Central Park In Bronze

Location: 72th Street, mid-Park

Artist/Designer: Otto Langman                       

Materials: Iron, bronze, Deer Isle granite

Installation: 1926

Funding: Mrs. Charles Augustine Robinson

 

One of the best times to visit this memorial flagstaff is in the morning before 9 AM, during off-leash hours in Central Park. “Flagpole Hill” is a favorite place then for dogs and their owners. Keeping a watchful eye on the romping dogs, their masters sit on the base of the memorial and chat. If you asked them what the memorial commemorates, you might get blank stares.

 

This beautiful flagstaff is dedicated to all city employees who died in all wars of the United States. It was funded by Mrs. Charles Augustine Robinson, who, according to the flagstaff inscription, was the national flag-lady of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

 

During the wild days of the 1960s and1970s, the flagstaff was vandalized several times. The four eagles at the base were cut off and stolen, leaving a great place to stash drugs. Some 30 years after they disappeared, the New York City Department of Investigation traced two of the stolen eagles to an office in Manhattan and confiscated them.