Roof renovation began and fence restoration continues at Fifteenth Street; Brooklyn’s roof is complete; and meeting room ceilings will be patched and painted.
School may be out, and folks may be on vacation but we are hard at work to tend with loving care to our buildings that house our worship and community activities.
In sum, the roof renovation project has started at Fifteenth Street Meeting and the fence restoration is entering a new phase. Brooklyn’s roof is complete. The interior ceilings of the Brooklyn and Fifteenth Street meeting rooms will be patched and painted.
We began work on restoring our historic fence in February, 2026 – after over 100 years, it was in need of serious repairs. The previous maintenance update shows how the fence and sidewalk on Rutherford Place looked as of March.
The first section of fence, on 15th Street from the end of the meetinghouse to the corner with Rutherford Place, is nearing completion. The sidewalk and fence were removed, leveled, shored up, and are in the process of being reinstalled. 90% of the blue stone on the sidewalk has been put back into place (see photo). The concrete part of the sidewalk, between the bluestone and the curb, is being torn up this week and re-poured. The “grade beams,” the long, level pieces of stone the fence will be installed into, are in position. The restored fence sections will start to be reinstalled in the next two weeks. As always, the timing of outdoor construction work is dependent on the weather; extreme heat or rain could pose delays.
The next section of fence to be restored is on Rutherford Place between the corner with 15th Street and the corner of the central 15 Rutherford Place building. Demolition of that section will start in 2-3 weeks. Similar to the section on 15th Street, a temporary pedestrian pathway will be set up to allow safe access for those walking by or into the buildings.
Scaffolding began going up around the meetinghouse a week ago and should be completed in the next day or two (see photo). The demolition of the meetinghouse roof starts later this week. The asphalt shingle will be ripped off and sheathing will be replaced as necessary. Then the new zinc coated copper roof will be installed. We expect this project is scheduled to run through September, though the scaffolding in the front of the meetinghouse should be removed sometime in August — before the Friends Seminary students return to school. The same caveats about weather apply.
Room Two (the former quarterly meeting office across the hall from room one) is moving along: new engineered hardwood flooring will be installed in August, contingent on Trustee approval. The room should be back in service, with new floors, walls, and lighting, by October.
The ceiling of Fifteenth Street’s meeting room will be patched, smoothed and painted after the crew completes their work at Brooklyn Meeting (in 2-3 weeks). Again, the goal is to be done over the summer. We devised a solution for the paint crew to use a lift to work during the week. First Day worship will proceed as scheduled.
The roof replacement was done and the scaffolding around the building was removed earlier this spring. Currently, the ceiling inside the meeting room are in the process of being patched, smoothed, and painted. A temporary interior scaffolding is being set up for this work during the week and removed for Sunday worship. We expect this project to be completed in 2-3 weeks.
We will start work upgrading the network to make Brooklyn’s wifi more reliable in the next few weeks; the exact start is contingent upon the new hardware arriving.
We’re planning to replace the roof on the shed at the cemetery soon – a long-needed update. Erin Hughes has de-cluttered the shed and re-organized the storage area. Gravel is being installed in the center of the driveway, a “ribbon” driveway made of two parallel strips of concrete. The gravel helps with the stability of the driveway and reduces erosion.
This is a recurring update on facilities improvements happening at the New York Quarterly Meeting properties in downtown Brooklyn, including Brooklyn Meetinghouse, and 15 Rutherford Place in Manhattan, including Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse. The following is based on a conversation with Steve Petry, Director of Facilities and Finances, and Jose Ng, Senior Operations Manager.
