The Abandoned Garden of Prospect Park

The Vale of Cashmere is an Alice-in-Wonderland kind of place, home to overgrown weeds, murder, and intense writerly contemplation.

Illustration by Jesse Lucas

More than eight million people, eight-and-a-half billion square feet. Suffice to say, New Yorkers have a love-hate relationship with space, all the more reason for us to occasionally get away from it all. But finding sanctuary in the city is not as hard as you might think. In "My Secret New York Sanctuary," a series by Narratively and WNYC, we get up close and personal with New Yorkers who use a little ingenuity to find solitude in some unlikely places.

William Akers has written about murder. He’s written about jazz, and plenty of baseball. His non-fiction writing and plays draw inspiration from the past, especially the rough-and-tumble days of the late 19th and 20th centuries. And now, he’s uncovered the hidden history of his favorite spot in New York City: The Vale of Cashmere.