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The General Grant National Memorial is surrounded by an art project known as the Mosaic Rolling Bench. It was commissioned by the National Park Service during the 1970s during a dark time for the memorial to discourage graffiti artists from tagging the tomb. It also commemorated the 100th anniversary (3/1/1872) of President’s Grant’s signing the law that designated Yellowstone as the world’s first national park.
The benches were designed by Pedro Silva and Phillip Danzig. The mosaics were assembled with help from hundreds of volunteers from the community and was the largest public art project in the USA. In the 1997, there was talk of removing the benches, but activists intervened to save them. This year, the NPS and CITYarts will restore the 48 year old mosaics.
Location: W 122nd St & Riverside Dr, New York, NY 10027
Designation: National Memorial
Date designated or established: August 14, 1958
Date of my visit: 2/17/2020
