Central Park Conservancy will be restoring two Revolutionary War-era hills in the northern part of the park that played a small, but critical role in the Battle for Independence. Washington's rebels spied on British troops from Nutter's Battery and Fort Clinton on the east side of the park near the Harlem Meer. The British later seized the high ground and erected fortifications there. Americans rebuilt them for the War of 1812.
The focal piece of the renovation project will be the restoration of an 18-century cannon, which was pulled off the English warship HMS Hussar after it sank in the treacherous East River in 1780. The cannon was donated to Central Park shortly after in 1865, but was not installed in Fort Clinton until the turn of the century. In 1980, the Parks Department stored it. The Conservancy has spent $200,000 over the course of the last ten years to restore it.
The Conservancy hopes these renovations will bring more visitors to the northern part of the park, and then wander south.
Read a related article on the cannon here.
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Photo Credit: NY Daily News