Friday, February 28, 2025 – WE PASS THEM ON WALKS IN THE PARK
The Fascinating Histories
of 15
Most Famous Monuments In
Central Park
Friday, February 28, 2025
ISSUE #1407
Secret New York
Shutterstock / Carlos Neto
Created by Jose de Creeft, the Alice in Wonderland statue was gifted to the children of New York by the wealthy George Delacore. Delacore wanted to honor his wife Margarita who would read Alice in Wonderland to their children.
In this monument, Alice sits on top of a mushroom throne alongside the Cheshire Cat, March Hare, Dormouse, and the Mad Hatter. Viewed as one of the, if not the most, adored statues in Central Park, children often climb onto and sit underneath it.
Location: 75th Street, east side
Artist/Designer: Jose de Creeft, sculptor; Hideo Sasaki and Fernando Texidor, architects
NYC Parks Website
Created in 1939 by Richmond Barthé, who was an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance, is the Arthur Brisbane Memorial. Brisbane was a journalist who helped create yellow journalism; a gossip-filled style that’s known for its banner headlines and excessive exclamation points. The highest paid newspaper editor during his time, Brisbane advocated for the Spanish-American War through the press, emphasizing how the press can alter public opinion.
Location: 101st Street and Fifth Avenue
Artist/Designer: Richmond Barthé, sculptor; Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, architects
Created in 1873, the Bethesda Fountain, also known as The Angel of the Waters, is both a biblical and historical symbol of the arrival of pure drinking water in New York in 1842. This monument ties together the Gospel of St. John (5:2-4): “Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool … whoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had,” with the feat of the creation of the 42-mile-long Croton Aqueduct system which brought water to New York after it had outgrown its water supply from local wells and springs.
This statue features four cherubs which represent temperance, purity, health, and peace, symbolizing the healing and peace the country so desperately needed at the end of the American Civil War during which time the statue was unveiled.
Location: 73rd Street, mid-Park
Artist/Designer: Emma Stebbins
The two-tiered Bethesda Terrace, considered the heart of Central Park, was installed in 1864. The northern end opens to an upper terrace, home to two square columns carved with scenes of the sun, a rooster, a wheat field, a Bible, an owl, and a witch riding her broom through the sky. Across 72nd street you’ll find two staircases, dressed in the four seasons.
Though the terrace is man-made, its theme greatly portrays nature.
Location: 72nd Street, mid-Park
Artist/Designer: Jacob Wrey Mould and Calvert Vaux
Shutterstock / cpaulfell
A symbol of power and prestige, the Obelisk was created under an Egyptian pharaoh to highlight his dexterity as a king. Around 2000 years later, the Egyptian ruler, in hopes of expanding trade, gave the Obelisk to the U.S. After 40 days on the Atlantic and 112 days spent maneuvering through Manhattan, the Obelisk found its home in Central Park in 1881.
Location: 81st Street, east side
Artist/Designer: Egyptians during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmosis III (c. 1443 BC)
Shutterstock / Holly Vegter
Hans Christian Andersen was an author who wrote more than 150 fairy tales including “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Duckling.” The Danish-American Women’s Association sponsored a radio broadcast and raised $75,000 in order to create this statue, and in 1956 it was created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Andersen’s birth.
Location: 74th Street, east side
Artist/Designer: George Lober, sculptor; Otto F. Langmann, bench architect
Central Park Conservancy Website
Helping to lead the fight for independence of multiple South American nations, Jose de San Martin’s victory over the Spanish Royalists is said to be one of the most courageous plans by any military leader. Losing a third of his army on his journey over the Andes mountains, Jose de San Martin was memorialized in Central Park after Buenos Aires traded the statue for one of George Washington.
Location: 59th Street and Sixth Avenue
Artist/Designer: Louis-Joseph Daumas
Central Park Conservancy Website
Helping to lead the fight for independence of multiple South American nations, Jose de San Martin’s victory over the Spanish Royalists is said to be one of the most courageous plans by any military leader. Losing a third of his army on his journey over the Andes mountains, Jose de San Martin was memorialized in Central Park after Buenos Aires traded the statue for one of George Washington.
Location: 59th Street and Sixth Avenue
Artist/Designer: Louis-Joseph Daumas
Shutterstock / ness26
First sculpted around 1932 specifically for the Bronx Zoo and then used for subsequent castings, this monument may be familiar to those who have never even stepped foot in Central Park. This is because this monument is also on display at the Met, the Bronx Zoo, and atop the southern gatepost of the Ancient Playground at 84th Street.
Location: 79th Street, east side
Artist/Designer: Paul Howard Manship, sculptor; Bruce Kelly and David Varnell, architects
Shutterstock/ Via Ravenash
The statue of Balto was created in 1925 by Frederick George Richard Roth, famed Brooklyn-born sculptor. The Siberian Husky made national headlines for transporting a much needed medicine from Anchorage, Alaska to Nome, Alaska during a diphtheria outbreak. A group of New York artists then raised money to honor Balto, commissioning Roth to memorialize the canine. Balto has been well loved over the last 90+ years
Location: 67th Street, east side
Artist/Designer: Frederick George Richard Roth
Shutterstock / travelview
Known for inventing the historical novel, Sir Walter Scott was memorialized in 1872 by Sir John Steell, who also sculpted his companion Robert Burns. Before writing historical novels such as Rob Roy, Scott began with translating German ballads into Scottish and then writing ballads celebrating Scottish traditions. Proud of Scott, and wanting to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth, Scottish-Americans raised the funds for the statue as a way to memorialize him.
Location: 66th Street, mid-Park
Artist/Designer: Sir John Steell
Shutterstock / Paul Juser
A Scottish national hero, poet Robert Burns, known as being fluent in “the language of the heart,” was memorialized in 1880 by Sir John Steell. At Burns’ feet you’ll find a poem to Mary Campbell, his lost love.
Location: 66th Street, mid-Park
Artist/Designer: Sir John Steell
Shutterstock / Paul Hakimata Photography
Ludwig van Beethoven is no stranger. In 1884, Henry Baerer sculpted the bust of Beethoven based on the work of European sculptor Hugo Hagen. This memorial is meant to celebrate Beethoven’s presence in the music world and was erected to celebrate The German-American Beethoven Mannerchoir’s 25th anniversary.
Location: 71st Street, mid-Park
Artist/Designer: Henry Baerer
Shutterstock / Dominique James
Standing tall on a ledge in Central Park you’ll find The Falconer, a statue of a fifteenth-century man with a falcon on his left arm. Sculptor George Blackall Simons was commissioned by George Kemp, an Irish New Yorker who saw the statue in 1875 at the Royal Academy exhibition and wanted a larger version of it in Central Park.
Location: 72nd Street, mid-Park
Artist/Designer: George Blackall Simonds
Shutterstock / elisank79
One of the newer statues in Central Park, this monument honors three women who fought for civil rights; Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Prior to this monument, Central Park had 28 men honored with statues, and no historical women. The all-volunteer Monumental Women group formed in 2015 to raise awareness of women’s role in history. They then commissioned Meredith Bergmann to sculpt the monument, which was revealed on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.
When the idea for the monument was first thought up, the public review of the proposed design raised concern that women of color were not being recognized, so in 2019 the concept was revised. In this monument you’ll see the three women working with essential texts from the early women’s rights movement beneath the table.
Location: 67th Street, mid-Park (on the Mall)
Artist/Designer: Meredith Bergmann
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Alexander von Humboldt
Geographer, Naturalist & Explorer
appropriately outside the Museum of Natural History
CREDITS
SECRET NEW YORK
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