Aymar Embury II Gallery of NYC New Deal Projects - Photo #168 - Statuary: pedestals, plinths, and settings

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columbuscadman
Photo: NYC Parks Department
The Christopher Columbus Monument, with the 1860s 7-foot-high Columbus statue by Emma Stebbins (1815-1882) mounted on an 11-foot plinth by Aymar Embury II[1] in Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn. As of June 2020, there is talk of removing the statue because Columbus was a racist; fine, who cares, but leave the plinth!
References:
  1. Columbus Park, NYC Parks Department: "In 1934, [the statue] was discovered stored in the 97th Street maintenance yard in Central Park. Parks's chief consulting architect Aymar Embury II (1880-1966) designed a new stylized limestone pedestal consisting of a fluted column on an octagonal base, and the statue was installed that year in Columbus Park (formerly Mulberry Bend Park) in Chinatown. In 1971, following the renaming of the southern part of Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn in honor of Columbus, the statue was moved to its current location in front of the New York State Supreme Court Building."