Column Returned to Hewitt Gravesite
From amNew York – at least something of the Hewiit Building is being saved….
Column returned to ex-mayor’s gravesite
By Warangkana Chomchuen
Special to amNewYork
March 27, 2007
Former mayor Abram S. Hewitt loved collecting architectural artifacts from old buildings that were destined to be torn down.
So it was fitting that Tuesday, a century-old marble column that once adorned his gravesite in Green-Wood Cemetery was retrieved from a building slated for demolition and re-erected on cemetery grounds.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Richard J. Moylan, president of the Brooklyn cemetery. “We’re honored to have this priceless column return home to us.”
The 19-foot-tall column was designed by Stanford White, a renowned architect and friend of the Hewitt family. It was originally located inside the old Tiffany building on Fifth Avenue, said Joseph Bresnan, an architect and preservationist.
But in the early 1900s, a member of the Hewitt family, likely Sarah, Hewitt’s wife, is believed to have seen the column and purchased it to adorn Hewitt’s gravesite at Green-Wood, the resting place of many of the city’s historic figures. Hewitt, an industrialist who beat a young Theodore Roosevelt in the 1886 mayoral race, died in 1903.
After almost three decades, the column, which wasn’t designed for exterior use, began to deteriorate so in 1932, Hewitt’s son donated it to the Hewitt Memorial Building at the Cooper Union.
The building, however, is being demolished as part of the college’s redevelopment plan. In mid-December of last year, the column was returned to its home for reinstallation.
“Hewitt liked old architecture,” said Bresnan. “It’s appropriate that they save the column and return it back here.”
Bresnan, who was formerly in charge of city monuments, also designed a new stone pad to match White’s ionic column. After 70 years inside the building, he said the column is now weatherproof and ready to withstand outdoor conditions.
Moylan said the cemetery spent roughly $ 50,000 to remove and transport the column to its former home.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc