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Pilaster Capital with Head of Athena, from Adams Express Building, 57-61 Broadway, NYC

American Art

On View: Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
MEDIUM Marble
DATES ca. 1912
DIMENSIONS 25 x 54 x 15 in. (63.5 x 137.2 x 38.1 cm)
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 87.25
CREDIT LINE Gift of First Winthrop Corporation (David Freeman)
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Marble column cap with head of Athena wearing winged helmet, surmounting an oval shield flanked by a laurel leaf swag. The portrait sits atop a horizontal frieze with laurel leaves alternating with blank shields, with a rope and egg and dart bands at the top. The column cap was removed from lower story of the 32-story Adams Express Company Building, during renovation in 1986. Completed in 1916 and located at 61 Broadway, this "experimental sky scraper" that was one of the last "monster buildings" to go up before the 1916 zoning laws. The seventh-highest building in the city when it was completed, the building also ranks with the New York Public Library as one of the city's outstanding Beaux Arts-style buildings.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, 1st Floor
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