"The Equestrian Washington" - Union Square

On June 22, 1855 the editor of The New York Times lamented the fact that "a small party of citizens of New-York have clubbed together and subscribed fifty-thousand dollars for a statue which has been modeled by our countryman, H. K. Browne [sic]."  The editorial noted "Our New-York monument will be an equestrian statue of gigantic proportions, and will be placed in Union-square."

The New York Times was clear in its condemnation of any statue.  It applauded the fact that during the Revolution the British statues had been destroyed.  "New-York, as yet, is free from any monumental pillars or effigies, and the fact is most creditable to the good sense of our practical and busy people."  The writer applied the logic that in ancient times monuments were necessary to record history.   But the invention of the printing press had done away with that need.  "A nation that has books has no need of monuments," insisted the editor.

Saying that "Every child knows Washington," and "his history is on every book-shelf," the article contended there was no need for a monument.  The editor called the raising of statues "idolatry, "and said "a monument is something repugnant to the common-sense of a practical and intelligent people."

The "small party of citizens" who had raised the funds for the Washington statue included some of the wealthiest and most powerful men of New York--among them William Astor, August Belmont, Peter Lorillard, James Lenox, Robert B. Minturn, Robert L. Taylor, and W. C. Rhinelander.

Henry Kirke Brown was in the last stages of the two-year project when The New York Times editorial was published.  An apprentice sculptor, John Quincy Adams Ward, who would become one of America's great artists, had been highly involved in the work in Brown's Brooklyn studio.  Decades later, in May 1886, the Magazine of Western History noted that when workers involved in the "mechanical work" went on strike, Ward convinced Brown they could do the work themselves.  "Ward says he passed more days in the bronze horse's belly than Jonah spent minutes in the belly of the whale."

Two weeks before The New York Times editorial, a journalist from the Springfield, Maine, Republican, visited the Ames Manufacturing Company in Chicopee, Maine where the statue was being cast.  The newspaper said the work, still in dismembered pieces, "is spoken of in the highest terms of praise."

Brown used the famous bust of Washington executed by Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1785 as his model.  He depicted the general on horseback (making this only the second equestrian statue in the United States) and posed him as he might have appeared on Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783.

The morning of July 4, 1856 saw pouring rain in New York City.  Nevertheless, a large parade preceded the unveiling ceremonies where newspapers estimated the crown at between 8,000 and 9,000.  The weather was not the only glitch in the ceremonies.  The coverings became caught and firemen had to erect ladders to disentangle it.

Finally, at about 9:15, the covering fell off and, according to The New York Herald, "the statue was hailed with the most enthusiastic cheers by the crowd...The bands played 'Hail Columbia'--the ladies waved their handkerchiefs--the troops presented arms--the people generally uncovered their heads, and gave vent to their enthusiasm in loud and long continued cheering."

The New York Times reported "The friends of Mr. Brown, the sculptor, pressed around him to shake him by the hand and congratulate him...one man in the throng distinguishing himself above the rest by repeatedly shouting 'Hooray for the architect of the statue."

Brown's larger-than-life statue stood 14 feet, mounted on a granite pedestal of the same height.  The body of the horse was cast in a single piece.  Washington was dressed in his Continental uniform, his hat resting on his bridle arm and his sword sheathed to his side.  His right hand was extended as if he were about to speak.  The monument was placed in the triangular traffic island at the southeast corner of the park.  According to Helen Henderson in her 1917 A Loiterer in New York, its location was touted as being "the spot where the citizens met the Commander-in-Chief of the army when he reentered the city after the British evacuation, November 25, 1783."

The New York Herald, in reporting on the unveiling, was perhaps the first to heap praises on the work.  "Not intending to anticipate the critical opinions which will be showered upon Mr. Brown's work, we may say that it is a great ornament to the finest portion of the Empire city, and that its general effect is highly impressive."  Somewhat disappointingly, the young architect who designed the monolithic base got no recognition by any of the critics.  Richard Upjohn is remembered today as one of the most important architects of the period.

Suddenly The New York Times had changed its tune.  "It is in every way worthy of the highest admiration," it wrote.  In a separate article the editor gushed, "We are not sure that any city of the Old world can boast of a more noble work of the kind; we are sure that no city of the New can."  It was a compliment that would be echoed again and again.

An early view shows the cast iron lamp posts that surrounded the monument.  In the background, left, is the Everett House Hotel. 

In 1878, The Art Journal discussed Brown's works and said, "Nothing can be more harmonious in all respects than his Washington statue in Union Square, New York.  The horse is worthy of his rider, but does not divert the mind from the latter."   And nearly half a century after the unveiling, in January 1892, Jonathan Gilmer Speed, writing in The Christian Union said "Its dignity and simplicity of treatment impress both the cultivated and the unlearned, and it is not infrequently spoken of as the best equestrian status in this country."

The statue was the scene of ceremonies every subsequent Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day.  Union Square was still an upscale residential enclave, and the events sometimes upset the quietude within the homes of residents like Cornelius Roosevelt, who lived directly opposite.  On February 21, 1862, for instance, the New York Herald reported on the arrangements for Washington's Birthday.  "A national salute will be fired at sunrise at the Equestrian statue of Washington, in Union square."

An 1863 cabinet card, oddly enough, viewed Washington from behind.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Two decades after the end of the Civil War the Equestrian Washington statue was the scene of touching, if sometimes mistaken, reverence.  On July 3, 1885 an elderly man, Samuel Johnson, fell to his knees before the monument and began praying.  The Sun reported "He raised his voice gradually until it became very loud, indeed, and a crowd gathered around him."  Overcome with emotion, the gray-haired man rose to his feet and shouted "Lincoln, Lincoln, I owe my freedom to you!"

A policeman pushed through the crowd and tried to persuade Johnson to move along.  He continued sobbing and murmuring "Lincoln! Lincoln!"  Finally the officer explained that the statue was Washington and that the Lincoln statue was on the opposite side of the park.  "The old negro then moved away," said the article.  The reporter concluded "He said he was a slave for a man named Bob Jenkins, in West Virginia, and that he had scars on his back from the lashings he had then received."

The massive proportions of the bronze statue were captured in this stereopticon slide.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

The universal esteem earned by Brown's work of art was perhaps best exemplified in 1903 when Adolf Friedmann, an American citizen living in Hungary, presented the city of Budapest with an exact copy.  The Evening World reported "The statue was unveiled...in the presence of the members of the American colony of Budapest and of thousands of enthusiastic Hungarians."

In September 1913, Parks Commissioner Charles Bunstein Stover pushed to relocate the statue.  The New-York Tribune reported that he "is anxious that the equestrian statue of the Father of His Country now at Union Square, looking north, should look south."  He wanted to move it to the middle of the southern edge of the park, where the statue of the Marquis de Lafayette currently stood.   Another faction wanted the monument to be moved to Washington Square--a seemingly appropriate site.

It would be 15 years before the statue would be moved to tje site where Stover envisioned it.   On April 22, 1928, the Board of Transportation announced intentions to build an ambitious subway concourse below the park.  "Extensive changes in Union Square Park will be made necessary by the underground construction," said The New York Times.  The entire park had to be excavated and the grade of the park raised to accommodate the underground mezzanines and passageways.  "This will involve relocation of the historic statues in the park," said the article.

The monuments and fixtures were taken down, crated, and stored to await the park's reconstruction.   When the Equestrian Washington statue was brought back on July 10, 1930, a surprising detail was temporarily visible to New Yorkers.  Henry Kirke Brown had included a roster of the wealthy donors' names at the horse's feet.  The New York Times reported "As long as the statue remained on its stone pedestal, elevated above the heads of passersby, only spectators who carried ladders as aids to sightseeing were able to notice the list on the flat bronze base of the statue."

Sculptor and chairman of the National Sculpture Society was astonished, saying "This method of memorializing the donors of a statue is unusual," explaining that those names were more commonly encased in a cornerstone.  But the Washington statue had no cornerstone.

For a few days in 1930 passersby could view the roster of names as the statue sat on the ground.  photographer unknown, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

As the monument was reassembled on its new site, its artistic merit had not dimmed.  Parks Commissioner Walter R. Herrick mentioned on July 9, 1930, "artists consider the statue, which is by H. K. Brown, one of the finest equestrian statues in the world."

Union Square suffered a dark period in the late 1960s and 1970s when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy.  With no money to maintain it, the park was neglected and became a "needle park," reigned over by drug users and sellers.  Monuments throughout the city suffered, including George Washington which lost its bronze sword and bridle strap to vandals.

In 1986, during happier times, the park was renovated.  In 1989 the Adopt-A-Monument Program restored the Washington statue, recreating the missing elements.

The monument was a site of Manhattan's collective expression of grief following the World Trade Center attacks.  An unofficial shrine developed around its base and a 24-hour community vigil lasted for days.

The monument was restored three more times, beginning that year.  In 2004 the bronze was treated and in 2006 Upjohn's granite pedestal was conserved.

The Equestrian Washington--despite an 1855 newspaperman's vehement opposition--is the city's oldest public monument.   And more than 160 years after its unveiling it is universally considered a masterwork.

photographs by the author

Henry K. Brown's Much-Maligned "Abraham Lincoln" Statue - Union Square

Lincoln's suit worn with a Roman toga caused much comment -- photo by Alice Lum

In the years immediately following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on the night of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, grieving communities across the nation initiated plans to erect memorials and statues to the fallen President.   Among the first was New York City.

The Union League Club started the ball rolling. In 1868 the Republican political organization began selling “subscriptions” to garner donations from the community to pay for the project. As the money flowed in, the Club commissioned sculptor Henry Kirke Brown to design the monument.

Brown was well-known to New Yorkers, having produced the masterful equestrian statue of George Washington that stood at the south end of Union Square Park. The bronze statue was recognized internationally as among of the greatest of contemporary equestrian works.

Brown’s efforts in depicting Abraham Lincoln would fall short of the mark in the public’s eye.

By September of 1871 the monument was nearly finished. Cast by the Wood Bronze Company of Philadelphia, the statue had been completed a year earlier and carefully guarded from public view in a bonded warehouse on South Street.  Weighing almost 3,000 pounds, it stood just under 11 feet tall. Brown had inexplicably chosen to dress the President in modern attire while wearing a Roman toga over his shoulder. In his left hand he held the Proclamation of Emancipation.

New Yorkers gathered on September 17 as workers assembled the monument.

The base of the monument, the largest stone ever quarried in the United States and weighing over 17 tons, was placed on the 9-1/2 square foot sub-base over a 5-foot deep foundation.  A second stone, at 16,000 pounds, was topped by an 8,000-pound cap; forming a 24-foot high pedestal for the statue. The gray granite blocks from Dix Island, Maine had been highly polished and etched with 36 stars representing each state of the Union during the Lincoln administration.

And then the statue was erected.

The New York Times reported “A frightful object has been placed in Union-square. It is said to be a statue of a man who deserves to be held in lasting remembrance as a true patriot, a sincere, unselfish, noble-hearted chief in times of great trouble and perplexity—Abraham Lincoln. But it does not resemble Mr. Lincoln.”

The article lambasted Brown’s choice of Lincoln’s clothing. “The mind has not conceived such a pair of pantaloons as that which the artist has put on this statue...the designer of the work has clapped a Roman toga over the upper part of the figure, thus combining the costume of the past and the present in a manner never yet dreamt of by caricaturists.

“There never was such a statue done in this world before. It is like the hideous nightmare which people have after supping on roast pork and lobster salad,” the writer complained.

The newspaper offered to accept subscriptions to remove the statue and ship it to Chicago where “works of art of this kind are highly appreciated.”  It further warned nurse maids to avoid that area of the park, lest the children in their care might mistake the statue for the bogeyman.

The criticisms were unrelenting for decades. When the statue of Benjamin Franklin was unveiled in Printing House Square a year later, the same newspaper sighed with relief at its high quality, saying that the City was “discouraged since Mr. Brown’s ‘Lincoln’ was set up in Union-square.”

The memorial was upgraded in 1875 with a low stone wall, engraved with the words “…with malice toward none; charity toward all.”

By 1875, when the stone wall was erected around the statue's base, commercial interests were creeping onto 14th Street behind -- photo NYPL Collection

The elaborate new setting did not, however, diminish criticism. On January 4, 1896 Architecture and Building wrote “The angularity and ungainliness of the figure are marked, and the effect upon the spectator is painful rather than otherwise. There is nothing in the face to indicate genius, or any noble quality, with perhaps the exception of earnestness of purpose and determination.”

Three years later Layton Crippen wrote a scathing article for The New York Times entitled “Unsightly New York Statues,” in which he included an etching of Brown’s Lincoln.  “New York is just now waking up to the fact that private donors and public committees have been allowed to place a large number of painfully ugly monuments in positions where they can do the most harm…But the most difficult problem is that of doing away with or replacing with tolerable productions the old eyesores.”

By the turn of the century, an ornate cast iron railing had been added to the wall -- photo NYPL Collection



Thirty-six years after its unveiling, the statue was still being panned.  In its October 1917 edition, Art World noted “Perhaps the finest equestrian statue in the United States is the ‘Washington’ in Union Square, New York, by H. K. Brown.  But across the square is the statue of Lincoln, also by Brown, and that is perhaps the worst Lincoln the country had…Here we have the best and worst work of Brown on one square in New York.”

Despite the artistic condemnation, the statue was the site of speeches and celebrations for decades. Flowers adorned the memorial every year on Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day). In 1877, for instance, with the memory of the Civil War still vivid, the Lincoln statue was the most decorated in the park. A laurel wreath was placed on Lincoln’s head, the statue was wound with sprays of wisteria, begonias and greenery; while a panel spelled out “Emancipation” in white carnations.

Ornate floral garlands embellish the statue for Decoration Day festivities -- photo NYPL Collection

Both the Washington and Lincoln statues sat on triangular traffic islands created by the oval-shape of Union Square. When they were erected, the park was surrounded by elegant brownstone mansions that created a pleasing backdrop for them.

By the early 1920s, 14th Street was lined with tall commercial buildings.  On May 21, 1922 The Times noted that “As the square gave way to business houses, the background and surroundings became less favorable to a showing of…the monuments.”

Lincoln's statue was diminished by the commercial buildings that now lined 14th Street by World War I -- photo NYPL Collection

A plan to renovate Union Square that included moving the statues was proposed. Although the Washington statue sat on the spot where, reportedly, New Yorkers acclaimed the general on Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783 and had stood in its original spot longer than any other statue in the city, the plan was approved.

Lincoln lies rather ungracefully awaiting removal to his new location -- photo NYPL Collection

The two statues were repositioned in a straight line down the middle of the park – Lincoln at the north end facing south, Lafayette in the middle and Washington at the southern tip.

Reminiscent of the speeches and celebrations centered around the Lincoln statue in Victorian times, a ceremony was held here on February 12, 1942 by New York veterans and Boy Scouts.  Sparked by the surprising and demoralizing news of German and Japanese victories, “Lincoln Day” was intended to rally patriotism and optimism among citizens nationwide.  One Chinese-American boy scaled the pedestal to lay a wreath of flowers forming a “V” for victory at Lincoln’s feet.

By 1955 Lincoln had seen better days and The New York Times deemed it “weatherbeaten.” The statue was completely restored in 1992.

One star for each state of the Union during Lincoln's presidency surround his pedestal.  photo by Alice Lum

Today Brown’s Abraham Lincoln stands stoically on its pedestal staring southward towards the much more famous George Washington. While no longer maligned, it is more often simply overlooked.