Rye Town Park’s signature tower building will be getting a facelift this month, thanks to the Friends of Rye Town Park.
The Friends group plans to power wash, repair, repaint, re-stucco, and refinish the exterior of the building, “so that it will look new,” said Diana Page, president of the nonprofit Friends.
The group also plans to rebuild the tower left wall that runs from the tower building to Dearborn Avenue and restore two other brick walls.
The Friends group was founded in 1991 with a focus on beautification and landscaping, but now has decided to add to its mission. The group was inspired by its success last year, when it devoted $80,000 of its privately raised funds to repairs.
“Our work last year on the tower building and the plaza in front of it really opened our eyes to what’s possible,” said Page, a former Lehman Brothers executive who moved to Rye with her family in 2015. “But we realized that as beautiful as we made those things, there was still this decrepit, rundown tower building standing over all of it. We realized that if something is going to change, it has to start with us.
“We have learned that a facelift matters. For so long, the tower building and walls have stood crumbling. In its deteriorated condition it is a blight on the landscape — and it doesn’t have to be.”
As the need for repairs for the buildings in Rye Town Park has mounted, the Rye Town Park Commission has increasingly sought state grants to do the work. But the grant money has not kept pace with the need — including $537,000 for a new bath house retaining wall to replace the crumbling one next to the beach showers; $854,500 to renovate the interior of the park’s bath house, where beachgoers can change into swimsuits, and $454,000 for new promenade sidewalks to replace current sand surfaces that are unsafe for some users.
None of those proposals addresses the many millions that would be needed to renovate the park’s towering administration building — its signature structure, which dates to 1909 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Repairs to the tower building have long been stymied by the lack of a clear mission for the building’s dilapidated and dirty interior, where the Rye Town Park Commission once held meetings. The commission, the park’s governing body, includes representatives from the city and town of Rye, and the villages of Port Chester and Rye Brook. The Friends have decided that, even absent such plans, it’s important to renovate the tower exterior, which catches the eye of any visitor. The group hopes to raise $350,000 for that work and other projects.
Page is quick to credit town park manager Russell Gold for being and “excellent” the management of the park. She also credits the nonprofit’s donors for the significant upgrades, notwithstanding budget constraints, of recent years — including not just eye-catching gardens and landscapes, but newly completed pavilion roofs. But she feels strongly that the park should be a higher priority for the city of Rye, which is responsible for 40 percent of the park budget, and for Rye residents, many of whom have the means to provide financial support for the Friends.
“We could spend $10 million on the park tomorrow and still not realize all of its potential,” she said.
The Friends group has a vision for the park.
“We could reimagine the tower building as a vibrant, thriving community center by the sea, and invest in a thoughtful redesign that marries its historical beauty with modern improvements,” Page said. “Imagine the opportunities for partnering with cherished local organizations like the Y, the library, the Rye Arts Center, the Rye Nature Center, and organizations from our neighboring communities. We could transform the [tower building] interior into a well-designed, clean, welcoming space.”
Correction: The version of this story in print contained incorrect details about the tower building and funding.
