Results tagged “johnwilkesbooth”

The man who found the abandoned trolley tunnel under Atlantic Avenue thirty years ago, Bob Diamond, is now hoping to find some historical booty down there. The Brooklyn Paper's got a serious skeptical tone in their report, but even National Geographic is interested enough to finance, produce and staff an archeological dig that might go down this coming January.

Today's City section goes all Forgotten-NY on us today in an article on the city's more than 300 statues of notable figures. Specifically it talks about the statues of people who were once household names and are now... not. Roscoe Conkling, anyone? The article mostly focuses on the statues around Madison Square Park but it brings up a good point. New York City is littered with statues of people who the average New Yorker either has never heard of, or heard of only in passing. Our personal favorite semi-obscure statue of this type is the one of Lincoln-killer John Wilkes Booth's brother Edwin Booth ("the greatest American Hamlet of the 19th century.") that is the centerpiece of the only private park left in the city, Gramercy Park. What's your favorite?