The Fraunces Tavern Museum in Lower Manhattan.
Photo Karl Loeffler, via Flickr.

A Lower Manhattan history museum and a Harlem church are among the beneficiaries of $6.2 million set aside by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for 16 historic sites damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“Many of New York’s historic properties endured the devastating effects of Superstorm Sandy and as a result, have fallen into a state of disrepair,” Governor Cuomo said in a statement. The grantees, he said, “will better withstand the threat of future storms and continue to serve as economic and educational assets in their communities.”

The Fraunces Tavern Museum, a landmarked building on Pearl Street from 1719, will get $587,550 to upgrade its saltwater corroded electrical system. Historical figures such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams used the tavern as a meeting place. Among its exhibitions are a show devoted to painter John Ward Dunsmore (1856-1945) and one of late 18th-century portraits of Washington.

Stained glass windows from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Harlem.
Photo courtesy New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

Founded in 1829, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Harlem features a stained glass window titled Jesus Feeding the 5,000 that was badly damaged from Sandy’s high winds. A grant of $41,850 will support restoration of the original appearance of the window, consisting of thousands of hand-painted pieces.

The largest grant, $1.3 million, will go to Brooklyn’s Evergreens Cemetery for landscape restoration, which involves removal of debris from toppled trees and the repair of monuments and gravestones that were crushed by falling trees.

Among the other recipients are Old Westbury Gardens, a “Gold Coast” country estate on Long Island, and Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, which is the resting place of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

This is the second round of funding Cuomo has made to historically significant properties damaged by Sandy, following $5 million announced in 2014.