. Dramatic plays were also presentd here by big names: George Bernard Shaw and Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin In The Sun).
After the Pagoda burned in 1968, concerts were transferred to the Bandshell on the Prospect Park West side. However, after it was rebuilt, gatherings and impromptu performances can still be held here, such as the troupe that was here the day I passed by in June 2011.