Upper West Side Firemen's Memorial To Be Restored: What To Know

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — In honor of the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Riverside Park Conservancy has secured the necessary funds for the NYC Parks Department to repair The Firemen's Memorial at West 100th Street at the edge of Riverside Park this fall.

The repairs are made possible with the support of an individual anonymous donor.

Each October, the Upper West Side memorial is the site of the Fire Department's annual event honoring firefighters who have died in the line of duty.

“On this meaningful anniversary of one of the darkest days in New York’s history, we are honored to bring renewed care to this important and beloved monument,” said Dan Garodnick, President & CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy, in a news release.

The Firemen's Memorial was built in 1913 and has received extensive repairs twice over the years, once in the 1930s and again in the 1990s. Even with the repairs, though, the 108-year-old monument needs more restoration work to preserve it for the future.

The memorial is a 19 foot long by eight-foot-wide sarcophagus erected on a granite plaza with a fountain and a bronze bas-relief tablet portraying three galloping horses pulling a fire engine.

An assessment in January 2021 found water and lime damage on the monument, along with cracking on the structure.

NYC Parks will remove the lime buildup, clean the entire monument, reseal the bronze panel, and repoint all the joints to reinforce the structure with the newly secured funding.

"We are proud to partner with Riverside Park Conservancy to ensure the structural integrity of the Firemen’s Memorial. Thanks to their critical support, our staff will have the tools needed to ensure the preservation of this impressive monument–one of the City's finest–which honors the heroic acts of New York City's firefighters," said Jonathan Kuhn, NYC Parks Director of Art & Antiquities, in a news release.

The restoration project will begin after the FDNY holds its 24th Annual Fallen Firefighters Memorial Ceremony at the monument on Wednesday, but the Conservancy did not specify the exact timeline.