Grand Army Plaza
Grand Army Plaza is the gateway to Central Park. Of the four corners of Central Park, it's the only one that is officially part of the Park's 843-acre landscape. It is actually two plazas. 59th Street bisects it into two semicircles, a split design inspired by Paris' famed Place de la Concorde.
The southern half, opposite the Plaza Hotel, is home to the Pulitzer Fountain. Sculptor Karl Bitter designed the fountain in the Italian Renaissance tradition. The fountain is crowned with a graceful bronze figure of Pomona, goddess of abundance. On the fountain's plaza, as well as on the northern plaza, are flowerbeds designed and maintained by the Central Park Conservancy.
The plaza was finished in 1916. It takes its name from the Grand Army of the Potomac, which was the Union Army in the American Civil War. The bronze statue depicts Union General William Tecumseh Sherman by American artist Augustus Saint Gaudens. When the Civil War ended, Sherman moved to New York City and rode his horse and carriage through Central Park daily.
In October 2011 an early snowstorm damaged the trees surrounding the Sherman statue.
Central Park Conservancy is rehabilitating the plaza by rebuilding infrastructure; installing new pavements, benches, and lighting; replacing the trees lost in the 2011 snowstorm; and re-gilding the statue of General Sherman. The work is expected to be completed in early 2015.
Fifth Avenue between 58th and 60th Streets.