The Town of Rye has applied for $100,000 in state funding as it prepares to renovate the interior of the Rye Town Park tower building, a vacant Oakland Beach landmark built in 1910.
The Rye Town Park Commission, which manages the 28-acre park and beach, submitted an application for a grant from the Empire State Development Strategic Planning and Feasibility Studies Program. The money would be used to engage the public in what Town Administrator Debbie Reisner describes as “conceptualizing the future function of the tower building.”
That question remains open following a recent round of major renovations at Rye Town Park and Oakland Beach. The exterior of the tower building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was repaired with private money from the Friends of Rye Town Park.
State grants obtained by the Town of Rye paid for a new set of outdoor showers and the renovation of a bathhouse building, which now boasts clean, modern bathrooms. The beach offices, where residents obtain annual beach permits, have been moved there from the tower.
Still left to address, however, is the dilapidated interior of the tower building, where the park commission once held meetings. The state money, if granted, would enable an “intermunicipal master planning effort focused on the iconic Tower building.” It will include a series of community focus group discussions with unspecified “stakeholders.”
The application does not contemplate commercial use such as restaurants or a hotel, but rather “reuse of the building for environmental education, arts and other community purposes.”
That assumption is shared by Diana Page, who heads Friends of Rye Town Park, which raised $500,000 for the re-stuccoing of the tower exterior and landscaping upgrades in the park.
“Rye Town Park is, at its core, a park for passive recreation,” Page said. “The Friends would like to see the Tower Building used as a community center, with programming that feels consistent with the character of the park — a place for people to gather, connect, and enjoy being there.”
That community center would feature “educational workshops, fitness and wellness classes, youth programs, arts and crafts, and community meetings,” Page said. “It could also provide a space for nonprofit organizations and neighborhood clubs to meet. Its location right on the Long Island Sound makes it an ideal spot for a ‘coastal classroom’ for marine education.”
Nothing would preclude the park commission from seeking requests for other types of proposals, however, including commercial uses.
“Conceptualizing the future function for the tower building is exactly what this feasibility study is intended to help us do,” Reisner said. “We will share ideas, and create a shared framework for stewardship, heritage interpretation, and future intermunicipal action.”
She said the state decision on the grant application is expected by late November.
