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Part 2
By J. Owen Grundy
Originally appeared in The Villager on April 26, 1945
This Web version, copyright 2003, GET NY
By 1895, the arch was completed. In the May issue of that year, the Critic remarked, “The arch is of somewhat less slender proportions than the temporary wooden structure it replaced, but it is more graceful than the best known Roman triumphal arches, and it is unquestionably the handsomest public monument in the United States.”
The carvings of the four spandrels over the arch were completed in February, 1895, from models made by Macmonnies, whose studio was in 10th St. Those on the north front represent “Peace” and “War”; those on the south side “Fame” and “Prosperity.” At this time the groups for the pedestals on the north front were not yet conceived. Added later, the two statues which stand there today are Washington the Soldier and Washington the Statesman, the work of two celebrated American sculptors, Herman A. MacNeil and A. Sterling Calder. On the large north front panel of the attic is the following inscription: “To commemorate the one hundreth anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States.” On the reverse side is a quotation from Washington, himself, “let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest may repair, the event is in the hand of God.”
The ceremony of formally presenting the finished arch to the city, which had been fixed for April 30, 1895, the 106th anniversary of Washington’s inauguration, was postponed until May 4.
The ceremonies were marked by gay decorations and American flags along Fifth Ave. from 42nd St. to the arch. A grand parade marched down to the Square with all the militia regiments of the city participating and with Gen. Louis Fitzgerald and his staff leading. The old Ninth was in line led by Lt. Col. Thomas Rand; the Seventh with Col. Daniel Appleton, the publisher at its head. Gov. Levi P. Morton, later vice president of the United States, reviewed the marchers. They reached Washington Sq. at 4:30 p.m. There William Rhinelander Stewart presented the arch to the people of New York, while Mayor William L. Strong formally accepted it on behalf of the city. Bishop Potter delivered the invocation, and addresses were delivered by Henry G. Marquand, chairman of the committee, and Gen. Horace Porter, a military hero of the day.
Today, within its shadow, there sit on the benches which line the park paths, workers, mothers, and their broods from the south, apartment dwellers and residents of the fine old mansions on the north, university students from the east, and youthful villagers from all directions.
They gather here in the spirit of democracy as citizens of one common country that might not have existed had it not been for him who is memorialized in the great Washington Arch.
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