Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1914 — Monuments in Poor Locations. [ARTICLE]

Monuments in Poor Locations.

The recently issued report of the New York art commission contains the following: “From time to time, there have been submitted to the commission designs of monuments (chiefly statuary, fountains and the like) completely executed, with the bronze parts cast, the marble or granite cut and the entire monument ready to be set up. Often the entire work has been completed In a foreign country, with utter disregard to the location in which it is proposed that the monument shall be placed. They are. designed for an abstract location, that is to say, for any location, but search for a suitable location nearly always results in failure.

“Most persons seem to have lost sight of the fact that many of the beautiful monuments of the past were designed sites, and consequently that the monument was made to fit Into its surroundings. “Our American cities, having in most cases no important civic or religious centers, have grown without any intelligent or comprehensive plan, and monuments have been lodged here and there in streets and parks like driftwood. In only a few instances are they definitely related to anything in their vicinity, so as to form part of a comprehensive scheme. There is no more forlorn looking object than a granite monument placed in the middle of a green lawn. It Is a foreigner to all its nearest neighbors. Recently it has come to be recognized that cities should be built according to a distinct plan, and that the various parts and objects in the city should bear a direct relation not only to one another, but to their surroundings.'*