Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York City

The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is an outdoor sculpture gallery located on the grounds of Bronx Community College in the Bronx, New York City. It is the first such hall of fame in the United States. Completed in 1900 as part of the University Heights campus of New York University, the 630-foot stone colonnade half-encircles the Gould Memorial Library and houses 98 bronze portrait busts of a number of prominent Americans. Designed by architect Stanford White, the Beaux Arts structure was donated by Helen Gould, and was formally dedicated on May 30, 1901. New York University was forced to sell the campus in 1973 to the City University of New York and it became Bronx Community College. Though the Hall's renown has itself faded, its architecture remains, and it stands as a secular national shrine not just to great men and women, but to Roman ideals of fame favored at the beginning of the 20th century. ()