The clay tennis courts of Norwich, long a jewel of the city, are now in rough shape. But the city is making strides toward improving the courts, which were named after the late Steve Armstrong, the longtime Norwich resident who helped bring them to life and maintained the surface for many years.

An official two-year, $400,000 fundraising effort has begun to bring the deteriorated courts across from the Recreation Department headquarters on Mohegan Road back to their original glory.

“We received $100,000 from the city budget as of July 1, 2020, and the Tennis Committee is sending out its sponsorship/donation letter this fall to garner more funding to build the courts (the process was slowed down due to the pandemic),” said Norwich Recreation Department Director Cheryl Hancin Preston in an email.

She is also exploring a U.S. Tennis Association grant for up to $50,000.

According to Steve Armstrong’s 1985 book “The Clay Courts of Norwich,” the red clay used for the surface was trucked in 1954 from the Coventry farm of Sterling Mott. “A moderate and reasonable charge for trucking represented the only expenditure,” he wrote.

From 1959 until the 1990s, the courts hosted the popular Southern New England Tennis Championships, an event sanctioned by the United States Tennis Association that drew some of the best players in New England. But soon after Armstrong died, the tournament ended and the clay courts began to go downhill.

The Norwich City Council resolved at a February meeting to authorize the Recreation Department to take the lead in soliciting donations and grants to be placed in a newly created Tennis Facilities Repairs and Improvements Project Account for “improving and maintaining the city’s tennis facilities, including, but not limited to the Armstrong Tennis Courts.”

Any excess money received over the 24-month period (which began in July 2020) to resurface four clay courts will remain in the account and be used for future maintenance and repairs. If insufficient funds are raised, the resolution states that the Armstrong courts would be discontinued and the money would be dedicated to maintaining courts at John B. Stanton School and Jenkins Park on Mechanic Street.

Meanwhile, the city announced that it has finished resurfacing and repainting the Stanton tennis courts during the spring and repaired all issues.

“They look beautiful and are receiving a lot of compliments and play,” Hancin-Preston said.

She added that the Recreation Department ran tennis camps for adults and youths over the summer and are planning to offer tennis lessons this fall.

Donations to rebuild the clay tennis courts should be made payable to “Norwich Recreation Department” and mailed to the Norwich Recreation Department, 75 Mohegan Road, Norwich, CT 06360.

Lee Howard and Claire Bessette contributed to this report.