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Collect Pond Park rebuilding continues through late 2012
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The acre-sized Collect Pond Park reconstruction is proceeding in the Civic Center area north of City Hall, with the Department of Parks and Recreation now at work on an improved drainage system, new pavement, and water-feature foundations. Reconstruction of pigmented-concrete areas on the Leonard Street side of the park already are completed, and crews are now working on the Centre Street side. Parks Department crews also are installing underground utilities that will better irrigate and drain the former paved lot.
The park is slated for completion this fall, when it will reopen as a garden-like respite at the center of the courthouse district. New lighting, tables, benches, bike racks, ornamental grasses, shallow ponds, and an interactive ground-spray water feature will add another welcoming, green amenity to the increasingly residential neighborhood.
Crews began work at Collect Pond Park last summer, but upon excavation discovered portions of an old foundation walls footings. Archaeologists determined the wall was part of the second Halls of Justice, also called the "Tombs," which stood at the site from 1902 to 1941. Working with the city Landmarks Preservation Commission and the State Historic Preservation Office, it was determined that the footings would remain in place, while park construction would proceed around them.
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| Footings from the old Tombs building were unearthed at Collect Pond Park |
Collect Pond was once an integral part of Lower Manhattan's fresh water supply, until it became contaminated and drained in the early 19th century. The Park also is at the heart of what was once called the Five Points -- one of New Yorks most infamous and dangerous neighborhoods through most of the 1800s.
Read more about Collect Pond Park's history here.
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