The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument is located in Riverside Park, at the intersection of 89th Street and Riverside Drive, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the American Civil War. It is an enlarged version of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, and was designed by the firm of Stoughton & Stoughton with Paul E. M. DuBoy. The monument was completed May 26, 1902.
History
Early history The monument was first suggested in 1869. However, little was done to create the monument until 1893 – at a time the memory of the war was fading and there was a wave of nostalgia for the Civil War in the country – when the New York State legislature established a Board of Commissioners for a monument to the soldiers and sailors who had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Originally set to be built at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue then at Mount Tom (83rd Street and Riverside Drive) the project was delayed for many years because many organizations in the city could not agree on a site for the monument. When the final site was selected, the winning design for the monument had to be redesigned for the new site. Ground was broken for the monument on September 21, 1900. City Council President Randolph Guggenheimer turned the first spadeful of dirt. About 200 people were present at the ground breaking ceremony. The first stone was laid in January 1901. On the cornerstone was a simple inscription saying that the monument was erected by the citizens of New York. It was finally dedicated on Memorial Day in 1902 with President Theodore Roosevelt officiating. During the dedication, the monument was unveiled following a parade of Civil War veterans up Riverside Drive. The memorial bears the simple inscription: "To the memory of the brave soldiers and sailors who saved the Union". The monument cost $300,000 to erect. Granite quarried from the Lacasse Quarry located at Derby, Orleans County, Vermont, was used in the construction. The white marble monument was designed after a public competition won by architects Charles and Arthur Stoughton. Their design was known as the "Temple of Fame". The ornamental features were carved by Paul E. M. Duboy (1857–1907), who also was the architect of The Ansonia, an apartment building also on the Upper West Side. Inspired by Greek antiquity, the monument is based on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. The monument takes the form of a peripteral Corinthian temple raised on a high base, with a tall cylindrical rusticated cella, that carries a low conical roof like a lid, ringed by twelve Corinthian columns. Plinths at the entrance to the raised terrace are incised with the names of the New York volunteer regiments and the battles in which they served, as well as Union generals.
1900s to 1960s
By 1907, there were already reports by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr., that the Monument was in need of repair. At that time there were marble slabs in danger of falling from their place; three had already fallen. The building badly leaked, cement was constantly falling from the walls and ceiling, and stone was chipped in many places. He requested $20,000 for the repair of the monument. A large adjustment to the monument took place in the 1930s, when the plaza's yellow brick, which nicely contrasted with the white marble trim, was replaced with the orange-colored stone common to Parks Department projects of the period. However, these have since chipped and are splitting. The memorial was also given a complete coating of protective paraffin, used at that time to preserve the memorial. In 1962, the City spent over $1 million in extensive repairs to the monument, including a new roof, which had deteriorated, and portions of the monument were replaced with more durable granite.
1970s to present The monument was designated a New York City landmark in 1976, and it was designated a New York state landmark in 2001. Meanwhile, the monument continued to deteriorate after its 1960s renovation. The Parks Department had proposed a $1.2 million restoration in 2002. The effort was to restore the monument's steps and sidewalks. The effort failed when a private donor pulled out. In July 2005, the New York Times reported "up close the dilapidation is clearly visible. Pave-stones, many damaged by skateboarding and soccer playing, need replacing. The paint covering the many splotches of graffiti is tacky. And the tomblike interior, which is leaking, has long been closed to the public." In 2007, Gale Brewer, a member of the City Council, committed $650,000 in city money to a redesign of the potholed asphalt plaza south of the monument, with its three Civil War-era cannons. However, that effort bogged down in disagreement on the exact nature of the designs and was never completed. A fence was put up to keep people off the entry stairs because they were in very poor condition in 2008. In March 2014, an attempt to raise $5.5 million was attempted by the Riverside Park Conservancy following a $1.5 million survey done by the park system. The monument currently has many coatings of anti-graffiti paint. The ornamental bronze doorway has been damaged by vandals. At some point the richly sculptured bronze flagpole base, which featured ship forms, wreaths and other elements, was removed. The park system noted, "the monument is awaiting funding to repair loosened joints, chipped stone, and the damage generally wrought by time if not vandalism." A study performed in 2017 estimated the cost of fully repairing the monument had grown to $36.5 million, and would continue to become more expensive the longer the city government waits. The structure was fenced off and closed to the public after the 2017 inspection found the structure's retaining wall to be failing. A NY1 cable news report from 2019 found that much of the monument's mortar had deteriorated entirely and that the mosaic tiles had degraded so much that they "looked like gravel". As of 2021, there still had been no funding allocated for repairs. Mayor Eric Adams allocated $62 million for the monument's restoration in fiscal year 2024. Following the allocation of city funding, work on the restoration began in 2024 when drones began surveying the monument.
Design
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