Photo: Frank da Cruz, 23 July 2015.
Grant's Tomb in Manhattan's Riverside Park on Riverside Drive
and 122nd Street was renovated in a WPA project 1935-1939[1].
References:
- WPA
in New York City: The Record for 1938, Works Progress Administration,
New York (1938): "Manhattan Parks: Grant's Tomb — The plot has been
made more symmetrical and a more impressive approach from the south has been
provided. Features of it are a granite-block promenade flanked by a wide
hedge, trees and benches, with ivy-covered plots. The ground on which the
tomb stands has been terraced and provided with a granite-faced wall.
Thermostatically-controlled heating units with blowers have been installed
within the tomb to overcome the damage heretofore suffered from condensation
of moisture."
- Kahn, David M., Curator, Manhattan Cities, General
Grant National Memorial: Historical Resource Study, National Park
Service, January 1980, p.173: "[An] earlier plan to enlarge the plaza
surrounding the tomb and to relandscape the area was adopted in most of its
details by landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke, and architect Aymar
Embury ... and became the centerpiece of the exterior rehabilitation ...
[S]ome interesting features were added to the plan. The parkland was
increased by ten feet to both the east and west at the expense of the two
brances of Riverside Drive ... A ... contract was signed ... to supply the
necessary granite for the stairs and retaining walls
[and money] was supplied for new trees, shrubs and sod for the area, and a
new fence was erected around the memorial tree area to the north of the
tomb. All of the labor was supplied by the W.P.A. Floodlights may also
have been installed on the upper part of the tomb."