Last night, the Common Council held a special meeting to consider a resolution supporting an application being submitted by Friends of the Public Square (FOPS) to NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for $500,000 in EPA funding for the restoration of Seventh Street Park.
Before the Council voted, Dorothy Heyl, representing FOPS, explained that last year FOPS had been awarded a $500,000 EPF grant to finance Phase 1 of the rejuvenation of the park--new paving, new seating, new signage, new lighting, new landscaping. This year's grant application is for replacing the fountain--Phase 2. Heyl went on to explain that they had been advised by Gail Wittwer-Laird, the landscape architect from Starr Whitehouse who is working with FOPS on the project, that it would be better to bid the project all at one time rather than in two phases. The second grant would enable them to do that.
Heyl said the plan was not to restore the original Venus fountain, installed in the Public Square in 1883, but to create a new fountain, whose base would be in the same mold as the original fountain and which would be as tall as the original fountain. She said the fountain surround would be granite, the base would be brass, but she gave no indication of what the actual fountain would look like, except to say, "We are of a mind that we don't need a naked female figure in the middle of that park."
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| Photo courtesy CCHS, Evelyn & Robert Monthie Slide Collection |
If FOPS is awarded the second $500,000 grant, the plan is to do the entire renovation of the park in 2025.
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Once again Hudson entities are good at receiving grants but not so good at actually spending them
ReplyDeleteHeaven forbid that we feature a naked female figure. I imagine the residents of Rome, Florence, Paris and other cosmopolitan cities would find this amusing.
ReplyDeleteWho gets to decide what the fountain will look like? Dorothy? Or will they hold a public input meeting that no one shows up to? I think it's dumb to hand over the future of the park to FOPS. What if it's a flops?
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed that the old, original statue and base will not be restored. Why not keep the fountain historic and fix what was there - it was a beautiful fountain and it would be the centerpiece of the Square and maintain the historic value of the City. The statue itself for years, (with a broken arm) sat on the 7th St side of the Square and I believe is stored somewhere by the DPW. Vince Mulford used to keep track of it in the hope it would be restored. As the owner of one of the most beautiful stores on Warren St it would be a nice touch to his memory/legacy.
ReplyDeleteI agree it would be wonderful to have the original fountain back, but achieving that would be a matter of re-creation not restoration. The pedestal of the original fountain is gone forever, reportedly bashed to smithereens with sledgehammers at Gold's Scrapyard back in the 1970s. Venus, too, would have to be re-created. Granted she survives, stored in the DPW garage on Second Street just beyond the dog park, but the two attempts to repair her, after first being smashed apart by vandals and then hit by a car back when she stood at the northwest corner of the park, left the zinc statue filled with cement and epoxy. The very stuff that is keeping her together would have to be removed to make it a working fountain again.
DeleteI do hope there will be public input into the design for the new fountain. Being assured that it will be the same height as the original fountain isn't enough for me.
I’m convinced: replace Venus with a statute of Vince Mulford.
DeleteKeep it simple to minimize the vandalism.
ReplyDeleteOk, if we can't have a naked woman. Then how about a naked man. We the large percentage of gay men and straight women that live and visit Hudson it would be appreciated by many.
ReplyDelete"We are of a mind that we don't need a naked female figure in the middle of that park."
ReplyDeleteThat's some JD Vance level weirdness.
n 1989, I worked for the CEO of Credit Lyonnais (now Credit Agricole), one of the largest banks in the world at the time based in Paris, and they were moving their Americas headquarters to midtown NYC at 1301 Avenue of the Americas. The French CEO wanted two Venus-like statues in front of the new building. There was incredible controversy which I had to help handle. Now, almost everyone loves them and they attract positive attention. They are timeless, universal, artistic and attract world-class visitors. No one balks now! A great case study for the planners.
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