Grand Army Plaza (Manhattan)

Coordinates: 40°45′52″N 73°58′24″W / 40.76444°N 73.97333°W

William Tecumseh Sherman, northern side of plaza

Pomona, atop the Pulitzer Fountain

The Plaza Hotel, seen from corner of 5th Ave and 59th St

Grand Army Plaza lies at the intersection of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue in front of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, New York City. It stretches from 60th to 58th streets between East Drive and Fifth Avenue.

The plaza's northern half, carved out of the very southeasternmost corner of Central Park, has a golden equestrian statue of William Tecumseh Sherman designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.^[1] Sherman sits astride behind Victory, her one hand holding a palm frond and the other pointing the way forward. Temporary sculpture exhibits are often mounted on this side of the plaza. The southern half features the Bitter-designed "Abundance, known as the "Pulitzer Fountain" because it was contributed by publisher Joseph Pulitzer. It is topped with a bronze statue of the Roman goddess Pomona, also designed by Bitter. The famed Plaza Hotel sits on the southwest corner of the plaza. Scholars Gate, behind Grand Army Plaza, provided one of the two original main entrances to the carriage drives of Central Park, the other being Merchants Gate at the Grand Circle, now Columbus Circle. On the south side of the Plaza (between 57th and 58th Streets) once stood the French Renaissance château of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, designed by George B. Post; rising behind its gated front court, it was the grandest of the Fifth Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age. Bergdorf Goodman occupies its site.

The idea for such a plaza was first proposed by sculptor Karl Bitter in 1898. It was designed by Beaux-Arts architecture firm Carrère and Hastings and completed in 1916. The New York City Board of Aldermen named it Grand Army Plaza in 1923 ^[2] after the Grand Army of the Potomac.^[3]

The plaza underwent a $3.7 million renovation in 1990^[4] and was renewed again in 2013, including regilding of the statue of William Tecumseh Sherman.^[5]

References

1. Central Park Conservancy Grand Army Plaza
2. Landmark Preservation Commission (23 July 1974). "LP-0860" (PDF). NYC Landmark Designation Reports. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
3. "Grand Army Plaza". centralparknyc.org. Central Park Conservancy. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
4. • Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995), The Encyclopedia of New York City, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0300055366, pp. 497-498
   • LOUIE, ELAINE (1 March 1990). "Currents; Grand Army Plaza's Rather Grand History". New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
   • GOLDBERGER, PAUL (28 June 1990). "Review/Architecture; A Restored Grand Army Plaza, With a New Coat for the General". New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
   • "Grand Army Plaza, Redressed". New York Times. 2 July 1990. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
   • Morgan, Ann Lee (2007). The Oxford dictionary of American art and artists. Oxford reference online. Oxford University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-19-512878-9.
5. Dunlap, David (18 June 2013). "It's General Sherman's Time to Shine, but Not Too Much". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2014.