Riverside Files: Part Two

In the old TV crime show, Dragnet, Sergeant Joe Friday made the line “All we want are the facts” famous.

Here are the facts of the case for your consideration.

The land making up Riverside Park was acquired as several separate parcels over time and much of it was lost the same way.

The waterfront portion of the property east of the railroad tracks was transferred to the state for use as ferry or steamship terminal. A special state act was approved in 1963 that conveyed the land back to the city, since the ferry terminal was never constructed. A portion of Riverside was also used for the extension of Stanners Street that runs along the upper perimeter of the park. (1)

The decision to relocate the from to its present location was made in 1929 with the city of New London donating the original land. (1)

It didn't take long, however, before the academy began to look to Riverside Park for additional land.

At the request of the academy, in 1949, the city again donated land, this time a small portion of Riverside Park where the chapel and officers’ quarters are now located and, in 1961, the Coast Guard Academy took approximately another 12 acres of Riverside Park by eminent domain. (2)

In an article in October 4, 1963 edition of The Hartford Courant, it was reported that the General Accounting Office had filed a report questioning the $16 million expansion program of the Coast Guard Academy. The GAO report said that the Coast Guard had not developed a long range plan to justify the cost and could further reduce the cost "...if the academy took more than 12 acres from Riverside Park, a New London municipal recreation area adjoining the academy grounds...The GAO report notes the academy superintendent said relationships with the city of New London would have to be considered in any further taking of land from Riverside Park which he described as the last usable riverside recreation area the city has.”

The Hartford Courant reported in an article, dated April 23, 1969, "[then mayor] Griffin said there has to be a 'limit' imposed on the amount of property the expanding Coast Guard is picking up…‘I think that in the future, the Coast Guard should be compelled to go to eminent domain when it wants more property'.…He said also that if the Coast Guard…moves to acquire a part of Riverside Park, he ‘will fight’ this attempt. ‘I have nothing against the Coast Guard or tax-exempt colleges and other institutions,’ Griffin said. 'They are all assets to our community. The only trouble is they are getting so large we simply cannot afford them anymore.'”  

Another former mayor, Harvey Mallove, was asked by the Academy’s former superintendent Admiral Chester Bender for even more Riverside land ‘…as a donation…’ on which the academy could build an amphitheater.

In fact, since it’s relocation to its present site adjacent to Riverside Park, the Coast Guard Academy has either acquired or attempted to acquire portions of the park in 1949, 1961, 1967, 1969, 2001-3, 2007 and, most recently, in 2010 when, in an article appearing in , academy officials "...said it is outgrowing its 120-acre campus and could use the land for classrooms, dormitories, athletic fields, parking, an aquatic center and a diversity/cultural arts center." (2)

Officials from the academy have since revised what would be built on land acquired from New London residents and when it would be built a number of times finally arriving at the construction of a ship simulator in maybe ten years.

The next Riverside Files will continue with facts concerning the Coast Guard Academy campus and the .

(1) Appraisal Report/Riverside Park Miner & Silverstein

(2) Riverside Park History