History

Prospect Park designers Olmsted and Vaux conceived the plaza as the main entrance to Prospect Park, but in 1867 the Plaza featured little more than a simple fountain. Two years later John H. Duncan, the designer of Grant’s Tomb in Manhattan, was commissioned to add grandeur to the space in the style of the dramatic European plaza, and his arch was designed as a tribute to the Union’s Civil War heroes. General William Tecumseh Sherman laid the first stone of what became the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, and the unveiling ceremony in 1892 was presided over by President Grover Cleveland.

                                                                                      Grand Army Plaza, c. 1908. Bob Levine Collection.

In 1896 sculptor Frederick MacMonnies was chosen to adorn the arch with sculptures depicting heroics Civil War battle scenes attended by Greco-Roman mythological figures. The major piece, the Quadriga, tops the arch. Columbia, an allegorical representation of the United States, drives a chariot with two winged Victory figures trumpeting her arrival. On the front of each pedestal sculptured soldiers are captured mid-battle. Thomas Eakins and William O’Donovan designed bronze relief panels depicting Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant for the inner archway.

At this time neoclassical elements were also added to monumentalize the park’s entrance at the plaza. Stanford White, of McKim, Mead and White, designed the four eagle-topped columns, the paired granite pavilions and the low wall decorated with elaborate carved bronze urns.

Grand Army Plaza has continued be Brooklyn's chosen location for memorial statuary since the turn of the 19th century. A noted bust of President John F. Kennedy will be returned to its place on the opposite side of the plaza from the Arch when its restoration is complete.

A series of fountains has occupied the center of the oval shaped plaza. The current fountain, designed by architect Edgerton Swartwout and sculptor Eugene Savage, was funded by financier and philanthropist Frank Bailey in 1932 as a memorial to his wife Mary Louise. It features an elaborate grouping of allegorical and mythological figures, including Neptune, god of water, and a pair of nudes representing Wisdom and Felicity.

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial received landmark designation in 1973; in 1975, all of Grand Army Plaza became a National Historic Landmark.

Restoration of Architectural Elements

Restoration work on the bronze eagles, pavilions and the brickwork at the entrance was completed in 1995. The sculptures on the Arch received conservation in 1999. Bailey Fountain underwent a million-dollar renovation from 2002-2004.

Click here to see Grand Army Plaza today.