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Local Author Leads Pictorial Tour Of Playland |
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Posted by Westchester.com
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Saturday, 19 July 2008 |
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 White Plains, NY - Kathryn Burke, author of Images of America – Playland, provided an overview of her recently published history of Rye Playland Amusement Park at a recent Board of Legislator's Government Operations (GO) Committee meeting.
Ms. Burke gave legislators, county officials and members of the public in attendance a pictorial tour of Playland, the country’s only publicly owned amusement park and a registered national historic site. The author said she was able to do much of her research at the Westchester County Archives in Elmsford which has cataloged and preserved decades-old photographs, letters and illustrations.
The GO Committee has oversight responsibility for the county’s parks and toured Playland this past spring when the committee was reviewing a $8.8 million proposal to restore the1928 Spanish Revival Style Bathhouse Building at the waterfront park. The legislature ultimately approved the funding on May 19, coincidentally, the same day that Arcadia Publishing put Images of America – Playland on sale.
GO Committee Chair Ken Jenkins thanked Ms. Burke for her effort to ensure that future generations continue to know of Playland’s historic role in the county’s history.
”After touring Playland before we took a vote on the funding for the restoration of the Bathhouse, it became clear that the Bathhouse restoration was not just about a building, it was about an important part of our county’s history. Ms. Burke’s book provides the historical context for the Board’s decision to invest in preserving such an important part of our local heritage,” Jenkins said.
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