Hell's Kitchen's DeWitt Clinton Park Gets Long-Awaited Stair Fix

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Three once-dilapidated staircases at DeWitt Clinton Park in Hell's Kitchen have finally been repaired, the city announced Friday, restoring public access to passageways that had been closed for more than a decade.

The three staircases sit at the northwest corner, southwest corner and south mid-block entrance of the park, which spans from West 52nd to 54th streets between 11th Avenue and the West Side Highway.

Since as far back as 2009, however, the two corner staircases were off-limits, according to officials and Google Maps imagery. The closures deprived parkgoers of access to the far West Side, including the Hudson River waterfront.

The repairs were set in motion in 2016, when Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer allocated money toward repairs. Construction began in September 2020.

The new stairways are completely reconstructed, with reinforced concrete foundations, new bluestone treads, handrails, drainage and landscape improvements nearby.

All told, it cost $1.6 million, including $950,000 from Johnson's office, $500,000 from Brewer, and $124,000 from Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"It’s wonderful to have these staircases, which were closed for over a decade, finally reopened in Hell’s Kitchen’s largest city park," said Johnson, who attended a ribbon-cutting Friday to inaugurate the stairways. "With the reopening of these staircases, Dewitt Clinton Park will no longer be a dead-end for hundreds of park users, and will provide greater access to the waterfront and the many amenities this beloved park has to offer."

Others in attendance Friday included U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, Parks Commissioner Gabrielle Fialkoff, Community Board 4 chair Lowell Kern and State Sen. Brad Hoylman.

The park first opened in 1905, four years after the Parks Department acquired the site. Originally designed by landscape architect Samuel Parsons, Jr., it included a gymnasium, running track, a bathing pavilion, and curved paths leading to sweeping views of the Hudson River and the Palisades. A memorial depicting a "doughboy" World War I woldier was dedicated there in 1930 and restored in 1997.