Eltingville, Staten Island
Conservancy Launches a $150,000 Campaign to Stabilize Historic Olmsted Farmhouse on Staten Island
We are now working with the Parks Department to save this nationally important site and are seeking to raise $150,000 for immediate priority repairs. The Olmsted Farmhouse dates in part to the late 1600’s and is an early city landmark. Park officials have asked the Conservancy to raise the private funds so that priority repairs can be undertaken in a timely fashion. We are basing our scope of work and budget on a January 2018 Conditions Assessment Report we commissioned from Jan Hird Pokorny Associates.
The house and site are rare and valuable resources for New York City. The Conservancy has formed a group of noted Parks and Civic leaders to demonstrate the importance of the site and the need for urgent repairs. They include: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Lynden B Miller, Gordon J Davis, Ric Burns, Kent Barwick, Bernadette Castro, Kenneth T Jackson, Tupper Thomas, Richard J Moylan, Charles Birnbaum, and Adrian Benepe.
The proposed work will reverse some the ongoing deterioration that the house has suffered in recent years and will help stabilize and preserve it until the Parks Department can fund a full restoration of the house and open it and the surrounding public park to the public. So far, the Parks Department has cleaned up the grounds and has begun to sort through and clean out the interior.
A Friends Group is also being formed on Staten Island to support restoration of the house and the City Park in which it sits.
