Colonial-Era Wall Turns Up in Battery

By Barry Owens


A sea wall? A fort foundation? There is sure to be debate over what function, exactly, the stone wall recently discovered beneath Battery Park once served. Conservationists plan to soon haul the stones to the surface and store them in nearby Castle Clinton for closer examination. It is hoped that by next January the wall will be on display above ground, perhaps with a fuller explanation, and the subway project responsible for it being unearthed will be complete

Still, no matter how intently the experts study the stones, they are not likely to find the names of the men who put them there. But let history record that construction workers Jeff Sottile and Matt App are two of the men who will have a hand in building the next wall beneath the Battery.

During their lunch hour on Dec. 8, the pair-who will install the rebar for the reinforced concrete walls of a new subway tunnel to the South Ferry station-could be found near State Street, cracking wise between drags on their Marlboro Lights and wondering aloud what all the fuss was about.

"Where's Mayor Bloomberg?" asked Sottile, 27, taking notice of the growing crowd of city officials who wore shiny white hard hats and black dress coats.

"Yeah," said App, 29. "You would think at least Giuliani would be here."

The two men thought about it for a while as news crews fidgeted nearby with the placement of microphones on a wooden podium and television camera operators set up their shots. A gloveless radio reporter clutched his microphone and stamped his feet against the cold. They were all waiting for the city's Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe, to talk about the stone wall found 10 feet below ground, which archaeologists estimate could date to the 1600s.

"You know who really needs to be here?" App finally said. "Joe Torre."


The mayor, former mayor, and current New York Yankee's manager did not attend the press conference. All the same, it was pronounced an important moment in the city's history. The wall had remained covered and out of sight since being unearthed in November by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority construction crew, and this event offered the press, and thereby the public, its first glimpse of the stones.

"This is the most important architectural find in a New York City park in many, many years," Benepe said. "We are standing at the birthplace of the city." In addition to the wall, experts found pieces of pottery, a 1744 half penny and a silver coin dated 1755.

The stones could be the foundations of an old fort, perhaps Fort George, or a former gun battery or sea wall, Benepe said. In any case, the artifacts provide a rare peek into the Battery's history dating as far back as the city's earliest Dutch settlers.

Bill Rubin, chairman of the Battery Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that operates and maintains the park, said the discovery was the city's "equivalent of finding the Dead Sea scrolls."

Robert Tierney, chairman of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, was similarly awestruck.

 

"Just when you think that you've discovered everything in this city, you discover something like this," he said.

Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA's capital construction group, said that crews using a backhoe unearthed 46 feet of the wall. He said it was not seriously damaged, though it would be hard to tell, as the wall looks more like a collection of stones than like a single structure.

Benepe noted that because of the discovery's importance, the South Ferry subway project may be delayed, if necessary.

"If it means a delay, we're okay with that," he said.

The same could not be said for App and Sottile. The two construction workers, who live upstate and take the train 60 miles to the city each day, considered the consequences for their paychecks.

"I didn't know this was the birthplace of the city," said Sottile. "We're more concerned about whether we're going to get laid off."

"The more they dig, the more they're going to find," App said. "And then there will be layoffs."

"Here's what else I know," he added. "They built walls back then, but we build them better. Someday, someone is going to find our walls."

And with that, the two men put their hard hats back on and followed photographers to the mouth of the pit for a closer look.