Katrina Trask Gateway in Saratoga Springs to be restored

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

The Katrina Track Gateway at Congress Park in Saratoga Springs will be restored.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The nearly 100-year-old Katrina Trask Gateway at the south end of Congress Park is expected to close within the next few weeks for restoration work.

The historic gateway’s steps will be restored, granite will be cleaned and repaired, and the iron gate, which is being stored in the Canfield Casino, will also be repaired, according to Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco.

“People use them to get from Circular Street down into the park to get onto Broadway, so they get a lot of traffic,” he said. “Many of the steps are uneven and it’s become a safety issue.”

Scirocco said the restoration project was initially going to be done in two phases because only $150,000 was set aside for the project.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the council approved a budget amendment for the total project cost of $471,000. A sum of $321,000 will be bonded.

“We decided to do one complete project because we wanted it to be done this year and the contractor will have to hold the price for the second phase,” he said. “It’s more cost effective for the city.”

Katrina Trask and her husband, Spencer, are the founders of Yaddo, the 400-acre estate that functions as an artists’ community off Route 9P.

The Katrina Trask Gateway was completed in November 1922, according to a city document from 1985 titled, “A Conservation Report for the Katrina Trask Stairway.”

The Spirit of Life statue in Congress Park, which was dedicated in June 1915, was built to commemorate Spencer Trask.

“Originally, there were wood stairs on the site, which were heavily used to bring pedestrians from the luxury hotels along south Broadway into [Congress Park] for events such as Sunday afternoon concerts,” the document read.

“But in 1922, in an act of civic generosity, the household and estate of the late Katrina Trask commissioned the New York City architects Ludlow and Peabody to design a memorial to the ‘Lady of Yaddo.'”

The City Council awarded the project bid to Ganem Contracting Corp. of Round Lake.

“Ganem has done the restoration of the front steps at [Canfield Casino] in the park, so they’re reputable,” Scirocco said. “They’re good at historic preservation.”

President Peter Ganem said the company previously worked on a small restoration project of the Katrina Trask Gateway in 1985.

“We’re very familiar with the stairway and we’ve done a lot of work in the city,” he said, citing the granite staircase in front of City Hall and the restoration of the Spit and Spat statues in Congress Park.

Ganem said when working on a historic landmark it’s crucial to make the restoration work look seamless.

“You have to blend the new with the old, so the new work doesn’t stand out,” he said. “You have to match colors and blend materials, so the building looks like it’s always looked.”

Ganem said work to the Katrina Trask Gateway is expected to start in August and should take approximately three months.

“The city is very good about historic projects and the city’s engineering department is very knowledgeable about restoration and historic preservation,” he said. “We’re very happy to work with the city again.”