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ed for the poet’s home city of
Dusseldorf. However, political
groups opposed to Heine’s
Jewish origins and political
views blocked its installation
and instead, the fountain was
purchased by a committee of
German-Americans in 1893.
The sculpture was dedicated
at the south end of what was
then Grand Concourse Plaza
on July 8, 1899.
It was moved to the
park’s north end in 1940.
In 1999, the monument was
restored through the Municipal
Art Society’s Adopt-
A-Monument Program, with
$310,000 as a gift from the
Anna-Maria and Stephen
Kellen Foundation. It was
relocated to its original position
at Joyce Kilmer Park in
a newly landscaped setting
in the south end, funded by
Borough President Fernando
Ferrer and Councilman Pedro
G. Espada.
GENERAL JOSIAH
PORTER STATUE
The sculpture of General
Josiah Porter (1830–1894),
located in Van Cortlandt
Park adjacent to the Van
Cortlandt House, was created
by William Clark Noble
(1858–1938) and dedicated
in 1902. It was commissioned
at a cost of $20,000,
and was a gift to the City by
the National Guard Association
of New York State, who
utilized the grounds for polo
matches.
Porter is reputed to have
been the first Harvard College
graduate to enlist in the Union
Army during the Civil War. He
was made a first lieutenant
in the Massachusetts Volunteers
in 1861, and promoted
to captain that same year.
In 1865, he commanded the
22nd Regiment of the National
Guard of New York and
in 1867, received the rank of
major.
Porter’s distinguished
service led him to be promoted
to colonel in 1869,
and then to major general
and adjutant general in 1886.
Due to his service, Porter was
deemed worthy of the permanent
bronze sculpture.
The statue of Porter is
an accurate depiction of the
general in full dress uniform.
In 1998, the Porter statue
was reset on its base, and
underwent a surface cleaning
and conservation by the
City Parks Foundation Monuments
Conservation Program.
Further funds are sought to
model and replicate Porter’s
missing bronze sword.
LOUIS J. HEINTZ
MEMORIAL
Louis J. Heintz first proposed
a Grand Concourse in
1890 and in honor of his efforts;
a statue depicting his
likeness was cast in 1905
and presented to the city in
1909. Fittingly, the Memorial
resides at the southern end
of the Concourse in Joyce
Kilmer Park.
The bronze portrait statue
is positioned on a granite
pedestal in front of which
stands a draped female figure
designated FAME. She
is represented drawing the
inscription: “Louis J. Heintz
to commemorate the founding
of the progress and prosperity
of the Bronx” with her
right hand while in her left
she holds a palm branch. The
monument was designed by
architect William Welles Bosworth
and the sculptor of the
figures are by Pierre Feitu.
HENRY HUDSON
MONUMENT
This massive column
located in Henry Hudson Park
fittingly commemorates Henry
Hudson. The famed explorer
is credited as the first European
to discover the Hudson
River 400 years ago after being
hired by the Dutch East
India Company to find a sea
route through North America
to the Far East. Hudson is
depicted at the top of the column
in a monumental bronze
sculpture by Karl Bitter. Clad
in seafaring garb, Hudson
stands as if balancing himself
on a ship’s deck. The relief
on the south side depicts
Hudson receiving his commission
from the Dutch East
India Company, and the relief
on the north side portrays the
first fur trading post on Manhattan.
Bitter originally prepared
a plaster model of Hudson in
1906, and the architectural
firm of Babb, Cook and Welch
designed the 100-foot-high
Doric column, which was
erected by 1912.
But the project was
postponed indefinitely when
funds ran out and Bitter died
in a car accident in 1915.
Parks commissioner Robert
Moses revived the idea for
a monument as part of his
Henry Hudson Bridge and
Park project 20 years later.
Sculptor Karl H. Gruppe, a
student of Bitter, redesigned
the figure of Hudson and the
two seven- foot bas-reliefs
along the base of the column.
The monument was dedicated
on January 6, 1938, and ever
since, Henry Hudson keeps
watch over the river that
bears his name.
BRONX VICTORY
MEMORIAL
MOSHOLU PARKWAY
The bronze figural group
honors the local servicemen
who lost their lives defending
America during World War
I. At the war’s conclusion in
1918, local citizens formed
the Bronx Victory Memorial
Association and commissioned
Irish-born, self-taught
artist Jerome Connor to create
the war memorial. His
conception depicts a fallen
soldier, protected by a comrade
who stands vigilant with
bayonet in hand. At his feet,
an eagle with wings spread
symbolizes the victorious call
to arms.
The sculpture is set
upon a circular pedestal of
Rockport and Deer Isle pink
granite designed by architect
Arthur George Waldreaon and
is framed by a bed of trees
and floral beds. The sculpture
was unveiled before
thousands of spectators on
November 11, 1925. In 1989
it was conserved through
the Municipal Art Society’s
Adopt-A-Monument Program.
BRONX VICTORY
MEMORIAL
PELHAM BAY PARK
Pelham Bay Park’s
Bronx Victory Memorial was
designed by architect and
landscape architect John J.
Sheridan, and sculptors Belle
Kinney and Leopold Scholz to
commemorate the 947 soldiers
from the Bronx who paid
the ultimate sacrifice during
World War I.
The monument was
erected in 1932 and dedicated
in 1933. It consists of a
landscaped plaza and a raised
paved terrace in which stands
a massive limestone pedestal
with sculptural reliefs.
At the center of the pedestal,
a Corinthian column
is surmounted by a gilded
bronze Victory figure.
Measuring 18 feet in
height and weighing 7,300
pounds, the sculpture and
the classical column are part
of a long symbolic sculptural
tradition dating to Greek and
Roman antiquity.
The monument was
dedicated in an elaborate
ceremony, complete with parade
on September 24, 1933.
Despite the welcoming, faulty
construction, environmental
erosion, and vandalism led
Bronx Victory Memorial to fall
into disrepair, as the gold leaf
disappeared altogether from
Victory, leaving her bronze
surface exposed to the elements,
and a crack in the
supporting globe represented
a potential safety hazard.
Councilwoman Madeline
Provenzano sponsored a $1.1
million capital project that
included an extensive cleaning,
repair, and replacement
of the limestone masonry and
ornamentation for the Bronx
Victory Memorial. In addition,
the missing eagle’s head was
re-carved as was the massive
globe supporting the statue.
The bronze sculpture
was removed from her perch,
repaired, re-gilded, and installed
on the new globe. A
rededication ceremony took
place on November 11, 2001.
DOUGHBOY MONUMENT
HIGHBRIDGE
A monument honoring the sacrifi
ces of Bronx soldiers serving in World
War I was rededicated during the centennial
year of the confl ict’s end.
The statue, known as the Highbridge
Doughboy – depicting a World
War I American infantryman dressed in
uniform with a rifl e – was rededicated
amid fanfare after a massive restoration
following four decades in storage.
The rededication of the bronze,
seven and a half foot artpiece took
place on Friday, September 28, 2018
at Macombs Dam Park.
It was placed on its original eightfoot
tall granite pedestal in a planting
bed at Jerome Avenue and West 161st
Street, across the street from Yankee
Stadium, at the gateway of the Highbridge
community.
The statue was originally dedicated
in 1923 in honor of service men
from Highbridge, then a community
of over 10,000 people, who served in
what was known as ‘The Great War.’
It was originally located at University
and Ogden avenues and was
later moved to Bridge Playground, near
the Washington Bridge, where in the
1970s it was vandalized by drug addicts
who stripped the monument of all
sellable metal, such as the doughboy’s
bronze gun and even the name plate
that was affi xed to the pedestal.
Eventually it was put into storage
for safekeeping.
The statue received a $250,000
renovation by NYC Parks Department’s
Citywide Monuments Conservation
Program with additional support from
the United States World War I Centennial
Commission and A+E Network’s
HISTORY channel.
According to a history of the
statue, it was fi rst dedicated on
Memorial Day 1923 as the Washington
Bridge War Memorial and
was nicknamed the Highbridge
Doughboy.
The monument cost about
$7,500 to create at the time, and
was made at the J.W. Fiske Iron
Works..
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