Riverside Park

Back to Monuments List

View all monuments in NYC Parks, as well as temporary public art installations on our NYC Public Art Map and Guide.

History

This impressive sculptural bronze relief of local financier and civic planner Cyrus Clark (1830–1909) was created by Henry Kirke Bush-Brown (1857–1935), and dates to 1911.

Clark was an important leader in the financial community of late 19th century New York. He served as the director of the Hamilton Bank, and was a strong advocate for the commercial and residential community interests of the Upper West Side. He was a founding member of the executive committee, and was later the president of the West Side Association (WSA), formed by a group of influential businessmen in 1870 to promote public improvements north of 59th Street and west of Central Park.

In its early years, the WSA lobbied on behalf of public street and park improvements, and the extension of rapid transit to the area. They helped to bar commercial properties from West End Avenue, and promoted its exclusivity. After initiating the construction of Riverside Drive, they battled with the New York Central Railroad, and began the process—implemented in the 1930s—of covering the railroad tracks that ran through Riverside Park and disrupted its bucolic nature.

After Clark’s death, friends, neighbors, and associates came together to commission a memorial in his honor. They retained the services of the noted sculptor Henry Kirke Bush-Brown. Bush-Brown was the nephew and surrogate son of Henry Kirke Brown, who sculpted the equestrian statue of George Washington, which stands at the south side of Union Square Park at 14th Street and Broadway. He had a long and prolific career, in which he received numerous public and private commissions.

One of Bush-Brown’s best-known works is the Lincoln Memorial in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which he completed the same year as the portrait of Cyrus Clark. In New York City, he also sculpted the figure of Justinian on the Appellate Court Building opposite Madison Square Park, and the figure of Commander Hall on the temporary Dewey Arch that once straddled Fifth Avenue at 24th Street. Brown’s relief of Clark is imbedded in a natural rock outcropping near the 83rd Street entrance to Riverside Park.

Cyrus Clark Details

Please note, the NAME field includes a primary designation as well as alternate namingsoften in common or popular usage. The DEDICATED field refers to the most recent dedication, most often, butnot necessarily the original dedication date. If the monument did not have a formal dedication, the yearlisted reflects the date of installation.

For more information, please contact Art & Antiquities at (212) 360-8163

Park Information

• Main
• Events
• Highlights
• News
• Monuments
• Inspections
• Projects

More images

Links

• Recreation Area of the Park
• Northern Section of the Park
• Riverside Park Conservancy
• Riverside Park Main Page
• Riverside Park Fund
• Friends of St. Catherine's Park
• Friends of St. Nicholas Park
• Summer on the Hudson
• General Grant National Memorial
• Hamilton Grange National Memorial

More About Riverside Park

Zip Code:10023, 10024, 10025, 10027, 10031
Community Board: 07, 09
Council Member: Gale A. Brewer , Shaun Abreu
Park ID: M071GROUP
Property Type: Park Group

Lost and Found Information