Committee seeks landmark status for Sunset Park homes
Thirty years ago, Sunset Park Restoration, a group of preservationists, successfully got the community recognized by the federal government as an historic district. Technically, the designation from the National Register of Historic Places covered 3,237 buildings in the neighborhood, mostly row houses and brownstones built between 1890 and 1910, making Sunset Park the largest such historic district in New York State.
But now, the Sunset Park Landmarks Committee, a group that has taken the baton from Sunset Park Restoration founders Bob and Alice Walsh, is seeking city landmark status for several clusters of private homes and members said they have a great deal of support within the community for their effort.
Sunset Park currently has several landmarked structures, including the gate house of Greenwood Cemetery, the former Weir-McGovern greenhouse at the cemetery, the old 68th Precinct building, the Sunset Park Recreation/Play Center (located near the public pool) and a firehouse on 39th Street. The recreation center and pool, which were built as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Roosevelt Administration, are perhaps the best known landmarks in Sunset Park. According to the Parks Department’s website, they opened in 1936.
The new effort by the landmarks committee centers on getting landmark status for private homes.