QUEENS — Water and mud-damaged murals featuring the Ramones and tennis stars who once played in the neighborhood have regained most of their colors after a group recently worked on their restoration, according to the Forest Hills Stadium, which is behind the rehabilitation efforts.
“Our team went out and hand washed the murals with soap, water and sponges,” said Forest Hills Stadium promoter Mike Luba.
The murals, located on the walls under the Long Island Rail Road overpass on 71st Avenue, were painted last summer as part of an initiative spearheaded by the stadium and concert organizers who worked on the project with 501 See Streets, a nonprofit dedicated to beautifying neighborhoods through art, and state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi.
But only several months later, the murals became caked with dirt and water from the train tracks above, prompting concert organizers to send a team to clean them up.
The Ramones mural has recently been cleaned up. (DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska)
“The Ramones mural looks much better,” Luba said.
The tennis mural across the street, which pays tribute to tennis legends Althea Gibson, John McEnroe, Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King, requires additional cleaning and Luba said his team is planning to work on it again next week.
The challenge, Luba said, is “the lack of a proper water source [which] makes that side trickier."
The mural portraying tennis stars requires additional cleaning. (DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska)
While cleaning the Ramones mural, the team had access to an outside water spigot at the nearby Station House gastropub.
“We haven’t found a similar spigot on the other side,” Luba said.
Luba said the group is currently working on a plan to protect the murals from future damage.
At the same time, the MTA is also planning to fix waterproofing issues on the bridge abutments, discovered during a recent inspection. The work has been scheduled for August next year, the agency said last month.
