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Long-Awaited Repairs to Stuyvesant Square Park Fence Near Completion

 The historic cast-iron fence surrounding Stuyvesant Square Park should be fully restored in the coming weeks, according to the Parks Department.
The historic cast-iron fence surrounding Stuyvesant Square Park should be fully restored in the coming weeks, according to the Parks Department.
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Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association

STUYVESANT TOWN — After a years-long battle to secure the necessary funding and another five years of design, procurement and construction, the restoration of the historic cast-iron gates surrounding Stuyvesant Square Park will soon be complete, according to a Parks Department official.

The Parks Department hopes to have the eastern portion of the fence, which had fallen into disrepair over the years, fully restored in just a matter of weeks, according to the chief of staff to the department’s Manhattan borough commissioner.

“We’re very close to completion — hopefully maybe in the next two weeks or so,” said Steve Simon. 

“What the community has been waiting for a long time is finally very, very close to completion.”

Community members for decades had been pushing for the full restoration of the fence, which dates back to 1847 and wraps around the Gramercy park on Second Avenue between East 15th and 17th streets. While the western side of the fence had been restored long ago, the eastern side had grown rusty and flaked, with some spires gone missing. 

Finally, in 2012, the park secured the $5.5 million amount necessary to fund the restoration, thanks to contributions from then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and City Council members Dan Garodnick and Rosie Mendez.

The department would also restore the sidewalks around the park with bluestone pavement and granite curbs.

After a years-long design and procurement process, construction kicked off in October 2014, according to the Parks Department website, with a completion date set for December 2016.

The project is now nearly complete — the new sidewalks are in place, and the fence is now just awaiting for the link between 16th and 17th streets and the installation of the new gate on 16th Street, according to the Parks Department.

Advocates of the park and its historic fence are overjoyed that the yearslong wait will finally be over.

"They look beautiful," said Rosalee Isaly, president of the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association. "It's certainly been a long process with getting the money together...and it's taken three years, I think, for [construction] to be done but that fence, which is from 1850, more or less had never been addressed so it was in a state of disrepair.

"It's splendid to have the beautiful fence — now it matches the other side which was completed in 1985," she added, noting the fence is the oldest cast-iron fence in a Manhattan public park.

Once the final fence links are installed, all that will be left to do is activate the park's fountains, said Simon — and once those are spouting water, the department will celebrate the complete restoration with a ribbon-cutting, tentatively slated for June, he said.