Completed
in 1916 Grand Army Plaza
takes its name from the Grand Army of the
Potomac, the Union Army of the Civil War.
This extraordinary Plaza located on the
east side at Fifth Avenue and Central Park
South is really a semicircle divided into two
halves by Central Park South which
bisects it.
Aside from its status as the main east side
gateway to the Park it has its own special
significance to residents of the city and
visitors alike.
Like Plazas in other cities it defines
New York as a center of culture and
achievement.
On the north side of the Plaza stands
a brightly gilded bronze statue of the Union
General William Tecumseh Sherman,
the individual given much of the credit for
ending the Civil War.
His 1864 March to the Sea through the
southern states dispersed the Confederacy
and shattered their resistance.
On the southern side opposite the
Plaza Hotel stands the Pulitzer Memorial
Fountain, a gift of the publisher of the old
New York World.
At the high peak of this tiered marble
fountain stands the bronze statue of
Pomona, the Roman goddess of
abundance clearly a prophetic tribute to
the growth and magnificence of the
surrounding area upon which she gazes.
Her back faced the former Vanderbilt
Mansion that occupied the space now
inhabited by Bergdorf Goodman, a fact
not lost on historians who have read
much into the placement.
The bisected Plaza was influenced by
the layout of the Place de la Concorde
in Paris.
The halves are bordered on their curved
ends by Bradford Callery pear trees and in the spring their blooms fall to the
ground making a dazzling white carpet
for the carriages and pedestrians that
pass beneath.
Followed shortly afterward by the later
blooming tulips the Plaza glows with
these colorful blooms which rise up
from the flower beds located on the far
corner perimeter.
