History

Olmsted & Vaux’s designed Prospect Park with its main entrance at the intersection of Flatbush, Vanderbilt and Ninth avenues. To make this street convergence more coherent an oval shaped plaza was envisioned, with planted berms surrounding an open space for public gatherings. By 1869 it was furnished with a simple fountain and Henry Kirke Brown’s monument to Abraham Lincoln.

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


When, in the late 1880s, a monumental arch memorializing the Union dead was planned, the highly visible but underused plaza seemed the logical site. John H. Duncan’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch was completed by 1892 and then adorned with its striking Quadriga and other statuary by sculptor Frederick MacMonnies. Monuments to Civil War generals (Henry Warner Slocum and Gouverneur Kemble Warren) were erected in the plaza, while the Lincoln statue was moved to the Concert Grove within the Park. A series of fountains has occupied the center of the plaza. The current Bailey Fountain dates from 1932.

Parades, memorials and special celebrations continued to take place regularly in the plaza despite the presence of trolley lines and then the advent of automobile traffic. In 1926, in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Union army, the space officially became known as Grand Army Plaza.

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.