Explore New York History

04/28/2026

Every week  I post photos of a monument to American independence in New York City or beyond. Photos are mine and most indicated otherwise.



The statue of Alexander Hamilton next to St Luke’s Episcopal Church in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood (part of Harlem) was designed by William Ordway Partridge in 1892 and it was a commissioned by a social club called the Hamilton Club in Brooklyn. The statue originally stood in front of the club’s building on Remson Street in Brooklyn Heights. The statue depicts the Hamilton orating at the 1788 New York Ratifying Convention.

After the demise of the club, the statue was moved to Hamilton Heights in 1936, its present location. At that point it was also in front of Hamilton Grange, the historic house of Alexander Hamilton built in 1804. However, in 2008 in order to preserve the house, Hamilton Grange was moved in its entirety to a new location in St Nicholas Park nearby. The statue of Hamilton remained in its location in front of St Luke’s Church, and remains there today. The church has unfortunately closed due to deterioration, and the grounds are closed to the public. The statue is visible behind a fence.

Partridge also sculpted statues of Hamilton and Jefferson located at Columbia University.

04/14/2026

Every week I post photos of a monument to American Independence in New York or beyond. Photos are mine unless noted otherwise.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886 and erected in on Bedloes Island, now Liberty Island, in New York harbor. The statue was conceived by French political thinker and abolitionist Eduard Rene de Laboulaye as a gift to the United States celebrating its centennial as a republic in 1876 as well as the abolition of slavery nine years earlier. He proposed the idea to his friend and sculpture Frederic Bartholdi. The statue was designed by Bartholdi with an interior iron structure designed by architect Gustave Eiffel. It sits on pedestal designed by Gilded Age architect Richard Morris Hunt.

The statue contains many symbols referring to liberty and freedom. The statue itself is the figure of Libertas, Roman god of liberty (referring to the republican form of government and absence of monarchy or tyranny). The torch guides the way towards freedom. The statue holds a tablet with the date July IV MDCCLXXVI (1776). She wears a toga, a reference to the Roman Republic. The crown has seven points spreading freedom to the seven seas. At the statue feet are broken shackles symbolizing freedom from slavery. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

03/30/2026

Every week I post photos of a monument to the American Revolution in New York or beyond. All photos are mine unless noted otherwise.

The statue of Alexander Hamilton in Central Park is located behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was dedicated in 1880. A small crowd of 500 attended including members of the Society of the Cincinnati and the St Andrew’s Society. A speech was given by Hamilton’s son John C Hamilton, who presented the statue to the city.

The sculptor was Carl Conrads. The statue is made entirely of Connecticut Westerly granite, a hallmark of Conrads’ work. It features 13 stars inscribed around the base, one for each of the 13 Colonies. The granite wa supplied by New England Granite Works owned by James Batterson.

Conrads used a bust of Hamilton by Giuseppe Ceracchi as a model—the bust was made during Hamilton’s lifetime and then owned by the Hamilton family.

This was the first statue of Alexander Hamilton erected in New York City.

03/25/2026

Every week I post photos of a grave related to the Revolutionary War in New York or beyond. All grave photos are mine unless noted specifically.

Sara Van Brugh Livingston Alexander (sometimes spelled Sarah) was one of 9 children of prominent Albany merchant Philip Livingston. She married Scottish attorney William Alexander, who was called Lord Stirling due to his claims of a Scottish noble title, and she was known as Lady Stirling.

Her husband joined the patriot cause at the start if the Revolution, and he served with George Washington for much of the war. Sara was at Valley Forge and other camps with her husband, and she hosted many officers at their New Jersey home.

After her husband died in 1783, George Washington wrote a letter of condolence to her beginning, “Having been informed by a Letter of the 14th Instt from Captn Sill of the unspeakable loss Your Ladiship has experienced, I feel the sincerest dispositions to alleviate by sympathy or participation those sorrows which I am sensible cannot be removed or effaced.”

She is buried in the Alexander family vault at Trinity Church in Manhattan.

03/24/2026

03/17/2026

Every week I post photos of a monument to the Revolutionary War in New York or beyond.

The statue of Nathan Hale at City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan was dedicated in 1893 on Evacuation Day on November 25 by the Sons of the Revolution. The sculptor was Frederick Macmonnies, whose other works include the sculptures on the Brooklyn Soldiers and Sailors Arch. It was cast in Paris and sent to the United States shortly before it was dedicated. The statue is 8 feet tall and portrays Hale facing his executioners. There were no known portraits of Nathan Hale so the statue is an artistic interpretation.

Hale was Revolutionary Spy infiltrated the British by dressing as a schoolteacher. However, he was captured in 1776 and hung on September 22.

The pedestal was designed by Stanford White. It has and inscription with Hale’s reputed last words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

The statue was originally installed at Broadway and Chsmbers street and has been moved several times. Its present location (since 1999) is south of City Hall and is located in a part of the park behind security fences.

The statue was a tremendous success for Macmonnies and he was awarded a medal br the Paris Salon.

03/10/2026

Every week I post photos of a monument to the Revolutionary War in NY or beyond.

The statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in Union Square was sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, who also designed the Statue of Liberty. The statue was also a gift from France. It was dedicated on September 6 1876 on Lafayette’s 119th birthday and was unveiled by Bartoldi Bartholdi himself to the French Consul-General after a massive parade of soldiers, fire companies, French societies etc.

Though the statue was originally planned for Central Park, it was placed in Union Square Park originally juxtaposed with the nearby equestrian statue of George Washington—with Lafayette’s arm reaching toward the general offering his support. In 1930 Union Square was redesigned and Lafayette’s statue now faces away from the park and is aligned with the James Fountain on the opposite side.

The statue sits on a pedestal designed by HW DeStuckle. The pedestal was paid for by French residents of New York. It is inscribed with a quote from Lafayette, “As soon as I heard of American independence, my heart was enlisted.” It was founded by French metalworker Ferdinand Barbedienne.

03/03/2026

Every week I post photos of a monument to the Revolutionary War in New York or beyond.

Alexander Hamilton’s gravestone was one of the most visited graves in the USA today, thanks largely to the success of the musical Hamilton. It is located on the southern side of the Trinity Churchyard in the Financial District of New York City.

Hamilton was a close advisor to General and later President George Washington and served as the first Secretary of the Treasury. Afterwards he became an embittered rival with fellow New York lawyer Aaron Burr, culminating in a duel between the two in which Hamilton was killed. His funeral was organized by the Society of Cincinnati and Gouverneur Morris gave his eulogy.

The monument was paid for and erected by the Corporation of Trinity Church. The marble stone features an obelisk surrounded by four urns symbolizing immortality. The obelisk symbolizes connection between heaven and earth.

Next to Hamilton’s grave is that of his wife Eliza Schuyler, who outlived him by 50 years.

02/10/2026

Every week I post photos of a monument to the Revolutionary War in New York or beyond.

The statue of George Washington in Union Square was sculpted by Henry Kirke Brown and dedicated in 1856. The equestrian statue is 16 feet tall and sits on a pedestal of equal height designed by famed architect Richard Upjohn.

The statue was originally proposed many years earlier and funding was raised as early as 1843. However, it took many years to complete the project. It was originally placed facing north at the intersection of Broadway and the Bowery representing the spot where Washington met New Yorkers on his way to the city on November 25 1783, later known as Evacuation Day, to retake the city after the British left.

In 1861 the statue was made the central part of a massive rally in support of the Union at the start of the Civil War. The flag from the captured Fort Sumter was placed in the hand of George Washington while 10s of thousands of New Yorkers cheered.

The statue was moved to its present position in 1930 in a redesign of Union Square.

01/26/2026

Happy Australia Day 🇦🇺

This is at the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Memorial Garden in Manhattan.