NYC Parks Department
COURT SQUARE — Two bronze medals stolen from a Long Island City Spanish-American War Memorial were replaced recently thanks to funding from the local historical society.
The Parks Department installed new bronze crosses Friday on the stone monument in Rafferty Triangle, located at the intersection of Hunter Street and 44th Drive, according to the Newtown Historical Society, which paid for the replacements.
The group’s president, Christina Wilkinson, became aware of the missing medals in October, though it’s unclear how long they’ve been gone — they don’t appear in photos of the monument dating back decades, she said.
“When I found out I said, well, it’s an important thing to have it restored,” Wilkinson said. “It was something that was historical, and it honored a historical figure.”
The park and monument are named after Captain Malcolm A. Rafferty, a Long Island City resident who fought in the Spanish-American War in the Battle of San Juan Hill, according to the Newtown Historical Society.
The small park, Rafferty Triangle, was dedicated in his name in 1932, and the monument there was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1937, the historical society said in a statement.
Wilkinson said the Parks Department found two bronze medals to replace those missing from the stone memorial — one in the front and another in the back — which the Newtown Historical Society paid for at the cost of about $100 each.
This is the second restoration project the group has spearheaded recently, Wilkinson said. They are currently in the process of repainting the lettering on a series of arches at Ridgewood Plateau in Maspeth.
