Central Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, June 5, 2001

MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENTS AT McGOLRICK PARK

Recent improvements to Monsignor McGolrick Park were celebrated on Wednesday, May 30. Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern presided over a ceremony to celebrate the completion of renovations to this Greenpoint jewel, once called "the garden spot of America." Borough President Howard (Brooklyn) Golden and Council Member Kenneth K. (Rising Star) Fisher provided $608,000 for the reconstruction of the landscape of the west side of the park. The improvements include new lawns and plantings, a new drainage system, and reconstructed pavements, curbs, fences and benches. New squirrel sculptures stand guard atop the fence at the park's entrance.

On the eastern side of the park, the Monitor and Merrimac Monument was conserved. Rising Star provided $50,000 for this work, and the project was completed with the assistance of the Laboratory for the Conservation of Fine Arts. The monument was sculpted by Antonio de Filippo in 1939 to commemorate the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac on March 8, 1862. The Monitor, the Union navy's first iron-clad ship, was designed in Greenpoint by John Ericsson. It was sent to reinforce the Union's blockade of the southern ports, which prevented the Confederacy from trading with Europe. The Confederacy's armor-clad Merrimac was sent to destroy the Union navy but the Monitor's arrival balanced the chances and the blockade held. This battle established a new standard for naval fleets and rendered wooden vessels obsolete.

McGolrick Park also is the site of the McGolrick War Memorial, a winged victory sculpture by Carl Heber, erected 1923 as a tribute to the soldiers of Greenpoint who lost their lives in World War I. This monument was recently restored by the City Parks Foundation's Monuments Conservation Program, with funding from the Florence Gould Foundation, the American Express Company, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The monuments technicians removed corrosive streaking, repatined the bronze, applied protective coating, and modeled and recast the statue's long missing laurel and palm frond.

Approximately 150 people turned out to enjoy Wednesday's ceremony. It featured a musical interlude from Arthur Kirmss, representing the Sons of Union Veterans and the Greenpoint Monitor Museum. He played a pleasing tune on the pipe as the Monitor and Merrimac Monument was rededicated. Members of the John Ericsson Junior High School Band were also on hand to provide entertainment, and guests were treated to "Monitor sandwiches," designed in the shape of the ship.

Featured speakers at the ceremony included Rising Star; StarQuest; Jeannette (Forsythia) Gadson, Special Assistant to the Borough President; Kjersti Board, Information Officer of the Swedish Consulate; and Kjell Lagerstrom, President of the John Ericsson Society. The Greenpoint Monitor Museum was also especially helpful in organizing this event.

By Philip (Kane) Abramson

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Tuesday, June 7, 1988)

DINOSAURS ROAM CENTRAL PARK

The clock was set back to 66 million B.C. on Saturday as Stegosaurs, Theropods and Ceratopsians roamed Central Park's Great Lawn during Dinosaur Day.

Hundreds of children and parents were welcomed to the event by the mighty roar of a nine-foot-tall animated dinosaur. Commissioner Stern described the history of dinosaurs as a life-like "T-Rex" wandered the grounds of the Great Lawn. "Scientists believe that the last dinosaur to walk the earth before complete extinction was the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a large carnivorous dinosaur that measured approximately 45 feet in length and 19 feet in height, not too unlike the T-Rex we have on the Great Lawn today," the Commissioner said.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

West of these out to seas colder than the Hebrides
I must go
Where the fleet of stars is anchored and the young
Star captains glow.

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center