Commissioned in the late 1800s by one of De Peyster&rsquo;s great-great-great-grandsons, the seated solemn figure was created by the sculptor George Edwin Bissell. But no sooner had work begun on a foundation for the statue in Battery Park than it became the target of criticism and the city had to look for a new location.&ldquo;The sentiment which promotes the erection of the statue to Abraham De Pey&shy;ster is altogether commendable,&rdquo; the New York Times wrote in spring of 1895. &ldquo;But Battery Park is not the place for the effigy. There is no room for it. We have gone too far in the park statuary already.&rdquo;Over yet other objections, the statue went to Bowling Green in 1896. (&ldquo;Bowling Green is such a historic spot,&rdquo; the president of the National Sculpture So&shy;ciety told the Times, &ldquo;that the question naturally arises why it is not reserved for some artistic group, rather than merely a portrait statue.&rdquo;)But after only a short time in Bowling Green, De Peyster was donated to Franklin &amp; Marshall College in Pennsylvania. (Ac&shy;cording to the school&rsquo;s website, it was a controversy over the scale and location of the statue that forced the move.) A slightly smaller replica was fabricated and placed back in the park. It stayed for 76 years. But in 1972, Bowling Green underwent a major renovation and it was decided that De Peyster had to go.

 Then rested in Hanover Square. Atop a new pedestal, he stood there until 2004, when the Parks Department turned the site into the British Memorial Garden. This time, he had no place to go but storage. 

 It was removed and put into storage to make room for the British Memorial Garden.  

Mayor Abraham De Peyster (1657&ndash;1728) was born in New Amsterdam, now known as Manhattan. De Peyster came from a prosperous mercantile family. He was influential in the young city; he had many positions, including Alderman, Dutch Mayor, member of the King`s Council, and acting Governor. By the end of his life, De Peyster was allegedly one of the city`s wealthiest inhabitants. The sculpture has moved around several times in lower Manhattan. He among other things, donated the land for the original City Hall, which later became Federal Hall.

&amp;nbsp;That building was later renamed&amp;nbsp;Federal Hall, which briefly served as the first capitol of the United States, and the site of the&amp;nbsp;first inauguration of George Washington&amp;nbsp;as president. It was replaced in 1842 with the Greek Renaissance structure that stands there today.  

Before his death in 1728, De Peyster commissioned the creation of a bell to be placed in Manhattan&amp;rsquo;s Middle Dutch Church, then under construction. Cast in Amsterdam in 1731, the bell is known today as the "Liberty Bell" and is located at the&amp;nbsp;Middle Collegiate Church.  

ABRAHAM DE PEYSTER1685 ALDERMAN, 1691-95 MAYOR, 1701 COMPTROLLER,AND 1708 RECEIVER GENERAL OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK;1698 MEMBER OF EARL BELLOMONT'S COUNCIL1698 ASSOCIATE JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT1700 COLONEL COMMANDING REGIMENT OF MILITIA OR CITY TRAINED BANDS1701 CHIEF JUSTICE; 1701-PRESIDENT OF THE KINGS COUNCIL AND THUSACTING GOVERNOR OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK.1706-1721 TREASURER OF THE PROVINCES OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY.BORN 8TH JULY, 1657 -- DIED 2ND AUG 1728.JOHANNES, COL. ABRAHAM DE PEYSTER'S FATHER WAS BURGOMASTER 1673, ALDERMAN 1666-69, 1673-76,AND DEPUTY MAYOR, N.Y. 1677.JOHANNES, JR. HIS SON, ALDERMAN, 1700-1-10, MAYOR 1698.

Erected byJohn Watts DePeyster7th Generation in direct descent Resident of and 6th Born in 1st ward City of New York

Foley Square, Thomas Paine Park

Hanover Square

Abraham De Peyster Statue

 The second stop on the Great Crash of 1929: Tour of the Financial District is the British Memorial Garden, which was dedicated to the United Kingdom after in memory of the 67 British subjects killed in the September 11 attacks. At this location once stood a statue of Colonial Mayor Abraham De Peyster, which now sits in a Parks Department warehouse. 

 Mayor Abraham De Peyster (1657&ndash;1728) was born in New Amsterdam, now known as Manhattan. De Peyster came from a prosperous mercantile family. He was influential in the young city; he had many positions, including alderman, mayor, member of the king&rsquo;s council, and acting governor. By the end of his life, De Peyster was allegedly one of the city&rsquo;s wealthiest inhabitants. The sculpture was removed and put into storage in 2003 to make room for the British Memorial Garden. 

 In 1977, through the initiative of City Council President Paul O'Dwyer, the Council renamed the parcel at New York's center of law and justice Thomas Paine Park.  

A small triangular park in the heart of New York City's civic center, established in Foley Square, is named for patriot, author, humanitarian, and political visionary Thomas Paine (1737-1809), author of Common Sense, one of the bestselling and most influential pamphlets in American history. The land that is now Thomas Paine Park was once part of a freshwater swamp surrounded, ironically, by three former British prisons for revolutionaries. One of them was The Bridewell, the infamous detention center where many inmates died from wind and cold exposure while awaiting sentencing. After the war, the area went through more hard times. In the 19th century, it was part of one of the most notorious slums in the country: Five Points, a community of predominantly Irish immigrants. After calls for reform, the City acquired and condemned most of the unsafe buildings between 1887 and 1894.

Thomas Paine Park

Thomas Paine Park in Foley Square

 On the third stop of the tour, James Kaplan discusses the controversial life of Thomas Paine: his early life, the publishing of Common Sense and The Crisis, the Silas Deane Affair and Paine's downfall, his involvement in the French Revolution, and his death in 1809. 

The monument Triumph of the Human Spirit is one of the world's largest site-specific installations, venerating the experience of African American enslavement. Towering at over fifty feet and weighing more than 300 tons, the massive black granite sculpture was built on a rediscovered African burial ground. The sculpture depicts an abstract female antelope form, mounted on a boat shaped base. According to the artist, the piece is inspired by "Chi Wara" an antelope effigy from Mali, West Africa that symbolizes a responsibility for continuing the next generation and for celebrating a successful harvest. Triumph of the Human Spirit serves as a monument to honor all Africans brought to America but is also dedicated to all ancestors as well as the future generations to come.Triumph of the Human Spirit styled after an antelope-inspired African headdress worn by the people of Mali, West Africa The base of the sculpture contains a replica of the iron lock that shackled artist Lorenzo Pace great grandfather when he was brought to America from Africa.

TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT LORENZO PACE (1943- THIS SCULPTURE WAS COMMISSIONED BY THE CITY OF NEW YORKTHROUGH THE PERCENT FOR ART PROGRAM2000RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI, MAYOR&nbsp;SCHUYLER G. CHAPIN, COMMISSIONER OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS&nbsp;HENRY J. STERN, COMMISSIONER OF PARKS &amp; RECREATION&nbsp;

And is set within an elongated boat-like structure that symbolizes canoes used by Native Americans, as well as the &amp;ldquo;middle passage&amp;rdquo; or overseas journey of enslaved Africans.  

Besides its universal message, it was created with the artist&amp;rsquo;s own personal ancestry in mind, and its granite base contains a replica of the inherited lock and key which were used to enslave his great-great grandfather Steve Pace. Radiating from the fountain are five granite paving bands that terminate with large bronze relief medallions, each representing an epoch in the history of Foley Square and its environs. They were designed by R.G. Roesch and realized by sculptor Gregg LeFevre. The medallion at the intersection of Reade and Lafayette Street commemorates the African Burial Ground, complementing Pace&amp;rsquo;s sculpture and providing additional images and historical context.    

Triumph of the Human Spirit

 The monument Triumph of the Human Spirit is one of the world's largest site-specific installations, venerating the experience of African American enslavement. Towering at over fifty feet and weighing more than 300 tons, the massive black granite sculpture was built on a rediscovered African burial ground. The sculpture depicts an abstract female antelope form, mounted on a boat shaped base. According to the artist, the piece is inspired by "Chi Wara" an antelope effigy from West Africa that symbolizes a responsibility for continuing the next generation and for celebrating a successful harvest. Triumph of the Human Spirit serves as a monument to honor all Africans brought to America but is also dedicated to all ancestors as well as the future generations to come. 

The size of the Foley Square mural, which stretches across three blocks of Centre Street from the New York Supreme Court House to the Manhattan Municipal Building, is roughly comparable with the others, albeit perhaps a bit grander in scale at 600 feet long. It also eschews the straightforward, monochrome execution of some of, but not all of, the city`s Black Lives Matter murals in favor or 16 individual letters that are kaleidoscopic in nature. A veritable bonanza of colors, shapes, and designs, each letter can be viewed as a distinct, standalone work of art. In fact, three different artists&mdash;Tijay Mohammed (Black), Sophia Dawson (Lives), and Patrice Payne (Matter)&mdash;created each mammoth word. Located in the civic heart of New York City adjacent to the historic site of the city`s African Burial Ground, the Black Lives Matter mural at Foley Square is the only one that`s creation was led by&mdash;and was largely funded in part by&mdash;architects, designers, and urban planners.

 An enduring message, in the administrative heart of New York City  

Foley Square

Black Lives Matter Mural at Foley Square

 The City acquired this site, located between Lafayette, Worth, and Centre Streets within what is now called Foley Square, on August 5, 1913  

 Transferred title to Parks on March 19, 1930.  Before this acquisition, it was known simply as the "Courthouse Plot" because of its proximity to several State and Federal court buildings.  

A street intersection in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The space is bordered by Worth Street to the north, Centre Street to the east, and Lafayette Street to the west, and is located south of Manhattan's Chinatown and east of Tribeca. It was named after a prominent Tammany Hall district leader and local saloon owner, Thomas F. "Big Tom" Foley.Foley Square sits on part of the former site of Collect Pond, specifically the smaller portion known as "Little Collect Pond" which used to lie to the south of Collect Pond proper. This was one of the original fresh water sources for the city, but in 1811 was drained and filled in because it had become severely polluted and implicated in typhus and cholera outbreaks. The neighborhood around the pond was the notorious Five Points neighborhood, home of many gangs.

An enduring message, in the administrative heart of New York City 

Historian and lawyer James Kaplan asks listeners to use their imaginations as he describes the site of Shearith Israel Synagogue that once stood near 22 William Street. The first synagogue in North America, it was built in 1730. As the surrounding neighborhood - which would become the Financial District - became more industrial, congregants left the site to build synagogues in Greenwich Village and Upper West Side.

 At Bowling Green, Kaplan talks about Evacuation Day, the departure of the British from New York City, and Charging Bull, a popular statue representing the spirit of Wall Street and American capitalism. 

 At the statue of Nathan Hale in City Hall Park, Kaplan discusses Hale's life and significance, and the history of City Hall. 

 Architectural historian Gail Cornell talks about the history of Foley Square and the African Burial Ground. 

Foley Square

Images

Images

ASSOCIATED SITES

Public Art

Landscape