Herald Square Owls

New York, NY - Peter - Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 : goo

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Crafted in 1895 by Jean-Antonie Carles, this group of figures was
commissioned for the roof of the New York Herald's two-story headquarters on
35th Street and Sixth Avenue. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., moved the headquarters of the Herald from its original location on Park Row (near
"Printer's Square," where the Benjamin Franklin statue now stands) uptown
to a Renaissance-palazzo style building designed by Stanford White. In the era before cheap watches, the Herald Tribune's tolling clock was relied upon
by the working people in the Herald Square area.

Athena (or Minerva), goddess of wisdom, holds her shield and spear with her left hand as she gestures commandingly at the two men below. On the hour, the
men, nicknamed Stuff and Guff swing back their hammers and strike the bell. Actually, they don't...that would eventually wear down the bell. Instead, the hour is struck by a mechanism tucked behind the bellringers. On top of the bell sits Athena's bird, the owl, whose eyes used to blink green when the Athena and her minions were atop the Herald's headquarters. Two more owls sit on pillars flanking the southern entrance to the small park.

The inscription below the figures notes that this is a memorial to James
Gordon Bennett, founder of the New York Herald in 1835, and his son James Gordon Bennett, "through whose vision and enterprise the New York Herald became one of the world's great newspapers."

www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/378304710

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Peter: thats awesome! yours?

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