Parade of Horses

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.

Before the Bryant Park Carousel was installed in June 2002, the 40^th street allée next to the Goethe statue was peaceful, but obviously missing something. Seeking to enhance the French classical design of the park grounds, create a family friendly atmosphere, and complement the neighboring Beaux Arts façade of the New York Public Library, the Bryant Park Corporation added Le Carrousel to the barren space.

Before Le Carrousel was installed in the park, along the 40th Street allee

Le Carrousel was designed and manufactured by Marvin Sylvor‘s Fabricon Carousel Company in Brooklyn, and installed in the park in early June 2002. Mr. Sylvor was internationally recognized, and had built carousels all over the world. He passed away in 2008.

Carousel installation, late May 2002



The menagerie in Fabricon's studio awaiting transport to the park

In addition to its colorful menagerie of animals, which include a deer, a rabbit, a cat, and ten horses, Le Carrousel also features a fully restored ticket booth, originally built in 1928 for a carousel in Hull Massachusetts.

The Bryant Park carousel ticket booth, mid-restoration in Fabricon's studio

A parade of horses on the south side of the park



Bryant Park hospitality staff lead the animals to their new home

The Bryant Park carousel measures 22 feet wide, weighs 12,000 pounds, and spins to the sounds of French Cabaret music. Just a month after the carousel opened, on July 31, 2002, a naming ceremony was held for the lead horse “Granny’s Folly.” The horse was named after a mounted police steed that had served the NYPD since 1984. He was struck by a livery cab on Pelham Parkway in 1992.



Le Carrousel's lead horse Granny's Folly



Named after one of his riders, Sergeant Grannville Waterman, the horse was famed for stepping on a mugger's foot, preventing his escape outside of Madison Square Garden during a Michael Jackson concert.

 

Just last summer, seven years after the carousel opened, it underwent a full restoration by artist Andrew Tedesco. 

Facades to Pedestals

In the middle of midtown shopping and tourist chaos, at 34th Street, where Broadway and 6th Avenue meet, is a small park maintained by one of my employers, the 34th Street Partnership, called Herald Square. This small triangle of land was named after the New York Herald, a daily newspaper established in 1835 by James Gordon Bennett, Sr. (1795-1872). Known primarily for its sensationalistic coverage of crime and scandal, as well as a massive national circulation, the Herald set up its headquarters at the north end of this small green space in 1894, in a two story arcaded building designed by architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White.

postcard from around 1898 showing the Herald building, as well as the Dodge monument

The ornate building featured several bronze owls mounted along the façade as well as statues of Minerva and two bell-ringing blacksmiths, nicknamed “Stuff and Guff” or “Gog and Magog.”

At this time, the James Earle Dodge monument, now in Bryant Park, occupied a stately position in front of the Herald building. More on him later . . .

Minerva on top of the Herald, and later, as part of the James Gordon Bennett monument

In 1918, the Herald moved its offices to 42nd street, and three years later, the statues were removed from the building’s façade. They went into the possession of William Dewart, then proprietor of the New York Sun. Years later, in 1940, when Herald Square underwent a massive renovation, the statues were given to the city on permanent loan and placed in a Milford granite pedestal in Herald Square Park. The pedestal, designed by architect Aymar Emburry II, along with the statues from the Herald building make up a monument to James Gordon Bennett. The dedication ceremony was held on November 19, 1940.

Before and After contrast