Union Square Park

My first stop is going to be Union Square Park. Now, I don’t know much about the history of this park, but I’ve walked through it enough times to know that this crucial junction point in the city functions as a site for memorial and for community gathering.

Like I said, I don’t know much about the history, so I went over to the website for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and checked out their page on Union Square which was chock full of interesting information about the park.

For example: Considering the presence of an Abraham Lincoln statue at the north end of the park, I had always thought that “Union” Square referred to the “Union” soldiers of the American Civil War. However, the origin of the name pre-dates the Civil War, and actually refers to the “union” of two major roads in Manhattan: Bloomingdale Road, now called Broadway; and Bowery Road, which is now 4th Avenue.

There are four major statues in Union Square Park — George Washington (1856, Henry Kirke Brown), Abraham Lincoln (1868, Henry Kirke Brown), Marquis de Lafayette (1873, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi), and Mohandas Gandhi (1986, Kantilal B. Patel), as well as a large flagstaff, Independence Flagstaff – Charles F. Murphy Memorial (1926, Anthony de Franisci).

What do these figures mean for us? In the American cultural consciousness, Washington and Lafayette are heroes of the American Revolution. Washington represents leadership, honor, and the triumph of America in conflict. Lafayette represents the cavalry to the American revolutionaries — a
symbol of divine grace that turned the tide of the war against the
British soldiers.

Washington is a “Founding Father”, with a firm grasp on the handle mixing the melting-pot. The myth of the First American President, George Washington, is one of creation through conflict, not unlike many cosmological creation myths. Washington, the leader of a new pantheon of American gods, forged America in the fires of conflict and battle with the previous regime. It reminds me of the old Mesopotamian stories of the gods who battled Tiamat, the primordial sea, and used the shell of her dead body to create the earth.

The Washington statue at Union Square is truly venerable like a father-god, riding in full regalia on the back of a magnificent steed.

Lincoln is another figure made larger-than-life and mythologized by America. He is a victim of conflict, struck down unnecessarily for holding up the highest of humanitarian ideals — freedom. Whether this is a fair and accurate portrayal or not, Lincoln is described in history books as being the “liberator of slaves”, although new methods of telling history have brought this notion into scrutiny.

Regardless, Lincoln cuts an imposing figure in statue form. Originally situated in the southwestern corner of the park, Lincoln is now positioned directly opposite along the vertical axis of the park from the Washington Statue.

The statue of Gandhi now sits in the south west, where Lincoln was once positioned. His history is not as immediately culturally relevant to Union Square Park’s statuary as we have seen it so far. However, Gandhi and Washington both overthrew the colonial oppression of the British, and both Gandhi and Lincoln fought for equality and respect for all levels of culture and class, as well as both being the victims of assassination.

The Lincoln and Washington statues function as focal points in the park. People use them as meeting points (I have done this many times). People rally about them, drawing from the power of their myths to enervate audiences and draw them into a collective cultural experience.

Some pictures:

George Washington

Marquis de Lafayette sits at the edge of the park, facing West to France, his home country.

Abraham Lincoln

Spaypainted at the base of Lincoln’s statue:

“Obedience is not Patriotism”