The landscape of Newburgh’s Downing Park is “threatened and at-risk” according to a national foundation.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation [TCLF], an education and advocacy organization based out of Washington, D.C., released a report titled Landslide which identified threatened and at-risk landscapes throughout the United States. The focus of this report was on lands associated with Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. which included Downing Park.

In the published report, various issues and concerns such as climate change, lack of funding and maintenance, parkland confiscation, natural disease and lack of recognition were identified and discussed for the varying sites across the United States.

Charles Birnbaum, President and CEO of TCLF, has been visiting Downing Park since 1990 and said he is concerned for the care and stewardship of the park. He referenced the pergola at the top of the park which is in need of repair and is covered in graffiti, the health and age of the foliage, the paved areas that need maintenance and the water quality in the Polly. In addition, Birnbaum would like to see the park included on the National Register of Historic Places as he has not seen the park listed. The hope is for the City of Newburgh to pursue that designation for the park.

According to the report, the 35 acre park named after Andrew Jackson Downing first opened on July 4, 1897 and was done pro bono. “This is the only landscape designed by two generations of Olmsteds and Vauxs,” said Birnbaum.

Pertaining to Downing Park, the report addresses the funding needs in order to maintain preservation of the land but also discusses the project known as the Colored Burial Ground. Designs to reinter the remains of many African Americans at Downing Park along the hillside at the top had been presented before the Newburgh City Council and were approved.

The Colored Burial Ground project is a project dedicated to the reinterment of African American remains that were uncovered during construction and remediation of the City of Newburgh Courthouse in 2008. The land that the city courthouse currently stands on was once an African American burial site that was built upon in 1908 with the construction of the building which served as the Broadway School. The uncovered human remains were transported and remained at the State University of New York [SUNY] at New Paltz and other locations, still preserved and awaiting reinterment.

“We’re in support of the idea of some kind of commemoration and reinterment of, you know, of this burial ground, but it should happen in harmony with the historic design intent in the park,” said Birnbaum. “What we were trying to do is really elevate both the history of the park but also to draw attention to the fact that it has very diminished maintenance.” Birnbaum shared the possibility and consideration of the pergola structure and framework near the site as an alternative for the memorial.

“I think that there is a national conversation going on right now about commemoration, about monuments and memorials. And I think that this park is fortuitously placed right now in this conversation, and can really set a standard for how we move forward in managing change in a historically significant landscape,” said Birnbaum.