Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall

by Tom Miller

Among the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in 1869 was Theodore Roosevelt, the father of the future President Theodore Roosevelt.  At the time of Roosevelt’s presidency, the museum building was a disparate marriage of the 1874-77 Victorian Gothic building by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, and the 1889-1908 Romanesque Revival expansions by Cady, Berg & See.

Almost immediately after Roosevelt’s death in 1919, movements to memorialize him across the nation grew.  A Memorial Commission headed by Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, was created by the State Legislature to determine what type of monument would be most appropriate.  An educational institution that reflected Roosevelt’s interest in nature and civic involvement was decided upon.  The State demanded a monumental structure, citing precedents in the Lord Nelson Monument in London and the monument to Napoleon in Paris, Les Invalides.

In 1924, five years after the process began, the State determined the site.  The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial would be a prodigious entrance to the American Museum of National History that would essentially block out the previous structures and span much of the Central Park West blockfront from West 77th to 81st Street.  Eight architectural firms were invited to submit designs within a $2.5 million budget.  Among the several conditions put forth by the State were that the design “should symbolize the scientific, educational, outdoor and exploration aspects” of the President’s life, and that it “should be consistent with the dignity of the Empire State and reflect the national and international influence of Theodore Roosevelt.”

The state demanded a monumental structure, citing precedents in the Lord Nelson Monument in London and the monument to Napoleon in Paris, Les Invalides.

John Russell Pope’s design was accepted.  Above a broad sweep of steps, the central section mimicked an oversized Roman triumphal arch, with a grand arched entrance and massive Ionic columns that supported 30-foot statues of explorers Daniel Boone, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark, and naturalist John James Audubon.  They were sculpted by James Earle Fraser, who was also commissioned to create the plaza’s centerpiece–a bronze equestrian statue of Roosevelt flanked by figures of a Native American and African tribesman.  (The trustees’ report in 1928 mentioned the statue was meant “to symbolize the fearless leadership, the explorer, benefactor and educator,” and that it would hopefully “inspire the beholder with a feeling of the truly sublime in art and in history.”)  Comparatively unadorned wings branched to the north and south.

The cornerstone was laide by New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a distant cousin of the former President) on October 27, 1931.  Construction would take another four years.  In 1934, while work was ongoing, artist William Andrew Mackay created a 15-panel mural series inside the 67-foot wide, 120-foot long Memorial Hall beneath its barrel-vaulted ceiling.  The mural followed the noteworthy periods in Roosevelt’s life.

The Hall carried on the Roman motif, echoing the ancient Pantheon with 48-foot Corinthian columns of red marble.  The limestone walls above the nine-foot Renfrew marble wainscoting were inscribed with quotations from Roosevelt’s writings.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, now President of the United States, was back on January 19, 1936 to lead the dedication ceremonies.  Other dignitaries included Governor Herbert Lehman and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Pope’s grand Roman structure was intended to be seen from afar.  The broad Intermuseum Promenade that was intended to stretch from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West would have given the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial building the vista necessary to truly appreciate its stateliness.  That project never got off the ground, however, and the Roosevelt Memorial Building can be viewed only at an angle, at best.  It prompted architectural critic Lewis Mumford to call the uncompleted building, “sheer ghastly fantasy.”  In 1932, Mumford complained in the New Yorker, “This Classic monument, so painfully, so grotesquely inappropriate, will never look better than it does now.”

The museum’s president, Henry Fairfield Osborn vehemently disagreed.  He called the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Building, “the most inspiring memorial ever designed, excepting perhaps only the Taj Mahal.”

In 1987, the façade was cleaned and repaired, and two years later, the Roosevelt Memorial Building was closed to the public for interior renovation and restoration, including the conservation of the murals.  A second bronze Roosevelt statue was unveiled inside the Rotunda in November 2012.  Executed by Studio EIS in Brooklyn, it is based on photographs taken of Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir during an excursion to Yosemite in 1903.  The casually-posed statue depicts a hatless Roosevelt sitting, wearing Western attire.

As it turned out, the commission of a second Roosevelt statue was fortuitous.

As it turned out, the commission of a second Roosevelt statue was fortuitous.  Racist-spurred deaths that occurred during demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 sparked a movement to eliminate memorials with connections to racism, Confederates, or slavery.  Rising to near hysteria, its proponents demanded that all statues–no matter their artistic importance, how distinguished the artist, or what positive accomplishments the figure had contributed to society—be removed. 

Roosevelt, seated on his horse while the African and the Native American walked, drew ire.  It was splashed with red paint in 2017 by a group calling itself the monument Removal Brigade.  Finally, on June 21, 2020, The New York Times reported, “The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt…is coming down.”

Despite its lost plaza centerpiece, John Russell Pope’s magnificent Roman-inspired monument to Theodore Roosevelt is as impressive today as it was in 1936 when another President Roosevelt opened its doors to the public.

Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com