I am thinking that Madison Square Park is the loft-neighborhood park with the greatest number of historic statues....

The NY Times a while back ran a feature about statues in parks that started with a Tompkins Square statue of a Congressman beloved by postal workers (!), then followed with three (the four) statues in Madison Square.

 

The Mad Sq lineup includes William Seward at the corner of 23^rd and Broadway. Seward is said to be by the Times “to be the first person born in New YorkState to be honored by the city with a monument. Seward earned it; he was secretary of state during the Civil War, surely one of the more stressful jobs in human history”, but the (apocryphal?) story I have heard is that this statue was built as an Abraham Lincoln but Seward’s head was added late. “They” say the large hands are the Lincoln give-away. NY Songlines agrees that a Lincoln cast was used, citing as evidence that Seward was really quite short.

 

Near Seward stands a Republican giant.

 

 

Conkling was a US senator and representative, but the NYC connection I am aware of is that he died in the Blizzard of 1888, trying to walk home. I have been told that he lived near Madison Square and died there (so close to home) but Forgotten-NY thinks he died in Union Square, but was denied a statue there because he did not rank with Lincoln, Washington and Lafayette – so he was relegated uptown to Madison Square.

 

As everyone knows  Arthur was the 21^st President, following the death by bullet of James Garfield. His statue is near the playground at the corner near 26^th and Madison. Arthur is the ‘sketchy’ President from Vermont, though he developed important New York City connections, having been Commissioner of Customs and Quartermaster General for New York during the Civil War.

 

 

The Times follows with the sort of left-handed compliment that Republican Presidents would love to still get:

 

[On the one hand] Most people agree that though Arthur was one of our least important presidents, [but on the other hand] he did have great taste; among other things, he hired Louis Comfort Tiffany to help refurbish the interior of the White House.

 

That is quite a redeeming feature for a President, non? But they do give Arthur his due (unlike his contemporaries):

 

 

As an addendum, the Times noted that there is also a statue in Mad Sq to Civil War admiral David Farragut. I believe he is the “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” guy. He stands on a monumental pedestal along 26th Street in mid-block.