Highland Park Children's Pavilion construction expected to start next year

New York state will provide $3.9 million for Monroe County to build a new Children's Pavilion in Highland Park.

The money closes a funding gap for the $7.7 million project, and the county anticipates starting construction next year. County Executive Adam Bello announced during his State of the County address last month that the state had pledged to close that gap. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the same thing during a Rochester visit less than a week later.

But neither provided an actual dollar amount until Tuesday.

The money will be directed to the county through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, or DASNY.

Highland Park ‘Children’s Pavilion’ to rise again decades later

The Children's Pavilion was an original feature in Frederick Law Olmsted's design for Highland Park. Its dedication in September 1890 drew a crowd of 10,000 and the pavilion’s inscription stated that it was built in honor of Rochester’s children, who were increasingly choked by pollution from burgeoning industrialization.

The original Children's Pavilion was torn down in 1963 after years of neglect. It was an integral part of the plan for Highland Park, which was developed by Frederick Law Olmsted, and first opened in 1890.

The nonprofit Highland Park Conservancy spent two decades raising money to rebuild the pavilion, amassing roughly $1 million for the project. In 2022, Monroe County committed $1 million and took over the project, which has also received $1.5 million in grants from the state Legislature and state agencies.

County officials expect the pavilion to open in 2028.