Approximately 100 history-minded persons from diverse backgrounds participated in a special tour of the new Police Museum Feb. 16th as the New York Correction History Society (NYCHS) held its first Year 2000 meeting.
The new NYC Police Museum's long-awaited opening took place Jan. 20. It is situated at 25 Broadway, near Bowling Green, lower Manhattan, in the old Cunard Building, between Morris St. and Battery Place, on the West side of Broadway. Sgt. Thomas M. Gambino, the museum's executive director, greeted the NYCHS visitors in the institution's 80-seat meeting room. Virtually every seat was occupied and more than dozen standees listened from the side aisle. He discussed some of the challenges involved in setting up and running a New York law enforcement- related museum. After opportunity for some questions and answers, NYCHS visitors toured the museum with guides. The meeting also served as the occasion for the society to add NYS Department of Correctional Services Superintendents Brian Fischer of Queensboro Crrectional Facility and Brant Kehn of Fulton Correctional Facility in the Bronx to the NYCHS executive committee as members-at-large. Fischer is also regional supervising superintendent for DOCS' New York City area facilities. A Mercy College adjunct professor, Kehn has written and been interviewed extensively on Sing Sing history. Besides NYC DOC and NYS DOCS uniformed and civilian executives and staffers, participants included uniformed and civilian executives and staffers from such diverse locales and agencies as the NYC Board of Correction, NYS Commission of Correction, NYC Probation, NYC Commission on Human Rights, Correctional Association of New York, Maryland State Division of Correction, Ossining PD, Ossining Historical Society, Pound Ridge PD, New York Initiative, the Auxiliary Police Benevolent Association, South Forty Corp, Friends of Island Academy, New York Council for the Humanities, the Horticultural Society of New York, EchoNYC, the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. To be listed to receive notices on future NYCHS events, send an e-mail to that effect to the NYCHS webmaster The museum is located within short walking distance from the Rector Street Station of the West Side IRT 1 Line, the Broad Street Station of the BMT J, M, and Z lines, and the Bowling Green Station of the East Side IRT 4 and 5 Lines. From the Bowling Green Station, the museum is one block north on the left. From the Rector Street Station, the museum is one block east and two blocks south. From the PATH at the World Trade Center, walk one block east to Broadway, then south to 25 Broadway. The M1, M6, and M15 buses stop nearby. The New York City Police Museum web site is at http://nycpolicemuseum.org
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