A tiny obscure team of parks workers is responsible for the upkeep of hundreds of New York City\u2019s most famous landmarks \u2014 and it\u2019s racing the clock these days.<\/p>\n
The crew of six \u2014 solely responsible for the cleaning, repair and conservation of hundreds of historic monuments as part of the city\u2019s small but mighty Monuments Conservation Program \u2014 is trying to finish up its necessary outdoor work before Old Man Winter blows in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work to do,\u201d public-art conservator and leader John Saunders told The Post.<\/p>\n
Most bronze statues, including Grand Army Plaza\u2019s Bailey Fountain, are cleaned each year and recoated with a wax application to protect them from corrosion. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n
The Parks Department workers are tasked with regularly cleaning more than 800 monuments, which are regularly damaged from the elements, pigeons, car exhaust and vandals, Saunders said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just bronze or statuary \u2013 the collection includes things like the Unisphere, the Washington Square Arch and modern pieces,\u201d he said, as a three-person crew recently descended on Grand Army Plaza\u2019s Bailey Fountain with blowtorches.<\/p>\n
The fountain is one of more than 250 sculptures the units tends to.<\/p>\n
John Saunders oversees an obscure city conservation team of just six people who provide the cleaning, repair and preservation of hundreds of New York\u2019s historic monuments. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n
Most local bronze statues, including the fountain, are cleaned annually and recoated with a wax application to protect from acid rain or car-exhaust corrosion, the 19-year Parks veteran explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe finish they\u2019re putting on now helps protect and stabilize it,\u201d Saunders said of the Ancient Greek-inspired fountain.<\/p>\n
The Bailey Fountain re-waxing comes after crews raced to replace loose stones supporting its large statues in October, when workers discovered stones \u201cso undercut\u201d that the workers thought the century-old piece could come tumbling down.<\/p>\n
One of this year\u2019s projects included a cleanup of the Continental Army Plaza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The group has kept a monthly calendar of its site visits since the program\u2019s launch in the 1990s, with work typically performed in the same month when an event anniversary, birthday or holiday is celebrated, said\u00a0Jonathan Kuhn, director of NYC Parks\u2019 arts and antiquities.<\/p>\n
For example, many of the city\u2019s 275 war memorials were spruced up ahead of Veterans Day ceremonies this month, he said. <\/p>\n
The team also plans ahead to ensure that sites that share anniversaries, such as the Flight 587 Memorial in Belle Harbor, Queens, and Chinatown\u2019s Dr. Sun Yat-sen Monument in Manhattan \u2014 occurances that are both remembered Nov. 12 \u2014 are each particularly cared for leading up to related events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to avoid cycles of neglect and revival. \u2026 We want to solve small problems before they become big problems, like water getting in and causing stones to fall apart,\u201d Kuhn said.<\/p>\n
The restored Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza is among the crew\u2019s responsibilities. PAUL MARTINKA cell 718.810.5185<\/p>\n
The group, which does most of its own research, keeps swaths of matching paints and stone pieces on hand for when a monument needs a face lift, he said. <\/p>\n
Each routine cleaning takes a few hours, but in some cases, crews can spend up to a month at a site.<\/p>\n
Aside from a baseline $750,000 maintenance budget, the crew taps dedicated endowment funds for many individual monuments \u2013 and Saunders argues that the crew actually saves taxpayer dollars with annual preventative work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe save the city money,\u201d he said, as routine repairs stave off \u201cemergencies\u201d or lengthy, expensive capital projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep things looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some restorative projects are annual, while others can take several years. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n
Major revamps this year included the restoration of` the 1970s Bronx art installation Puerto Rican Sun \u2014 which was left in such disrepair that the work closed in 2024 after a piece of it broke off and fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
The original artist, Rafael Ferrer, signed off on all the paints the crew meticulously used, based on the artist\u2019s instructions, Saunders said.<\/p>\n
Other notable overhauls were a \u201chead-to-toe\u201d cleanup of Bronx\u2019s Victory Memorial Park thanks to $85,000 in donated services, and the Kimlau Memorial Arch in Chinatown, which is undergoing repairs after years of cracking columns, Kuhn said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep things looking good,\u201d Saunders said. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n
The winter season provides ample time for the care of Parks\u2019 other \u201ccultural artifacts\u201d such as Dutch gravestones from the 1700s, cannons and even carousel figures, Saunders said.<\/p>\n
Smaller repair jobs on the roster this winter include a bent 1910s-era Parks plaque and a vandalized lions\u2019 head spout around town, both of which will be managed inside the department\u2019s repair shops.<\/p>\n
Some of the team\u2019s biggest repairs, such as the multi-year restoration of the Grand Army Plaza Arch, are too large or located in such remote locations that they can\u2019t be easily accessed every year \u2013 and require the help of several summer apprentices.<\/p>\n
In 2024, interns were lifted 10 stories in the air to polish the historic horses atop the 134-year-old Grand Army icon.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s interns helped to complete a full restoration of the George Washington at Valley Forge equestrian sculpture at Continental Army Plaza, as well as repaint portions of the massive modernist sculpture Shadows and Flags in the Financial District.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re out learning how to hot wax, [plus] stone masonry work, cleaning and repair work,\u201d Saunders said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take care of so many different things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tiny obscure team of parks workers is responsible for the upkeep of hundreds of New York City\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":400060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,472,5248,17572,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,5312,73151,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-400059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-history","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-monuments","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-city-life","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-parks","21":"tag-prospect-park","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115601489608470926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}