Metro

Central Park cop shop is NYPD’s new pearl

The storied Central Park station house (above, before the restoration).

The storied Central Park station house (above, before the restoration). (Ted Cowell)

POLICE ACTION: The storied Central Park station house (inset, before the restoration) built as a stable in 1871, gleams yesterday (above) after its $61.7 million face lift. (
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It’s worth getting arrested just to see the spanking new Central Park police headquarters.

The city’s oldest station house underwent a $61.7 million face lift that saw its atrium enclosed with a two-story glass roof and an expansion of 2,300 square feet.

Gone are the boarded-up windows to keep the squirrels out. There are no longer a leaking slate-and-copper roof and crumbling brick walls.

And roll call doesn’t have to be held in an adjacent shed anymore.

“The city’s oldest precinct is now wired for the latest computer and communications technology, with new phones and computers and better heating, ventilation and air conditioning,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

“It brings a 19th-century station house into the 21st century.”

Mayor Bloomberg said, “Central Park is safer than ever — with crime down by more than 20 percent since 2001 — and the enhancement to the station will help police officers build on this record of success.”

The complex was constructed in 1871 by Jacob Wrey Mould as a stable and storage shed for park staff.

The high Victorian Gothic cottage-style buildings were intentionally built low to the ground so as not to interfere with the pastoral setting of the park.

In 1936, the property was converted into the 22nd Precinct station house, and in 1968, it was officially renamed the Central Park Precinct.

When the crumbling precinct house was closed in 2001, cops moved to a temporary building that was constructed on the adjacent parking lot. They moved back into the main building in June 2011 as work continued. The temporary precinct house was torn down and replaced with a parking area.

The initial cost of the project, which began in 2009, was $46 million, but during construction, workers discovered contaminated soil and trolley tracks, which had to be removed.

NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, who was shot and paralyzed in the park in 1986, said, “It’s what all precincts should look like. I think it will go a long way to make our park and our city much safer.”

The precinct’s commanding officer, Capt. Jessica Corey, joked, “I’ve got a lot of people who outrank me who are seeing the place for the first time today, and they’re talking about taking my office.”