Photo Credit: Roving Rube. Viewpoint: Chambers St. near Centre Street; 4/15/02 6:25 PM.
Notes (Roving Rube): The Rube has heard that New York City once had more wrought-iron than New Orleans, and perhaps it also once had more statues than Rome, but due its constant cycles of creative destruction, little of either remain.
These survivors are safe as long as they stay on top of the Surrogate's Court, which has achieved landmark status as much for its spectacular interior as for the outside.
The men standing in a row on the lower ledge of "notable" New Yorkers, the only one of whom most people will be able to recognize is seen at far left in . Maybe if some of those other guys had come up with a hook hand or an eyepatch, they would be remembered as well as Peter Stuyvesant is.
But actually, standing just left of the latter is Philip Hone, a former mayor of New York who is now remembered for faithfully keeping a diary of the New York of his day:
"While I was shaving this morning at eight o'clock I witnessed from the front windows an encounter between William C. Bryant, one of the editors of the Evening Post, and William L. Stone, editor of the Commercial Advertiser. The former commenced the attack by striking Stone over the head with a cowskin; after a few blows the parties closed and the whip was wrested from Bryant and carried off by Stone". (from The Hone and Strong Diaries of Old Manhattan, edited by Louis Auchincloss)
William Cullen Bryant's statue is, of course, in Bryant Park.