SPNA wants to thank volunteers from NYU Wagner School of Public Service for reaching out to gardening chairperson Doris Dieter to volunteer with staff in Stuyvesant Square on March 26.
They did a great job in assisting gardener Maria Mendez with mulching the garden beds.
We look forward to them returning to Stuyvesant to participate in other volunteer activities!
SPNA is delighted to report that the Greenacre Foundation has agreed to provide a second round of funding of $10,000, which will be used towards Phase 3 of our tree maintenance program. Above are images from Phase 2, which entailed pruning trees that cast a heavy shadow over flower beds, preventing the beds surrounding the fountains from receiving sufficient light and air for the plants to grow.
Phase 3 will focus on the West Park and is tentatively scheduled to take place this summer. The goals of this phase are to:
We want to thank Eric Anderson of Bartlett Tree Experts for his dedication and enthusiasm for this program.
Thank you also to SPNA board President Jason Money and board member Doris Dieter for making sure we met the deadlines in order to be considered for this funding.
SPNA is very grateful to the Greenacre Foundation for their recognition of the importance of this work and their continued support of our efforts.
SPNA’s Annual Gala will be in the evening of Friday, October 21 from 6:30-9:30pm at St. George’s Episcopal Chapel. More information will be shared in the coming months.
SPNA wants to thank all the volunteers who came out on It’s My Park Day to help clean litter from the garden beds in Stuyvesant Square and the surrounding streets. They did a great job in spite of the heat!
A big shoutout to Sokie Lee and Ken Gray, co-founders of NYC CLEAN Volunteers, who partnered with SPNA for this event. Their participation helped to make this event a success.
We also appreciate the support of Partnership for Parks and NYC Parks for their help in making this event happen twice every year.
And thanks to Trader Joe’s for providing the shopping bags that we used to collect the litter!
It takes the efforts of many to keep our city clean.
After about five years of construction, which were very hard on many members of the community, the final pieces of the Washington Irving High School project are complete. In addition to the construction, a tree that was destroyed in the process was replaced and the bust of Washington Irving* was uncovered and cleaned. The last bit of scaffolding surrounding the building was finally taken down.
Washington Irving High School, formerly called Wadleigh High School, is a significant institution in the history of women’s education in New York City, being the only school for girls in Manhattan when it was built in 1913. It was the brainchild of progressive educator William McAndrew, who believed that girls training for vocational or technical trades and those undertaking an academic curriculum should be educated together since they had much to teach each other. As a result, construction of the school was exceedingly difficult because of the extensive curriculum. Subjects taught included housekeeping, marketing, garment making, drawing, plain and fancy cooking, picture hanging, dancing, typewriting, bookbinding, and gardening, in addition to the usual high school subjects. The bust of Washington Irving was sculpted by Friedrich Beer and added in 1935, and the school continued to expand as attendance increased. Notable attendees include the artist Lee Krasner, singer Sylvia Robinson, and Academy Award-winning actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg.
Washington Irving High School became co-ed in 1986. Today, Irving’s bust features prominently on school IDs.
We were just notified by a member that the bust has been removed. We will endeavor to find out what happened and when it will be returned.
P.O. Box 1347