Columbus statue rises high in Brooklyn’s Columbus Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Between Adams St., Cadman Plaza West, and Joralemon St.
Admission: free
www.nyc.gov/parks
In 1971, the 4.14-acre park in front of the New York State Supreme Court Building in Brooklyn was renamed Columbus Park, in honor of the Italian explorer. At the center of the park is a tall statue of its namesake, Christopher Columbus. Carved in the 1860s by expatriate artist Emma Stebbins in Rome, the statue rises high in the paved park. (Stebbins also designed the “Angel of the Waters” in the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.), Although the statue was given to New York City in 1869, it was initially installed in 1934 in Columbus Park in Manhattan’s Chinatown, then moved to its current location in 1971, where it is joined by John Quincy Adams Ward’s 1891 statue of abolitionist, clergyman, and possible adulterer Henry Ward Beecher, which sits upon a pedestal by Richard Morris Hunt, and Anneta Duveen’s 1972 bust of Robert Francis Kennedy, which includes inspirational quotes from the onetime U.S. attorney general, senator, and presidential hopeful. The park is also home to the Borough Hall Greenmarket, which has been selling fruits, vegetables, baked goods, seafood, meat and dairy products, and other local, fresh delights for twenty-five years; the market is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm.