New York City has a lot to offer visitors and residents alike. Even people who have lived in the city their entire lives frequently find something new and astonishing.
When it comes to marble, Love Marble knows and appreciates what New York has to offer. In Manhattan alone, there are literally hundreds of buildings, outdoor gardens, and other public and private places with incredible marble that has weathered the ages with grace and dignity.
Here, then, is a quick tour of Love Marble’s five favorite Manhattan marble places to visit:
The New York Public Library
Perhaps the most famous marble statues in New York are the two lions that guard the entrance to the New York Public Library. Named Patience and Fortitude, the lions actually represent only a small portion of the marble on display in the library.
In fact, when the building originally opened, it was the largest marble structure in the US. Today, visitors who make it past the dual lion guards are amazed to see the glorious marble exterior and intricate interior.
The Marble Palace
When A.T. Stewart opened his emporium at the northwest corner of Chambers and Broadway, it was Manhattan’s first-ever department store.
It also featured handsome white Tuckahoe marble that made the building stand apart from all the other earth-toned buildings in the area at the time, earning it the title of “The Marble Palace”.
Marble Palace – Gardens of Marble
Two East Village cemeteries –the New York City Marble Cemetery on Second Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues, and the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets –feature no headstones. Instead, marble vaults and marble tablets mark where the dead are buried in gardens of marble.
Sadly, visitors can only view the spectacular marble graves only occasionally, as both cemeteries are closed to the public most days.
Manhattan Appellate Court
The Manhattan Appellate Courthouse features a marble-clad Beaux Arts facade that was designed in 1900 by James Brown Lord and includes 30 marble statues of major legal figures of the era.
