Restore! Don’t Demolish The Park’s Historic Track House and Tennis Center Comfort Station
New date due to rain: Sunday November 14 at 2:00 PM
Where: East River Park, in front of (north side) of the Brian Watkins Tennis Center Comfort Station
East River’s Historic Track House and Tennis Center Comfort Station are in danger of being demolished as part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project.
Join the Historic Districts Council and its partners at a rally, organized by the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative to demand that the Historic Track House is restored instead of demolished.
The Art Deco / WPA Moderne Track House and Tennis Center Comfort Station were designed by Aymar Embury II, lead architect for Robert Moses in the 1930s, and built in 1938 during the construction of the park. The buildings’ original materials – limestone cladding, polychromatic terra cotta ornament, and slate tile roofs, – remain very much intact. Much of the terracotta ornamentation, including stylized fish, vegetation and water, recall the area’s shipbuilding and maritime heritage. The buildings are very fine examples of this period and style, not commonly found on the Lower East Side.
View of Track House, ca. 1939. NYC Parks Dep. Archives
View of the Tennis Center Comfort Station, ca. 1939. NYC Parks Dept. Archives
According to the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, based on a preliminary inspection by a team of architects and engineers, we believe that saving one or both of the buildings would likely not significantly impact the ESCR project’s scheduling or budget.
For more information, contact the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative at: [email protected]
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- Proposed restoration of the Track House
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- Proposed restoration of the Tenis Comfort Station