Grand Army Plaza (Manhattan) facts for kids

W T Sherman, northern side of plaza		Pomona, atop the Pulitzer memorial fountain

1869 map of Grand Army Plaza		The Plaza Hotel, seen from corner of 5th Ave and 59th St

Grand Army Plaza is at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York. It is in front of the Plaza Hotel. It is opposite the southeast corner of Central Park. The sculptor Karl Bitter first had the idea for the Plaza in 1898. It is named after the Grand Army of the Potomac. The Carrère and Hastings architecture firm designed it. Construction was finished in 1916.

The Plaza is oval. 59th street divides it into northern and southern parts. The northern part has a golden statue of William Tecumseh Sherman designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The statue features Sherman on a horse with the goddess "Victory" in front of him. There are often temporary sculpture exhibits at the north side of the plaza.

The southern part is the Plaza of the Pulitzer Fountain of Abundance. This fountain was designed by Bitter and paid for by Joseph Pulitzer. A bronze statue of the Roman goddess Pomona is at the top of the fountain. The statue of Pomona was the last one that Bitter designed.

The plaza was renovated in 1990 at a cost of $3.7 million. The Plaza Hotel is named for the Plaza, and is at its southwest corner.

Related pages

• Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.

Images for kids

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  Pomona, atop the Pulitzer Fountain

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  The Plaza Hotel at the plaza's western side

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  1863 design showing a proposed fountain (before the plaza was extended south to 58th Street).

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  1868 Map of Central Park illustrates the expanded plaza.

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  1869 map of the plaza, showing a proposed monument where the Pulitzer Fountain was eventually built.

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  Thomas Hasting's 1913 plaza plan, with the Sherman Monument in the northern (upper) half, and the Pulitzer Fountain in the southern (lower) half.

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  Aerial view of Grand Army Plaza about 1920

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  The goddess Nike on the Sherman Monument reaching toward Central Park South, August 2020

See also

In Spanish: Grand Army Plaza (Manhattan) para niños