WOMEN’S PLAZA, KEW GARDENS

PICTURED here is Women’s Plaza, on the north side of Queens Boulevard at Union Turnpike (here the service road of the Jackie Robinson Parkway). I got this image from Google Street View, hence the blurred faces on the street crossers. Women’s Plaza was founded both as a tribute to women’s accomplishments in the borough, but also as something of a rebuke to what used to be in this space. A look at the concrete object in the center reveals it to be a former fountain base. But take a closer look…

… show some fountainheads that pre-dated Ben Chapman’s portrayal of the Gill-Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, by about thirty years. So what used to be here that would refer to anthropomorphic sea creatures?

A deteriorating statue of a man brandishing a sword, standing athwart two writhing mermaids. “Civic Virtue, ” called “Fat Boy” by his detractors, was designed by renowned sculptor Frederick MacMonnies and actually worked on by the famed Piccirilli Brothers of the Bronx, who also sculpted Abraham Lincoln at the Henry Bacon Lincoln Memorial in Washington as well as the two lions, Patience and Fortitude, who guard the NY Public Library at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.

photo: Smarthistory

Civic Virtue Triumphant Over Unrighteousness, seen here in 1941 just before it moved to Queens, was installed in 1922 directly in front of City Hall. It immediately came under fire from many women, who were angered that the youth portraying ‘Civic Virtue’ was demonstrating his triumph by lording it over two female figures. For 19 years, the city leadership regretted having him around, especially Fiorello LaGuardia, who apparently despised being mooned by Civic Virtue daily. Finally, LaGuardia had the statue shipped off to a plaza at Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike when Queens built a new Borough Hall in 1941. 

There he remained, untouched, for 71 years. The statue, once alabaster-white, became caked with soot and pigeon droppings, CV’s nose and part of his face has chipped away, and the features of his temptresses were no longer clearly discernible. The basin was filled with chipped concrete, candy wrappers, and worse detritus; the homeless used it as a way station. [see photos at Bridge and Tunnel Club to see how much this deterioration progressed]. The late Queens Borough President Helen Marshall made no bones about her dislike of CV and his coterie and refused to authorize any cleanup at all, preferring it be moved on to another locale. 

There were differing opinions about what to do with the statue, as other Queens elected officials disagreed with Marshall and sought to repair it and keep it in place. Nevertheless, the NYC Design Commission approved a move  to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, where it would undergo restoration. The statue’s pedestal/fountain would remain in place and a new installation celebrating women’s accomplishments, inclusing a frenovation of the plaza, would take its place. 

And thus it was that in the early 2010s, Civic Virtue found a third home, in its third borough, this time on Garland Avenue in the northeast section of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

I’ve always loved the thing, and definitely not for its perceived chauvinistic appearances. Over the decades, it has acquired a patina of kitsch. It’s as over-the-top as the Mermaid or Halloween Parades (I’d like to see a re-creation of the statue in either parade; think the 1920 modeling session with MacMonnies was fun?).

Things definitely got more buttoned-up with the onset of the Depression, and Civic Virtue and its genre fell out of favor. It’s definitely a remnant of a different era.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the  gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site. 

2/26/26