1971Bronx, New YorkCultural

Jeannette Kittredge Watson Science and Education Building

The paper trail is now unusually dense: Joseph wrote 'New York Botanical Garden — 1971,' Mellon funded a new Science and Education Center that June, and NYBG's own archive has multiple Watson Building construction files from 1970–72.

From Rita’s list

No building photograph is currently assigned.

01The story

Why this project matters

Project identity: Very strong
Kelly connection: Family source
Masonry scope: Possible

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: New York Botanical Garden — 1971

Transcription: New York Botanical Garden — 1971

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Entry

KM-085

Sheet

1 of two

As written

“New York Botanical Garden — 1971”

NYBG's archive holds at least five Watson Building files spanning 1970–72, including a 1972 Certificate of Occupancy file.

Why it matters

A 1971–72 science-and-education building at the New York Botanical Garden with a well-preserved institutional and architectural record.

Story notes

This should be presented as the leading identification, not as a generic institutional guess. The remaining uncertainty comes from the family shorthand, not from the Watson construction chronology. The Watson Building was designed for experimental greenhouses capable of simulating environmental conditions, alongside laboratories, classrooms and research offices—a compact building intended to manufacture climates for botanical study.

02What Kelly did

What Kelly did here

Kelly connection

Family source

Scope confidence

Possible

Possible: if Kelly worked on the Watson Science and Education Building, the likely masonry scope was interior CMU/block at laboratories, service cores, stairs/shafts or fire separations rather than the exterior envelope. Lehman College describes the 1972 building as a steel-frame, four-story glass building with green spandrels and commercial aluminum.

This scope is recorded as possible, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.

03Who built it