Part of never forgetting 9/11 is having permanent reminders and places to seek solace. Not long after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Rockaway, Breezy Point and Roxbury started thinking of ways to honor the locals who died that day. Today, all three communities have their own memorials, carefully designed and constructed with the fallen in mind, by stained glass artist Patrick Clark.
Within weeks of 9/11, Rockaway was discussing a memorial for the dozens of people who died in the terrorist attack. Community Board 14 and the Rockaway Chamber of Commerce, led by Liz Sulik, spearheaded the effort. By September 2002, a bayside location on Beach 116th St. originally meant to be an artist park, was given the green light for development. The space would become Tribute Park, Rockaway’s permanent memorial to those who died on 9/11. A contest was then held for the community to decide what would be included in the park. Patrick Clark’s piece stood out— “Heavens Over Rockaway.” Clark, known for his work through his Sunlite Stained Glass Studio, would also be commissioned by the Breezy Point Cooperative to create the Breezy Point and Roxbury memorials.
In early 2003, the Chamber of Commerce selected Tribute Park’s winning design which featured a French stained-glass style dome with 57 stars bearing the names of the known deceased from the peninsula. Held up by columns, the dome would tower above a Tiffany-style mosaic on the floor known as “Navigator Star,” which would point right where the World Trade Center had stood, with a message saying We will never forget our loved ones who died in the World Trade Center and our heroes who sought to save them September 11, 2001. Rockaway will always remember.”
It was later decided that the dome and mosaic would be separate pieces, to prevent people from walking on the mosaic. The delicate 47,000-piece glass mosaic would instead be placed on an elevated base and serve as the centerpiece of Tribute Park. Clark would also have a hand in the park’s third piece, Fireman’s Rock, donated by the Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. For that piece, he enlisted sculptor Isabella Slobodov to carve the firefighter helmet on top. It would become a job Clark had to finish. “We got started on it and later found out she had terminal cancer. She didn’t quite finish it. That was her last great work. She did a beautiful job,” Clark said.
For Clark, having a hand in Tribute Park, as well as the Breezy Point and Roxbury memorials, was deeply meaningful. On September 11, 2001, while working to raise his home on Norton Dr. in Bayswater, he and his crew watched as smoke emerged from the North Tower, and a plane slammed into the South Tower. “It was just…. disbelief. This was obviously terrorism,” Clark said. As they watched the towers fall, coating Lower Manhattan in a cloud of dust, Clark had his landlord in mind, Eric Allen, who worked for FDNY’s Rescue Squad 18. “I thought, I hope Eric isn’t working. But he was. From that point it was a matter of trying to find out if Eric was OK,” Clark said. Within a few days, with no word from Eric, the answer became clear. Eric Allen had perished on 9/11.
For Clark being selected to create the peninsula’s memorials was an honor. “I’m so grateful that I was invited to do these projects. It’s deeply moving. I consider these projects to be the most important work of my life. I consider them sacred memorials,” Clark said.
Part of that reason is the personal touch involved throughout the process of creating them. That was especially true with the Navigator Star mosaic. In his stained-glass studio on Beach 91st St., Clark was joined by families and neighbors of local 9/11 victims to help in a delicate process. A firefighter who had collected stone rubble from Ground Zero, had brought it to Clark in a bucket. The rubble was still covered in dust. “I realized that ash from the towers means it’s sacred ash. It’s almost like cremated remains,” Clark said. He handed his neighbors brushes and one by one, they carefully brushed the ash off the stones, collecting it in a bucket. The stones would be incorporated into the base of the mosaic. When it was finished around September 2005, the 9/11 families were asked to help spread the ashes around the soil surrounding the base.
Clark met most of the families on the peninsula who lost a loved one on 9/11, especially when he was tasked with making Breezy Point’s memorial. While Tribute Park was still being planned, work began on Breezy Point’s memorial at the end of 2002. The Co-op created a deck system on the bayside of Beach 218th Street, overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Clark was tasked with creating 29 glass panels, one for each Breezy Point resident who died on 9/11, each involving family input. “The design for each one revolved around what was important in the person’s life. Like one guy, Lynch, he loved fishing on a pier there, so we carved a pier and put a fishing pole and his favorite coffee mug in the glass. Some wanted a coat of arms, or just a poem. I designed them with their ideas,” Clark said.
The Breezy Point Memorial was initially completed in late 2003, bookended by a cross made of WTC steel and a statue of a kneeling Jesus holding the Twin Towers. Twenty-five years later, it’s still being worked on. “We started making panels for first responders who have died from illnesses because of working down there around 9/11. We just added a panel in the spring,” Clark said.
Two years after Breezy’s memorial was created, the Co-op asked Clark to work his magic once again for a memorial in Roxbury. For that one, he enlisted the help of local artist Esther Grillo. That design included an arch with a faceted glass oval in the middle, offering a view of Manhattan from the shoreline. The arch wall contains phragmites blowing in the wind and 29 flame shapes bearing the names of the 29 residents from the Co-op. The memorial was completed in 2005.
Even years after 9/11, Clark has been commissioned to create even more memorials. Funded by Bernie Heeran, whose son, Charlie, was killed on 9/11, a stained-glass window sits near the back of St. Francis de Sales Church. The window, which features Jesus watching over the Twin Towers, depicts the journey home for not only victims of 9/11, but the survivors who had to walk across bridges to get back to Rockaway. Delayed by Hurricane Sandy, the window was completed around 2014.
Clark says creating the memorials was a spiritual experience. “Whenever I make art, I pray for spiritual guidance, that some design will come to me. I think God let me be an instrument in creating these things. I’m very proud of having done them because they’re all very good art but it’s not just art. Every one of these memorials is a spiritual experience about memorializing and holding sacred, each of our Rockaway people who died. Instead of a plaque with their names on it, these stained-glass pieces are about capturing light. It makes it a more personal, sacred way to remember each of those people.”
Editor’s Note: Clark and his crew are awaiting an agreeable Memorandum of Understanding from NYC Parks to restore the Hurricane Sandy-damaged mosaic before work begins. Fundraising is ongoing. For info, see: www.rockaways9-11tributepark.com
