Liberty Warehouse Statue of Liberty
64th and Broadway
New York City
40 foot tall Statue of Liberty (on pedestal) faithfully modeled after the original in New York harbor with practical exceptions such as a torch that looks more like a coffee can.
In "New York: A Serendipiter's Journey" (Harper & Brothers, 1961), Gay Talese recounted that the statue was installed in 1902 by William H. Flattau, a French immigrant and patriotic warehouse owner, who died in 1931 along with much of the statue's history.
The statue rests on top of the 8-story Liberty Storage Warehouse Building, 43 West 64th, (location of O'Neals' restaurant) near the corner of 64th Street and Broadway, overlooking Lincoln Center.
The Statue is made of molded sheet metal bolted to a frame. It has a circular stairway inside and a view down Broadway through the crown, but access for the public was closed in 1912. This Liberty was cast in Akron, Ohio in the early 1900s and sent to New York on a flatbed train car. At the time, it was one of the highest points on the city's West Side.
Widely reputed to be 55 feet tall, the actual height is more like 40 feet, about the same height as Bartholdi's 36 foot working model, now mounted near the foot of the Grenelle Bridge on the Seine River in Paris.
On 19 December 2001, Athena Group, a New York property developer, announced plans to renovate the building into a 12- story apartment house. The statue will be preserved "under all circumstances". Relocation sites are being considered.
Sunday, 17 February 2002
37 Foot Tall Statue of Liberty Removed from Liberty Warehouse for Relocation to Brooklyn Museum.
The Athena Group, owner of the Statue and Liberty Warehouse where it stood, donated the artwork to Brooklyn Museum of Art in honor of the police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers killed Sept. 11. It will be featured in the museum's sculpture garden.
Brooklyn Museum of Art:
http://www.brooklynart.org/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
