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Grand Army Plaza is also the name of a plaza at the intersection of 59th Street and 5th Avenue in front of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, and opposite the southeastermost corner of Central Park. It is the site of a fountain contributed by Joseph Pulitzer [1]
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch at Grand Army Plaza

Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York, is an 11.04[2] acre (4.47 hectare) elliptical plaza that forms the main entrance to Prospect Park. Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted included the plaza in their February, 1865 proposal to Brooklyn Park Commission President James S. T. Stranahan and by 1867 it was among one of the first park features built.[3] The plaza consists of two concentric rings. Plaza Street forms the outer ring, splitting lengthwise to encircle the plaza.[4] The inner ring consists of a six lane oval which encircles a small park. Flatbush Avenue passes through the plaza, Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Park West, Eastern Parkway, and Union Street all interconnect through the inner ring. Butler Place, Saint John’s Place and Lincoln Place connect only to Plaza Street, giving rise to one of the most complex traffic interchanges in the borough.[5]

Grand Army Plaza is perhaps best known for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Brooklyn's version of the Arc de Triomphe, but is also the site of seven smaller memorials: the Bailey Fountain, monuments for presidents John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, American Civil War generals Gouverneur Kemble Warren and Henry Warner Slocum, and notable citizens Henry W. Maxwell, [6], Alexander J.C. Skene and James S. T. Stranahan.

Known originally as "Prospect Park Plaza", or, colloquially, as "The Plaza", it formally became "Grand Army Plaza" on May 10, 1926 to mark the the sixieth anniversary of the founding of the Grand Army of the Republic.[7] Presently, and through most of the twentieth century, Grand Army Plaza has demonstrated the contention between a large city's transportation and cultural needs, with Beaux-Arts and City Beautiful memorial architecture leading an uneasy co-existence with the heavily trafficked circle.

Early Prospect Park Plaza[edit]

Calvert Vaux's 1874 Plaza Fountain. The housing for one of the illuminating gas lights occupies the foreground

In their earliest 1865 recommendations to Brooklyn Park Commission President James S. T. Stranahan,[3] Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux proposed an eliptical plaza for the north entrance to Prospect Park. At the time, the bulk of the city's population lay northwest in Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, or northeast in Williamsburg. The designers thought that park visitors would mainly travel south along Flatbush and Vanderbilt avenues and tarry in the plaza before entering the park.[3]

The plaza prior to the arch[edit]

Completed in 1867, the plaza was one of the first park features to be realized. Berms covered in heavy plantings separated the inner plaza from encircling Plaza Street and shielded vistors from city noise. The approximately 6 acre interior ellipse allowed unfettered travel for pedestrians and carriages. A central circular pool with a single-spout fountain was the the plaza's only feature. This was soon augmented with Henry Kirke Brown's statue of Abraham Lincoln,[8] dedicated on 1869-10-21.[9] Brown's statue occupied the northern end of the plaza near the entry points of Vanderbilt and Flatbush avenues and was accessible from the circular pool by a broad flight of granite steps. A pair of flagpoles stood at the southern end of the plaza approximately where the Arch now stands.

Calvert Vaux's Plaza Fountain[10] replaced the single spout fountain in 1874. This was a two-tier, double-domed, circular structure constructed from cast iron and molded sections of Beton Coignet. [11] Vaux placed gaslights in the 37.2 foot (11.4 meter) diameter dome,[11] each visible through one of 24 colored glass windows for evening illumination.[12] Additional gaslights mounted in the guardrail illuminated the surface of the pool.[13][14] With such abundant gas lighting and a flow rate of 60,000 gallons an hour, Brooklynites were enthralled with Vaux's hydraulic tour de force and the fountain became the plaza's focal point, though Brooklyn Mayor John W. Hunter criticized the fountain's extravagant use of water.[15] With Brown's statue and Vaux's Plaza Fountain in place, the plaza did not change substantially until the rise of the City Beautiful Movement nearly twenty years later.[12]

Building the Memorial Arch[edit]

The Arch in 1894, before the installation of statuary.

As the last decade of the 19th century approached, a younger generation of Park Commissioners came to fore, with seven freshmen members in the 1886-88 term.[16] The new commission showed a taste for the nascent City Beautiful movement, differing from the older, lower-keyed Gothic Revival school of Andrew Jackson Downing, to which Olmsted and Vaux subscribed. The new commissioners ventured the opinion in their 1887 Annual Report that the "plaza is certainly a total failure. No one cares to cross it. It is devoid of all life and is a stony waste, It is suggestive of Siberia in Winter and Sahara in Summer." [2][12][17]

The criticism signaled a sea change in the aesthetics and level of activism of the commission. Within the year they had engaged McKim, Mead, and White, a Beaux Arts firm, to redesign the park perimeter, including the plaza.[12] They took a keen interest in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial, which had been authorized by the New York state legislature in April, 1887, along with funding of $250,000 USD.[18] A year on, the park commission raised issues about the design selection process in that it fell within the purview of just one small committee of Common Council members who had settled on the designs of architect Henry Bauer. The Park Commission recommended placing the memorial in Prospect Park Plaza, lobbying the Mayor and Common Council at large that all other plans and sites were too small for what should be a grand memorial.[19][20]

By July 1888, a new open competition for the best design had been launched, earlier plans having been shelved,[21] and over the next year, competitive designs were solicited. On 1889-08-06, a blind jury of two people appointed by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission selected from a field of thirty six entries the design of John H. Duncan.[22] Duncan, who would go on to design Grants Tomb in the following decade, proposed a free-standing memorial arch of a classical style similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

On 1889-10-30, after two and a half months of site preparation, William Tecumseh Sherman laid the cornerstone of the arch, placing within it a copper box containing, among other items, copies of the enabling legislation for the memorial arch, various medals of the Grand Army of the Republic and a proof set of 1889 silver U. S. coins.[18] After almost three years of construction, President Grover Cleveland presided over its unveiling on 1892-10-21, a somewhat belated celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas.[23]. Eighty feet high and wide, the arch dominated the plaza. Constructed with granite from Friendship, Maine, it had niches to accommodate seven sculptural groups, including two small niches under the arch itself. [24]

Transforming the plaza[edit]

With the arch complete, the Brooklyn Parks Commission commenced a nine year program to align the rest of the Plaza with the Beaux-Arts style of the memorial arch.[25] Much of the work was under the supervision of McKim, Mead, and White, now a vanguard of the City Beautiful movement. As with the other park entrances, their proposals for the plaza exhibited monumental grandeur. In 1893, a pair of fifty foot Doric columns were erected on either side of the main entrance; these were joined in 1896 by two, nearly identical columns,[26] at the corners of Flatbush Avenue and Prospect Park West. A three hundred foot open work granite ballustrade replaced the older wood and iron chain fence. Massive bronze urns, three feet high and two feet in diameter, with entwined snakes comprising the handles, adorned the sixteen granite blocks that held the ballustrade in place. A pair of twelve-sided pavillions of Tuscan order were erected on the east and west corners of the park, replacing simple, rustic, wooden shelters.[3][25].

H. K. Brown's Abraham Lincoln, now standing in the shadow of an eighty foot high arch, seemed less imposing. To restore its gravity, Park Commissioner President Frank Squire gave it a new home in Prospect Park's Concert Grove, where it can be found northeast from the Kate Wollheim Skating Rink.[27] Calvert Vaux's 1874 Plaza Fountain fared less well. Twenty three years old and in dilapidated condition, it was unceremoniously demolished in 1897.[28][29] In its place, rose Fredric W. Darlington's Electric Fountain, a multi-colored electrically lit fountain that was greeted with some wonder in an era when electricity was still in its infancy.

The electric fountain of Frederic W. Darlington[edit]

The electric fountain at night, ca. 1900

Darlington was an electrical engineer from Philadelphia who made his money electrifying horse-propelled street railways and designing street lighting, a trade that had taken him as far afield as Japan. But he also built decorative electric fountains, typically in amusement parks at the ends of trolley lines. In the 1890s, he had erected electrified fountains in locales as diverse as Willow Grove Park in Willow Grove, PA, and the Crystal Palace in London.[30] May, 1897 proved an opportune time for Darlington, with the Plaza Fountain undergoing demolition. His detailed plans and quick responses to questions from Brooklyn Bridge chief engineer C. C, Martin swayed the Park Commission to invest in an electric fountain, scrapping their plans for a simple, single-spout display.[29][31]

Darlington's design called for a flow rate of 100,000 gallons an hour, but, using a circular pump, it would make few demands on the capacity of the nearby Mount Prospect Reservoir[32][33] It featured nineteen 6,000 candlepower electric arc lights, wired in three series circuits, with each circuit controlled by its own dimming rheostat. Each arc lamp could be remotely focussed in narrow and intense, or soft and wide beams. These were housed beneath the water's surface in an underground chamber and projected through a thick glass ceiling into the water jets above. The arc lamps were laid out in concentric rings around a central light and spout. The hydraulics consisted of over 2,000 separate jets, also below the surface. Many were situated in rings around the electric lamps and had various kinds of nozzles for different effects.[29] Enchantingly, a lighting conductor could impart distinct colors to each of the nineteen lamps through rotating wheels of colored gels. A second hydraulic conductor managed the fountain's spouts. Both operated from an underground control room located just off the south end of the basin, near the arch. The operators could view their efforts through three closely spaced windows set in the basin wall just above the water's surface.[34][35] The fountain was situated in a 120 foot diameter basin. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted placed the fountain at the intersection of two broad paths, arranged as a Georgian cross, with grassy, treeless plots situated at the quadrants.

At the time, the Nassau and Brooklyn Heights Street Railroads maintained trolley tracks through the plaza; both firms donated the 500 volt feeds that the lighting and circulating pumps required. Their gift had its pragmatic aspect: attendance on opening night, 1897-08-07 [36] was around 100,000 people; most had arrived by street trolley. Regularly scheduled performance on Wednesdays and Saturdays generally drew 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. Performances ran after sunset for one and a quarter hours and exhibited founts of water in various shapes and styles of animation, all lit up from beneath by the intense, colored lights. Outside of the scheduled performances, the fountain was lit with floodlamps situated on the basin rim, and only a few of the central spouts would be used. In an era when most homes were still gaslit, the shifting colors and ever-changing spouts of the electric fountain invoked an awe and sense of wonder that is difficult to comprehend today.[2]

The sculptures of Frederick MacMonnies[edit]

The Quadriga - Columbia in her chariot

In 1895, soon after the completion of the arch, sculptor and Brooklyn native Frederick MacMonnies accepted an $50,000 USD commission from Park Commissioner Frank Squire to design a Quadriga for the top of the memorial arch, along with the two groupings for the niches facing Prospect Park[25].[37] Though given two years to complete the Quadriga and the side groups, MacMonnies took nearly six.

Reasons for delays are not hard to find. Around the same period, he had received commissions to sculpt the eagles for the four Doric columns at the park entrances and the Horse Tamer at Park Circle.[12]. He was also at work on doors for the Library of Congress and a statue honoring William Shakespeare. Overall, he was approaching one of the busiest and most productive periods of his career. Second, the Quadriga commission posed non-trivial technical problems. Since MacMonnies worked in Paris and employed French foundries, he had to design how workers across the Atlantic would actually put the bronzes together. In the end, the Quadriga required forty separate castings.[12] Finally, MacMonnies was a perfectionist; he had prepared and destroyed a number of Quadriga models before delivering the final one in 1897.[38][39]

The Brooklyn Park Commission bore the tardiness of its native son with patience, and, on August 15, 1898, the Quadriga quietly arrived aboard the Victoria.[39], The platform for the Quadriga had itself deteriorated in the six years that it had stood uncovered, so an additional half a year passed in repairs before workers from the J. K. Brown Co., assisted by a master builder from MacMonnies' Paris studio, were able to place the bronze on the arch. They completed its installation on December 4, 1898.[40][41]

As completed, Quadriga depicts the lady Columbia, an allegorical representation of the United States, riding in a chariot drawn by two horses[42]. Two winged Victory figures, each leading a horse, trumpets Columbia's arrival.

Absent still were allegorical representations of the Union Army and Navy. MacMonnies went through a number of models of each group as well before he was satisfied, the design and execution of both groups took another two and a half years and were finished in time for the Paris Exhibition of 1900, where they were displayed in the American Pavilion.

File:Grand Army Plaza Herald edited.jpg
Heralding Victory - a side view from atop the Arch

The installation of each had exasperating moments. The Army group didn't fit; an inch had to be shaved from the head of a soldier before the bronze properly settled in place.[12] In transit, the Navy group fell from its crane, damaging its base.[12] The bronze and had to be repaired in a Manhattan foundry before it could be installed. To add insult to injury, the now Greater City of New York had trouble delivering the bronze to itself. Inspectors at the Brooklyn Bridge refused passage to the Navy group because it exceeded the maximum width allowed for a load by eight inches. The Navy group had to wait for a day before the city issued the necessary permits to itself, allowing passage into the borough of Brooklyn and its installation on April 13, 1901.[40] [43]

Grand Army Plaza today[edit]

The traffic circle around Grand Army Plaza at the main entrance to Prospect Park

In May, 1912, new plans for Prospect Park Plaza arose that were far grander than their 1890's antecedents. A public library would rise up in Reservoir Park[44] that would "rival the best in the world," A zoological hall would be built on the southwest corner of the plaza, at the intersection of Prospect Park West and Union Street. A new electric fountain surpassing F. W. Darlington's creation would be installed in the plaza itself. This one would have a wide drive around it to accommodate large crowds. The entrance to Prospect Park would be rebuilt entirely and on a far grander neoclassical scale. The plaza would be called Brooklyn Plaza and become the cultural center of the borough. In these schemes, there was mention neither of subways nor automobiles, though both were already parts of the city's fabric.[45] Architect Raymond F. Almirall, author of the plan, broke ground on the first building, the Brooklyn Public Library, on 1912-06-05. [46] Twenty-five years and $ 2.6 million USD later, construction on the library had stalled, a victim first to rising labor costs during and after World War I, then to the effects of the Great Depression. It's first component mired in economic woes, 'Brooklyn Plaza' quietly expired.[47][48]

Cultural center and traffic circle[edit]

Such was Grand Army Plaza's inauspicious entry into the twentieth century. At no other time in that century had ambitions for the cultural development of the plaza approached anything like those of the late nineteenth century. Rising use of the automobile and declining parks and recreation budgets shifted emphasis toward growing transportation problems. Early twentieth century planning linked the plaza into the New York City rapid transit system. By October, 1914, the Electric Fountain had been demolished to make way for the Eastern Parkway and Brighton subway lines By October, 1920, only a grassy plot marked where tens of thousands had once stood in awe of water jets and electric lights.[49] Even as the subway was under construction, emphasis necessarily shifted to automobile traffic, then undergoing a sharp rise. The plaza had never been designed as a traffic circle and the process of making it into one was fitful, awkward, and, as of 2007, still ongoing.[5] In the 1920s the circle hosted Safety Council of Brooklyn's "Death-O-Meter", a sign admonishing drivers to "Slow Up" and with a continually updated tally of traffic accident deaths in the borough.[50] By mid century, the plaza had over forty traffic lights, along with raised traffic islands and heavily marked traffic channels.[2] Today, the area around the Arch forms the largest and busiest traffic circle in Brooklyn and ranks as the second most dangerous place in the city for traffic accidents.[51] The berms, one of the original features of the plaza, now work in reverse: instead of keeping the noise of the neighborhood out of the plaza, they keep the noise of the plaza out of the neighborhood.

Only in the late twentieth century has some attention shifted back to the idea of the plaza as a cultural landmark. The arch received landmark designation in 1973, just as in 1975 all of Grand Army Plaza became a New York City historic landmark. The plaza contains some of the best known, but least visited memorials in the city. The coexistence of City Beautiful monuments and one of the borough's busiest traffic hubs remains uneasy, with city and community groups trying to strike a balance between the two.[5] Sometimes, striking the balance can go in unexpected directions. In 2000, new traffic signage in compliance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, buff white reflective lettering on a green background, was derided by community groups as being out of touch with the cultural character of the plaza. New York City's Department of Transportation revised eighteen of the twenty new directional signs as 'historical' reference signs, permitting the use of a terra cotta background color instead of the regulation green.[51]

Green Market[edit]

The Saturday Green Market summer 2003

While most space in the plaza is given over to traffic lanes, a small part of the southern end of the plaza, once a parking spot, has become a multiuse area. A Green Market, referred to as the 'Farmer's Market' by residents, is held in this area every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Green Market is the second largest in the program.[52]

On weekends a free tourist trolley service runs between noon and 6 p.m. from Grand Army Plaza with stops at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Boathouse, the Wollman Rink and the Brooklyn Museum. The Grand Army Plaza subway station is on the north end of the Plaza and furnishes transportation to the site and the nearby park.

Plaza monuments and memorials[edit]

Memorial Arch[edit]

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument underwent little change after the installation of the Navy Group in 1901. More than three quarters of a century later, on October 10,1976 the Quadriga suffered damage in a severe storm when a gust of wind dislodged the Lady Columbia figure from her chariot. Emergency work by firemen prevented the figure from completely falling off the arch.[53] The incident underscored the need to examine and restoration the then seventy-eight year old installation. The chariot remained empty for four years before restoration on October 25, 1980, a part of a larger, ten million dollar effort to restore Prospect Park.[54][55] They were chemically sealed in a 2002 restoration, giving the surface a uniform, shiny green appearance.

The interior of the Arch contains a gallery. Intended originally for the display of battle flags and paraphrenalia of the Grand Army of the Republic, it has been recently used as a small art gallery and performance space, with shows and exhibits held intermittently throughout the summer. Only the eastern end is ever open to the public, with a staircase leading to a platform at the top by the Quadriga. The symmetrical western end, with its degraded stairway, is only used for storage.

Mary Louis Bailey Fountain[edit]

File:Baily Fountain Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn.jpg
Baily Fountain. Eugene Savage, Sculptor; Edgerton Swarthout, Architect
  • Dedicated: 1932
  • Sculptor: Eugene Savage
  • Archtect: Edgerton Swarthout

Just north of the Memorial Arch, and away from Prospect Park, stands Bailey Fountain, the fourth, and longest running, fountain to occupy the site. The Bailey Fountain was built in 1932 by architect Edgerton Swarthout and sculptor Eugene Savage. Named after Brooklyn-based financier and philanthropist Frank Bailey (1865-1953),[56] he funded it as a memorial to his wife Mary Louise. It features an elaborate grouping of allegorical and mythical figures that includes the god of water Neptune and a pair of female nudes representing Wisdom and Felicity.[23]

Equestrian insets of General Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln[edit]

Altorelievo bronze inset of Abraham Lincoln, situated on the western pillar of the Memorial Arch
  • Dedicated: 1901
  • Sculptor: William R. O'Donovan (figures) Thomas Eakins (horses)

Visitors to the arch will find on the inside east and west pillars inset bronze reliefs depicting two American presidents on equestrian mounts. General Ulysses S. Grant, occupying the inset on the eastern pillar, and Abraham Lincoln, occupying the inset on the western pillar. Placed in the arch in 1893, these bronzes were the product of two artists, William O'Donovan and Thomas Eakins. O'Donovan is credited with modeling the presidential figures and Eakins the horses.[57] When they first appeared, these bronzes were reviled by Park Commission President Frank Squire,[58] the editors of the Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle felt "that there is so much that is weak, so much inaccurate, so much commercial, so much that is nearly grotesque that the figures cannot be too soon disposed of."[58] The Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects, during their January 1897 meeting, found them to be "Disreputable examples of the arts of sculpture and design, pernicious in their influence and in every respect unworthy of the exalted place and purpose which they have been assigned to fill."[23]

Protests notwithstanding, they were never removed, though a century on they still receive occasional criticism. In the 1980s, Brooklyn park historian and horticulturalist M. M. Graff wondered why Lincoln appeared to be "holding out his hat as if begging for pennies."[12] Twenty years later, writer Francis Morrone noted that not everyone feels they belong, they are of a different scale and face toward Vanderbilt Avenue, while the larger, more visible MacMonnies sculptural group face the park; they appear to have been put into the arch the wrong way.[57]

John Fitzgerald Kennedy[edit]

The Kennedy's bust was removed in 2004 during the renovation of the small park in Grand Army Plaza and is currently undergoing renovation. The original setting for Estern's bust was designed by Morris Ketchum, Jr. and Associates. This setting has been completely redesigned. Currently, a grey granite pedestal is awaiting Estern's Kennedy bust.

Henry W. Maxwell Tablet[edit]

Henry W. Maxwell memorial tablet by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (replica)

Henry W. Maxwell (b. December 7, 1850; d. May 11, 1902) has a small, unassuming, memorial sharing a berm with Frederick Macmonnies' larger General Slocum statue. Maxwell was a noted philanthropist and a distinguished citizen of Brooklyn in the last decade of the 19th century, active on the Board of Education, a director of Long Island College Hospital, a Brooklyn Park Commissioner in 1884, and noted for having financed the educations of a number of the city's doctors and professionals. Maxwell died suddenly of 'Apoplexy' while his career as a public figure was still on the rise.[60] A private subscription raised funds to place a memorial tablet to Maxwell in what was in what was once Reservoir Park (1895-1912), now the present site of the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The high relief memorial is the work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who casted the bronze at his studio in Cornish, New Hampshire, assisted by Albert Jaegers. The memorial did not stay in place for very long after its dedication on December 26, 1903; it was moved from Reservoir Park to the intersection of St. John's Place and Plaza Street East eight and a half years later to make way for the central library building. It was moved again in the 1970s to park department storage for safekeeping, the monument having been vandalized a number of times. There it remained until its 1997 restoration was made possible with the financial support of the David Schwartz Foundation. The original tablet is currently on loan to the Brooklyn Museum, where it is on display at the museum's south entrance and a replica is at bv the original site of the tablet. A second replica is also in place at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.[59]

Equestrian Statue of Henry Warner Slocum[edit]

Equestrian statue of Slocum by Frederick MacMonnies, east berm, at Grand Army Plaza

The equestrian statue of General Slocum marks the latest and last of the MacMonnies commissions to arrive at the plaza, concluding a nearly fifteen year period that began with the June 1891 dedication of the statue of James S. T. Stranahan. Slocum's statue was not originally situated in the plaza. Its first home was at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Eastern Parkway. The statue's dedication on May 30, 1905, was attended by President Theodore Roosevelt, who gave the keynote address, and nine thousand veterans.[61] The statue had its critics. Hugh Hastings, New York State Historian,[62] wrote in a letter to the New York Times that, contrary to MacMonnies portrayal, Slocum was even-tempered in battle, one who gave orders quietly to staff officers. Bellowing or raising his sword on high was just not characteristic of the man.[63] Robert Flaherty, who witnessed Slocum's conduct in the Battle of Bentonville, wrote in a following letter to the Times that, after soldiers under Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston had broken through Union lines, "…men were falling back quite panic-striken. While many officers were flying around trying to rally the men, Gen. Slocum sat as quietly on his horse as if he was superintending a Sunday school. He quietly gave a few orders to his staff officers, the Twentieth Corps moved up and ended Mr. Joe Johnston's enterprise for that day." Flaherty went on to recommend, "Now if Mr. MacMonnies would enlarge the head and body, put glasses on the nose, with a blunderbuss in the other hand, it might pass for a very good statue of the Immortal Teddy at San Juan Hill, but for General Slocum — never."[64] Summing up a century later, architectural critic Francis Morrone allowed that, "MacMonnies depiction makes for a better, more exhuberant work when viewed from a distance, as indeed the statue usually is. Up close, the open mouth leaves a little to be desired. The horse, however, is beautifully modeled — in the opinion of some, it is MacMonnies' finest horse."[65]

The statue moved to the Fifteenth Street and Prospect Park West park entrance when the IRT Eastern Parkway subway line was laid along Eastern Parkway.[66] It remained at Fifteenth Street until April, 1927 when the Grand Army of the Republic announced its move to its present location on the south end of the east berm at Grand Army Plaza.[66] While the city later promised the veteran's organization to return the statue to its original Bedford Avenue site, the relocation never took place, and Slocum's statue remained in Grand Army Plaza.[66]

Alexander J. C. Skene[edit]

  • Dedicated: 1905
  • Sculptor: John Massey Rhind

Statue of James S. T. Stranahan[edit]

James S. T. Stranahan by Frederick MacMonnies, Prospect Park

While many present-day New Yorkers associate Olmsted and Vaux with the genesis of Prospect Park, their 19th century counterparts generally regarded James S. T. Stranahan as holding a more central role, that of 'Father of Prospect Park.' President of the Brooklyn Park Commission for nearly all of its first twenty three years, (1860 – 1882) Stranahan was instrumental in securing funding and political support for the park in the years immediately following the American Civil War. In particular, the Brooklyn Park Commission under Stranahan had withdrawn its support of the 1860 plan for Prospect Park by Egbert Viele in favor of Calvert Vaux's 1865 recommendations[12]. As the city of Brooklyn had already purchased land under Viele's plan, and as Vaux's recommendations called for shifting the borders of the park, purchasing property in the then independent and adjoining town of Flatbush, and purchasing relatively expensive property along Ninth Avenue, Stranahan had a number of political battles to fight. Much of the credit for securing support for Vaux's more expensive and expansive scheme lies with Stranahan. The idea of presenting Stranahan with a statue in his honor lies with

Statue of Gouverneur Kemble Warren[edit]

References[edit]

Snow-covered park behind the Arch
  1. ^ Kenneth T. Jackson:The Encyclopedia of New York City: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 497-498.
  2. ^ a b c d "GRAND ARMY PLAZA - Historical Sign" (Hypertext Markup Language). Historical Signs. City of New York. 2001-12-14. Retrieved 2007-05-24. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Lancaster, Clay (1972). Prospect Park Handbook. New York: Long Island University Press. pp. 80–97. 0-913252-06-9. Cite error: The named reference "Lancaster" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ Plaza Street East has the even house addresses; Plaza Street West has the odd addresses. Neither side of Plaza Street is visible to the other, perplexing newcomers to the neighborhood constantly.
  5. ^ a b c "Rethinking Grand Army Plaza" (PDF) (Press release). The Grand Army Plaza Coalition. 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
  6. ^ "Henry Maxwell Monument". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
  7. ^ "Plaza in Brooklyn Dedicated to G.A.R." New York Times. 10-05-1926. pp. page 9. Retrieved 2007-01-10. {{cite news}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "ABRAHAM LINCOLN STATUE - Historical Sign" (Hypertext Markup Language). Historical Signs. City of New York. 2001-06-06. Retrieved 2007-05-22. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  9. ^ "City Government: Meeting of the Board of Aldermen". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Isaac Van Anden. 1869-10-19. pp. Page 4 Column 1. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "The Plaza Fountain". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Isaac Van Anden. 1873-11-15. pp. Page 6 Column 4. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ a b Beton Coignet was a method of preparing a very durable concrete which, nonetheless, lent itself to very detailed molds. At the time, the process was thought to rival the very best stonecutting, but was a much cheaper process. The interior of the Cleft Ridge Span in Prospect Park, near the Audubon Center at the Boathouse, is a surviving example. "Artificial Stone". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Isaac Van Anden. 1873-08-29. pp. Page 2 Column 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The complete illustrated guidebook to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Silver Lining Books. 2001. pp. Pages 32 - 36. ISBN 0-7607-2213-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Rigby, Joe (1895-10-13). "Illumination Night at the Plaza Fountain, Prospect Park". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. pp. page 21 Column 2. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Prospect Park: The Fountain at the Plaza". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1874-06-02. pp. 4 column 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Hunter also took aim at Stranahan's proposed disposition of the 'East side lands,' the package north of Flatbush Avenue that had been purchased to fufill Egbert Viele 1861 plan for Mount Prospect Park, but which had been excluded from Olmsted and Vaux's 1866 plan. The change put land titles in doubt and the issue dragged on until the consolidation of the City of Brooklyn into Greater New York. "Municipal. The Mayor Viewing the Park From a Lofty Standpoint". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1874-06-23. pp. 2 column 3. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "Municipal: The Mayor Appoints Eight Park Commissioners". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Eagle. 1886-06-17. pp. Page 4, Column 7. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was critical of the Commissioners, finding in their observations on the Plaza evidence that the members did not understand their roles as administrative executives, a job which, in the Eagle's view, did not include art criticism. The Eagle also thought that the eight unpaid commissioners generally worked at cross purposes and believed that the city would be better served by one paid professional commissioner. Albany almost agreed: in 1889 it reduced the number of park commissioners to three, placing most of the authority in the President's office; the positions were still unpaid. "Park Commission Reviews Itself". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Eagle. 1888-02-08. pp. Page 4, Column 3. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ a b "Tecumseh's Warm Greeting". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1889-10-21. pp. 6, Column 1. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Jumped On It". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Eagle. 1888-04-05. pp. Page 6, Column 6. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "The Park Commission: Business Transacted at the Monthly Meeting Yesterday Afternoon". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Eagle. 1888-03-07. pp. Page 2, Column 7. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "The Soldiers' Monument". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Eagle. 1888-07-28. pp. Page 2, Column 2. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ Jurors William R. Ware and Charles B. Atwood had been appointed earlier in the year by the three person Commission, comprised of Brooklyn Mayor Alfred C. Chapin, Aldermanic President McCarty, and Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Committee Chairman James D. Bell. Ware and Atwood were considered 'experts' in their field. "Lucky Man: A New Yorker Gets the Soldier's Monument Work". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1889-08-06. pp. 4, Column 2. Retrieved 2007-01-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ a b c AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects: Crown Publishers/Random House. 2000. pp. p 723 — 730. ISBN 0-8129-31069. -8. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) Cite error: The named reference "AIA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  24. ^ "Nearing Completion Now". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1892-08-05. pp. page 6, column 2. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ a b c "Beautifying the Park". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1895-02-25. pp. 20, Column 2. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ The fasces of the newer columns on the corners of Flatbush Avenue and Prospect Park West lack Roman battle axes; these are present in high relief on the two 1893 columns.
  27. ^ A Map of Prospect Park (PDF) (Map) (2007 ed.). Prospect Park Alliance. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
  28. ^ Tragically, Albert Plum, a ten year old boy drowned in the fountain in June, 1895. It is possible that the death could have been adverted, but the attending police officer, unaware of anything amiss, drove would-be rescuers from the pool by drawing his service revolver, intent on rigorously enforcing the Park ban on people wading in the fountain pool. Under this grim pall, the death of a child and the censure of the police officer, the Plaza Fountain remained dry for most of its final year of existence. "Problem of the Plaza". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1895-03-31. p. 4, Column 4. Retrieved 2007-01-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ a b c "A Fine New Park Plaza". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1897-01-27. p. 14, Column 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ "F. W. Darlington, Engineer, Inventor". The New York Times. 1947-07-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ "An Electric Fountain". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1897-01-27. p. page 3, Column 4. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ The reservoir and attendant water tower was demolished in 1930; the site is now occupied by Mount Prospect Park.
  33. ^ Albert Kelsey, ed. (1900). Street Pagentry (2nd ed.). 931 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA: The Architectural Annual. pp. 233–240. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
  34. ^ "Our Newest Electric Toy". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1897-08-08. pp. 13, Column 2. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ "Grand Army Plaza - History". Prospect Park Aliance.
  36. ^ "The new electric fountain near the arch in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, attracts large crowds nightly, and although it has been in operation for two weeks, custom does not seem to stale its infinite variety. The dazzling brilliancy of the lights, the quickness with which the colrs are changed and the beautiful rainbow effects which the skillful operator in charge ofd the electric buttons manages to obtain are magnets which draw spectators from near and far. On the opening night, fully 100,000 people watched the display. As soon as there is sufficient darkness there is a sound of rushing water, and a great white column rises into the air. About it are started other and smaller columns of water, falling toward the centre. After a few momentsunder the white light the colors are changed, and brilliant reds, blues, and greens chase each other through the falling spray, and, intermingling, form a panorama which is the delight of all the residents of Brooklyn." — New York Mail and Express. August, 1897
  37. ^ "MacMonnies' Arch Bronzes". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1895-05-13. pp. page 2 column 3. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ "Brooklyn's Park System". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Easter Supplement. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1897-04-18. pp. page 10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ a b "The Quadriga is Here". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1898-08-15. pp. page 4, column 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ a b "Naval Group in Place; Arch is now Complete". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1901-04-13. pp. Page 2, column 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ "The Quadriga is in its Place". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1898-12-04. pp. [ page 31, column 5]. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ No harness actually attaches the horses to the chariots; MacMonnies enjoyed his artistic license, especially in allegories
  43. ^ "Statuary for Plaza Arch Held Up At Bridge". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1901-04-09. pp. page 1, column 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Reservoir Park was a small triangular plot occupying the corner of Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue, at the base of a steep slope that rose up to the Brooklyn City Reservoir. Frank Squire laid out the park in 1895 as a part of the redesign of the plaza; it consisted of a short path that led up to an oval, grassy plot encircled by a walkway. Low plantings of flowers were on either sides of the walkways, taller bushes and trees were planted along the edge of the park leading up to the reservoir. Henry W. Maxwell's memorial was situated there from 190
  45. ^ Frohne, H. W. (January 1908). "The Brooklyn Plaza and the Projected Brooklyn Central Library". The Architectural Record. XXIII (1). The Architectural Record Company: pp 97 – 110. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  46. ^ "FIRST BUILDING BEGUN ON BROOKLYN'S GREAT PLAZA; Public Library That Will Rival the Best in the World Soon to Occupy One Side of the Prospect Park Beauty Spot.". New York Times. 1912-05-12. pp. Magazine Section Part Five, SM12. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  47. ^ With help from Robert Moses and the Department of Parks and Recreation, and backing by Brooklyn Borough President Raymond V. Ingersoll, a new Art Deco design by architects Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally incorporated the structure of Almirall's east wing, but skinned with a new facade. construction resumed in 1938 and the main branch opened in February 1941, nearly twenty-eight years, eight months after the June 05, 1912 groundbreaking. "Brooklyn Library Speeded by Moses". New York Times. 1936-08-14. p. 19. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  48. ^ Brooklyn Public Library. "Central Library History" (PDF). {{cite web}}: |osti-access= requires |osti= (help); Invalid |osti-access=2007-06-05 (help)
  49. ^ "Subway Stations Opened: Last Three in Eastern Parkway Branch of I. R. T. put into service". New York Times. 1920-10-11. p. 11. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  50. ^ Goldstein, Ezra (2006-05-01). "Plaza To The People!" (PDF). Civic News (Vol. LXVIII, Number 9 ed.). Park Slope Civic Council. pp. 1, 4–5. Retrieved 2007-06-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  51. ^ a b Christian, Nicole M. (2000-01-04). "Signs Pass Color Test At Busy Brooklyn Plaza". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  52. ^ Prospect Park Alliance. "Grand Army Plaza".
  53. ^ "Storm Cuts Power for 150,000 Homes". The New York Times Inc. October 10, 1976. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  54. ^ Quindlen, Anna (1980-01-04). "For Prospect Park, $10 Million to Recapture What It Was; Bright Hope on Sunny Day". New York Times. p. Section: Metropolitan Report, Page B1. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ^ "Victory Resumes Place Atop Brooklyn Arch". New York Times. 1980-10-25. p. Section: Metropolitan Report, Page 26. Retrieved 2007-06-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  56. ^ "$100,000 Foundation Gift to Brooklyn". The New York Times. 1926-04-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  57. ^ a b Morrone, Francis (2001). An Architectural Guidebook To Brooklyn. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs-Smith Publisher. ISBN 9781423619116.
  58. ^ a b "Unsighjtly Things and Their Removal". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1897-01-23. pp. page 6 column 4. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
  59. ^ a b "Henry Maxwell Monument". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
  60. ^ "Henry W. Maxwell Dead; Succumbed To Apoplexy". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1902-05-12. pp. Page 1, Column 7, continues on page 2, column 1. Retrieved 2006-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  61. ^ {{[[Template:news |news ]]}}
  62. ^ In Memoriam Henry Warner Slocum 1826 – 1894. Albany, New York: The State of New York. 1904. p. 313.
  63. ^ "Slocum Statue Criticised". The Mews York Times. The New York Times Company. 1902-02-02. p. 14. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
  64. ^ "The Slocum Statue". The Mews York Times. The New York Times Company. 1902-02-07. p. page 8. Retrieved June 26, 2007. {{cite news}}: |page= has extra text (help)
  65. ^ Morrone, Francis. An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs-Smith Publisher. p. 408.
  66. ^ a b c "To Move Slocum's Statue". The Mews York Times. The New York Times Company. 1927-03-07. Retrieved June 26, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "SlocumMove" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

External links[edit]

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40°40′25″N 73°58′12″W / 40.673592229835°N 73.970038118046°W / 40.673592229835; -73.970038118046

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