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See Central Park's Boat Landings Restored to Their Former Glory

By Shaye Weaver | October 7, 2016 5:13pm | Updated on October 10, 2016 8:48am
 Five boat landings have been rebuilt at the Lake to their original designs.
Central Park Celebrates Newly Reconstructed Boat Landings
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MANHATTAN — Five boat landings that sit on the banks of Central Park's lake have been restored to their original 19th-century designs after decades of decay.

Over the course of a year, the Central Park Conservancy and the city's Parks Department reconstructed the boat landings along The Lake using historic photos as their guide.

The landings were originally built in 1860, then rebuilt in the 1970s, but much of the original details were lost and the landings deteriorated over time, according to Doug Blonsky, the Central Park Conservancy's CEO and President.

The Hernshead, Bow Bridge and Western Shore landings were more Victorian in nature and the Chambers and Wagner Cove landings were more rustic, Blonsky said.

"We really went back and did the research," Blonksy said. "This is part of a larger project. Over the last six or seven years we've been restoring the lake."

The landings are more ceremonial, but people are able to pull up on row boats, he added.

To celebrate the finished project, city officials took an electric boat out on the water for the first time in several decades on Tuesday.

See our Facebook Live video of the tour below:

The boat was made by Elco (Electric Launch Company), which created the boats for the Chicago's World Fair around the turn of the century, and had two boats on the Central Park's lake in 1902 and for subsequent decades, Blonsky said.

The electric boat returned to The Lake on Tuesday for the special occasion and will be returning to St. George, where it came from, officials said.

Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver joined Blonksy for his first trip on the Lake ever in the four decades he's lived in the city.

"I work in the park, I practically live in the park, and it's something I've never done before," Silver said. "The landings were absolutely gorgeous. I love that fact that not one is the same."