Prospect Park’s Bartel-Pritchard Square War Memorial is standing again, just days after an out-of-control driver crashed into the monument and knocked it over, according to the city’s Parks Department.
“Parks are for everyone and anytime there is damage, our dedicated staff are eager to get it repaired as soon as possible,” said Martin Maher, the NYC Parks Brooklyn Borough Commissioner. “This square and monument in particular are special because they tie us to the past and the sacrifices of others to preserve the freedoms we enjoy, and as a veteran myself, I felt a strong responsibility to restore the honor of this memorial.”
Parks employees righted the 57-year-old granite memorial on Tuesday afternoon, a Parks representative told Brooklyn Paper, and repaired damaged pavement, replaced a shattered electric box cover, and removed and replaced a bench that was damaged in the crash. A crew cleaned up additional wreckage on Monday.
A driver smashed into the monument early on Sunday morning, knocking it over and destroying a bench in the process. The eight-foot-tall slab sits in a small, grassy area at the center of a traffic circle at the southwest corner of the park, at Prospect Park West and Prospect Park Southwest.
“Thank you Marty Maher (Brooklyn Parks Commissioner) and the whole NYC Parks team for quickly fixing the Bartel-Pritchard war memorial that was knocked down and damaged earlier this week,” said Assemblymember Robert Carroll said in a tweet, attaching a photograph of the newly-repaired memorial surrounded by metal barriers and yellow caution tape.
The Parks Department’s Monuments crew will buff and clean the memorial later this week, when the weather permits.
Named for young Brooklynites Emil Bartel and William Pritchard, who enlisted in Brooklyn’s National Guard and were both killed in combat during World War I, the memorial was dedicated to all local veterans who served their community. The memorial was donated by a local branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1965.
