BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CITY HALL

BEN Franklin’s presence on Park Row is one of the last vestiges of Park Row’s former claim to fame as “Newspaper Row.” At one time, the New York Times, World, Sun, Journal and Tribune all were located on this section of Park Row, as well as the German language Staats Beitung. Most of them moved uptown after 1900. Some of their buildings, as well as this statue, are still here. This representation of Franklin, by sculptor Ernst Plassman, was installed in 1872, commissioned as a gift to the NYC by Albert De Groot, a retired Hudson Valley steamboat captain.

It was unveiled that year by inventor and painter Samuel Morse, with remarks by famed pressman Horace Greeley. After several years of wear and tear, the City Parks Foundation Monuments Conservation Program gave the statue a thorough rehabilitation in 1999.

On the right of the photo, you can see the former New York Times headquarters before the paper moved uptown in 1905. The building is now part of the Pace University complex. The school’s flagship building, a bit of which can be seen on the left, broke ground in 1966 at the cost of the old New York Tribune building.

Why Franklin and why here? Before becoming a scientist/ educator/ diplomat/ inventor, Franklin was a printer by trade. He spent a brief time in NYC as a printer’s helper at age 17, but his greatest success as a printer and publisher, and later an editor, came in Philadelphia.

It was in the spirit of Franklin’s overwhelming success with the printed word (he was able to retire from the business at age 42; me, I’m stil at it at 67) that this statue was placed in what was known as Printing House Square in 1872, where Park Row, Nassau and Spruce Streets come together.

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7/14/25