Fort Greene Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, April 13, 2004

RESTORING GRANDEUR TO A BROOKLYN LANDMARK, THE PRISON SHIP MARTYRS MEMORIAL

Everyone in Fort Greene loves Fort Greene Park. Its sensual hills and dramatic history draw scores of New Yorkers every weekend. Inhabitants of the brownstones and public housing that skirt the park tread its winding paths to DeKalb Avenue as part of their daily commute. Indeed, Fort Greene Park is one of the most heavily used green spaces in Brooklyn, host to birthday parties, health awareness events, hip-hop concerts, and film sets. Parks & Recreation has dedicated a wealth of resources to the improvement of Brooklyn’s first public park; most recently, to the restoration of the Prison Ship Martyrs Memorial.

The quiet beauty of Fort Greene Park belies its tumultuous history as a Revolutionary War fort and the final resting place for 11,500 victims of the Battle of Long Island. The Martyrs Memorial is a 147-foot tall Doric column, with a surrounding plaza and underground crypt. It was designed by the renowned architectural firm, McKim, Mead and White in 1905 and was Stanford White’s last public work. The monument was completed in 1908.

The restoration project has a budget of $3.7 million, with allocations by Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Council Member Letitia James, and a $350,000 State grant awarded to the Fort Greene Conservancy. Yesterday, the complex plans for the restoration of the memorial were approved by the Art Commission; they involve the refurbishment of the column, the plaza, and the crypt.

In the original column, a double-helix staircase and a cylindrical elevator allowed workers to ascend to the top of the structure, enabling maintenance of the structure. The staircase and elevator were removed in the 1940s and replaced by an iron ladder. Parks & Recreation’s capital team is building a single-helix staircase, which will once again allow for proper upkeep.

Parks & Recreation is also restoring the bronze funerary urn lantern that sits atop the column. In what will surely be one of Parks & Recreation’s more spectacular moments, the urn will be taken down by helicopter. It will be transported by land to a foundry for repairs, cleaning, and coating, after which it will be returned to the site and elevated by helicopter to its seat on the column. The lantern’s flame will be illuminated in the evenings with fiber-optic lighting; light will travel through cables from inside the column, allowing for the replacement of the light bulbs without having to actually scale the monument.

The plaza, 220 feet by 220 feet, is approached by a grand, 90 foot-wide staircase. The plaza will be redone with granolithic concrete, emulating the original design of the plaza. Brick banding will be installed, and the stonework in the plaza will be restored. The four bronze eagles that originally occupied the plaza will also be replaced. Parks & Recreation will return two of the original eagles to the plaza and will complete the quartet with two bronze replicas. All of the eagles will be illuminated, as will the column shaft. In addition to myriad other improvements, the plaza will be accessible from the comfort station by means of an access path.

The third portion of the capital project focuses on the restoration of the crypt, which houses the collected remains of victims housed in 20 bluestone caskets. A Guastavino tile ceiling will be installed (similar to the Oyster Bar’s in Grand Central Station), and the original bronze door will be restored. The entire project is expected to be completed by the spring of 2006.

Parks & Recreation Director of Art & Antiquities Jonathan Kuhn commented on this exciting project: "Parks is pleased that the restoration of Brooklyn's ‘Acropolis’ is at long last taking place. With this project, the City ensures that those who died for the cause of liberty and the monument that honors their sacrifice are treated with appropriate dignity."

                                                                                      Written by Dana Rubinstein

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Growth in wisdom can be measured precisely by decline in bile."

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
(1844-1900)