Famed Bronx Sculptures Bronx STATS 2020
AMERICAN BOY
The massive limestone
sculpture was created by
French-born artist Louis St.
Lannes in the early 1920’s
after, in 1919, Julia Rice offered
New York City $1 million
to erect a recreational
facility in memory of her
late husband: lawyer, financier,
and inventor Isaac Rice
(1850-1915). The location
chosen for the facility was
the southern end of Pelham
Bay Park, not far from the
battery factory that Rice had
owned and operated.
Joining the decorative
Olympics-inspired friezes
and sculptures of the elaborate,
classically styled stadium
and indoor recreational
facility known as Rice Stadium
was the American Boy
statue. Depicting a partially
clad male youth, the American
Boy statue was inspired
by the stylized ancient art of
the Archaic Greek period.
Sculptor Louis St. Lannes
intended it to embody the
spiritual ideals of American
youth and to serve as an allegorical
representation of
healthy recreation. The statue
adorned a temple niche in
the stadium serving as an
inspiration to those who ran
and exercised on the Pelham
Bay grounds.
However, over the
years, the cost of the stadium
upkeep proved a burden
the City could not bear leaving
Rice Stadium to fall into
such a state of disrepair that
it was deemed a public safety
hazard and demolished in
1989. American Boy was
stored away, but when the
Parks Department set out to
renovate the southern section
of Pelham Bay Park,
including its track, the 14-
foot statue was brought out
of the cobwebs. Thanks to
$238,000 in funding from
Councilwoman Madeline
Provenzano, the aging limestone
surface of the statue
was cleaned, structural
problems were repaired and
the American Boy’s head was
re-attached. American Boy
now sits atop a new pedestal
overlooking residents enjoying
Pelham Bay’s new track
and field.
ARCHBISHOP JOHN
HUGHES STATUE
Irish-born sculptor
Maurice J. Power created
the bronze statue in 1891
to honor Archbishop John
Hughes, who founded Fordham
University – then St.
John’s College – in 1841,
and was also the City’s first
Roman Catholic Archbishop.
To celebrate Archbishop
Hughes’ legacy, a statue
was commissioned by the
Alumni of St. John’s College,
and the citizens of New York,
who also contributed funds
towards the statue’s installation.
The bronze sculpture,
set on a granite base, was
unveiled on June 24, 1891
during the Golden Jubilee
celebration of Fordham University
during the school’s
46th commencement festivities.
The statue remains
at the spot where it was
unveiled on the Rose Hill
Campus of Fordham University,
at Fordham Road
and Third Avenue. Facing
east toward the institution’s
Administration Building, the
statue’s placement allows
Archbishop John Hughes to
watch over his successors in
the University’s Office of the
President.
BRONX RIVER SOLDIER
Italian-born sculptor
John Grignola created
the granite statue of a Civil
War Union soldier in military
dress with a musket in
hand. It was originally commissioned
by a Morrisania
veterans group in the 1890s
as a marker for Woodlawn
Cemetery. However, it was
damaged before delivery,
and rejected.
John B. Lazzari, who
ran a local tombstone quarry
and monuments yard, purchased
the statue and exhibited
it on his property on
the west bank of the Bronx
River, just south of Gun Hill
Road. Later, as local workers
headed for a tapestry
factory on the east embankment
of the river, they damaged
an adjacent footbridge
held fast by a granite pier.
Lazzari removed the bridge,
and placed the statue on the
granite pier in the middle of
the river.
Decades later, the
statue became unstable on
its footing, and in 1964 it
toppled into the river. The
Parks Department rescued
the sculpture and salvaged
it. On August 21, 1970 the
Parks monuments crew installed
the statue on a new
base at its present location
on the grounds of historic
Valentine-Varian House.
WINGED VICTORY
The Bronx Victory Memorial,
also known as The
Bronx County War Memorial,
is located on the southern
edge of Crimi Road in
Pelham Bay Park. Erected
in 1932, the memorial was
designed by architect and
landscape architect John
J. Sheridan and sculptors
Belle Kinney and Leopold
Scholz. The monument was
dedicated on September 24,
1933. The main element of
the memorial, dedicated to
the 947 Bronx soldiers killed
in World War I, is a limestone
pedestal supporting a
limestone Corinthian column
capped by a bronze “Winged
Victory” sculpture. A paved
plaza with the remnants of
the original formal garden
consisting of hedges, floral
plantings, benches and
walks surrounds the over
120-foot-high monument.
The 32-acre site was completed
at a cost of $400,000
raised by borough veterans
and patriotic groups. As part
of a $975,000 capital project
funded by Council Member
Madeline Provenzano,
renovation of the statue consisted
of extensive cleaning,
repair and replacement of
the limestone masonry and
ornamentation. The missing
22 BRONX STATS - NOVEMBER 20, 2020 BTR
eagle’s head was recarved,
as was the massive
globe supporting the statue.
The bronze sculpture was
removed from her perch,
repaired, re-gilded, and installed
on a new globe.
ROCKEFELLER FOUNTAIN
The Rockefeller Fountain
was named after its
benefactor William Rockefeller
(1841–1922) who gave
what once stood in Como,
Italy, to New York City. The
fountain is now an official
New York landmark
The fountain was created
by Biagio Catella to
beautify Piazza Cavour, a
place intended as a respite
for tourists and residents
alike. In six months, Catella
and a team of artisans
completed the three-tiered
fountain carved of Bianco
Pi Italian marble, and composed
of a central image of
a swan surrounded by sea
creatures and ornamental
carving. On September
23, 1872, the fountain was
turned on. While a work of
beauty to New Yorkers, in
Italy, the community was divided
by those who revered
the foundation and those
who opposed its creation.
Opponents of the work of
art took exception to the
nude female naiad figures
and others were worried that
the waters needed to operate
the fountain demanded
too much pressure from the
neighborhood water supply.
Poor construction and fiscal
mismanagement appear
to have settled the matter.
The waters of the lake had
badly eroded the landfill
foundation by 1890. A municipal
budget crisis left the
city without the resources to
repair and run the fountain,
and it was dismantled and
placed in salvage in 1891. In
1899, a local exposition and
disastrous fire further undermined
the city’s financial viability,
and in an attempt to
alleviate the local debt, the
City Council authorized the
sale of the fountain for 3,500
lira (the estimated equivalent
then of $637).
In 1902, William Rockefeller
purchased the fountain
and invested an additional
$25,000 to bring it to the City
of New York, where it was
installed at the Bronx Zoo in
1903. Later, the esteemed architectural
firm of Heins and
La Farge designed a new ceremonial
setting, and in 1910,
the fountain was moved to its
present location on the north
side of the zoo at the Astor
Court. In 1968, the fountain
was designated an official
New York City landmark, and
is one of the few local monuments
to be honored in this
way.
LORELEI FOUNTAIN
The Lorelei Fountain
(also known as the Heinrich
Heine Fountain) at Joyce
Kilmer Park honors the German
poet, writer, and social
dissident Heinrich Heine
(1797–1856), whose poem
Die Lorelei immortalized the
mysterious creature of romantic
legend. According
to legend, the maiden was
transformed into a siren after
throwing herself into the river.
She could be heard singing
from a rock along the river,
her voice hypnotizing sailors
to sleep, and then to their
death.T
he sculpture was created
by Ernst Herter (1847-
1917) out of white Tyrolean
marble and features Lorelei,
a German mythical figure
seated on a rock in the Rhine
River among mermaids, dolphins,
and seashells. Other
decorative and allegorical
motifs include a frog, a bird,
and a skull symbolizing mortality.
The bas-reliefs around
the pedestal include a profile
of Heine.
The fountain was creat-
Bronx River Soldier Statue