Building
For a St. Vartan Park Conservancy volunteer project on November 22, 2022, employees from international insurance and advisory company WTW — above with the Conservancy’s Kevin O’Keefe (fourth from right) — scraped and repainted the park building's exterior railings, doors, plant-bed fences and other ironworks
In. 2024, following years of dormancy, the interior ground-level space of the St. Vartan Park building became offices for NYC Parks district operations.
Located on the east side of the park between the First Avenue public garden and the playground, the building also has two ground-level side-entrance restrooms and a below-ground floor the Conservancy shares with NYC Parks.
The north side of the park building interior in July 2022
Following inquires by Conservancy leadership about why the building’s main upstairs interior was not being used, NYC Parks in August 2022 removed building exterior signage that identified a group that had long been granted access to the building.
The park building’s westside kitchen and westside areas in July 2022
On September 6, 2022, NYC Parks publicly stated that it is in support of a transition of the building toward more public use. This would more be more in line with the city’s claim that, when the building was renovated in 1984, it was intended “as a program center for preschoolers, teens, and seniors.”
The park’s building’s central restroom and a storage area in July 2022
On September 22, 2022, in a public meeting of the Manhattan Community Board 6 Land Use & Waterfront Committee, St. Vartan Park Conservancy made a multimedia presentation about how the building can be utilized to better benefit the community.
As seen in July 2022, the front hallway of the building includes a plaque (inset) and the main room (background) sits to the north of entrances to (from left) storage space, a restroom, an office and a kitchen
Following the presentation, a senior NYC Parks officer reported to the committee about the building, “We don’t want it to just sit there vacant and not be an asset to the community. That’s something we’re focused on. Obviously, we want to work with the Conservancy.”
The front of the locked park building (background) during a community outdoor Earth Day event on April 30, 2022
Before the 2024 transformation, the building’s main space featured a central room, a kitchen — with a stove, a refrigerator and a sink — an office, a restroom, and storage and hallway areas.
The building’s locked north entrance (left) and garden-facing east side (right) appear on September 10, 2022
The two public restrooms are the only city-park public restrooms in the Midtown Manhattan area bordered by East 41st Street, East 25th Street, Fifth Avenue and the East River.
The back of the park building appears behind a gathering of elected officials (State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, State Assembly Members Alex Bores and Harvey Epstein, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and New York City Council Majority Leader Keith Powers) and St. Vartan Park Conservancy and St. Vartan Park Earth Day Celebration representatives on April 22 (Earth Day), 2023
Into the 1930s, when the park was known as St. Gabriel’s Park, a 176-yard running track separated the park building from the park’s westside playground. The park building was refurbished in 1936 and 1984.
The south side of the building (background), shown on September 17, 2022, has two public restrooms that constitute the only publicly accessible internal parts of the structure
Retrospection
Kevin O’Keefe, who founded the St. Vartan Park Conservancy in 2022, sits outside the St. Vartan Park building with his three children on August 26, 2012
“Mayor Koch swung into St. Vartan’s Park yesterday to open a rehabilitated playground . . . includes a play-school building that will house classes for preschoolers, teenagers and senior citizens.”
In front of the St. Vartan Park building, New York City Mayor Ed Koch (right) helps open the new St. Vartan Park playground area on November 7, 1984 | (New York) Daily News
“Elaine Launius of Staten Island has been driving a cab for 28 years . . . day in and day out, she says, the most annoying part of her job is the challenge of finding a restroom. ‘This is truly, truly a blessing,’ she said recently when she saw that the restroom in St. Vartan’s Park, near the Queens-Midtown Tunnel’s Manhattan entrance, was lit and open . . .”
The north and west sides of the park building (the closest building to the sidewalk tree in the background photograph) is captured from East 36th Street on August 1, 1939 | Photography courtesy of MTA Bridges and Tunnels
“The Department of Parks is carrying on an extensive campaign of comfort station renovation . . . Plans are in progress to renovate the comfort station . . . in the near future [at] St. Gabriels Park . . .”
The park building, shown here in 1939, stood next to a small walk-in shed in the park garden that served as an office and tool storage unit | Photograph courtesy of City of New York
“[New York City Department of Parks proposed] furnishing and erecting a comfort station to be located in St. Gabriel’s Park, 73 feet west of 1st avenue between 35th and 36th streets . . .”
“Plans are being drawn for a field house and comfort station for St. Gabriel’s Park, New York City, to cost $25,000.”
Shown on September 10, 1929, the park building (far middle right) was adjacent to a running track in the park | P.L. Sperr photograph courtesy of New York Public Library
“The building designed by Henry D. Whitfield, architect, furnishes a structure with shower baths, toilets, tool rooms and other requirements of an up-to-date park with playground features.”
