After three and a half years of being restored off-site, the landmarked Harlem Fire Watchtower is finally set to return to Marcus Garvey Park.
Disassembled piece by piece in 2015, the cast-iron structure that stood atop the park since the mid-19th Century will be reinstalled by January 2019, according to the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance.
Although an official construction sign near the site had shown an anticipated completion date of Summer 2018, the scaffolding that will help workers reassemble the historic watchtower has only recently finished going up.
Totaling $6 million, the renovation will bring back the only surviving example of post-and-lintel cast-iron architecture. The tower was designed by Julius B. Kroehl in 1857 and used by volunteers to spot fires in pre-telegraph New York.
