$62M Pledged To UWS Monument Upgrade In Preliminary 2024 Budget

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — It finally looks as if help is on the way to one of the Upper West Side's largest monuments.

Mayor Eric Adams announced this week in the city's preliminary budget for 2024 that $62.3 million will go toward reconstructing and upgrading Riverside Park's Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at West 89th Street.

"And on the west side of Manhattan, we are renovating the historic Riverside Park Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and Plaza," Adams said Thursday doing a news release for the $1 billion-plus budget. "New Yorkers who use the park have long been calling for its restoration."

The Upper West Side monument has been closed since 2017, after inspectors found drainage issues that that threatened to collapse its retaining walls. The closure has come along with a metal fence around the monument that means nobody has been able to touch or get close to the structure closely in years.

The calls for the monument restoration and reopening have been led by UWS Council Member Gale Brewer.

"It’s one of the City’s most beautiful landmarks—and in desperate need of renovation," Brewer wrote in a petition pushing the city to restore the monument published last Memorial Day. "Our veterans, our residents, and the City deserve better. Let us show respect for the soldiers and sailors it honors, and for all of us who enjoy Riverside Park."

Brewer previously estimated the repair cost of the Civil War monument would cost around $54 million, a close guess to the $62.3 million amount released this week.

At the time, the city pointed Patch to the $500 million it pledged to future Riverside Park repairs, but never specified what amount would go to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.

That wasn't answered until Thursday's release of the upcoming preliminary budget.

"We are incredibly grateful to the Mayor and the entire City leadership for recognizing the great significance of this monument — and for committing to save it," Riverside Park Conservancy said in a news release on Friday. "Special thanks to Council Member Gale Brewer, who has been a longtime champion for this unique piece of our city’s past, present and future."

The monument was completed in 1902 and was made a New York City landmark in 1976. It was later made a New York state landmark in 2001.

The monument was originally set to be built at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue and then at 83rd Street and Riverside Drive before its final site was chosen.

President Theodore Roosevelt laid the first stone during a ceremony in 1900 for the beginning of construction.

Its last comprehensive restoration was done in 1962.

The budget is generally voted on and approved shortly before the deadline to do so in June.