THE CARRERE MEMORIAL

THE CARRERE MEMORIAL
From the address by Joseph H. Freelander
Chairman, at the unveiling of the Carrere Memorial at Ninety-eight Street and Riverside Drive on Thursday, October 16, 1919.

THE memorial to John Merven Carrere which we unveil to-day may, with peculiar fitness, be termed a labor of love, for it came into being as the result of a spontaneous testimonial on the part of his friends to the admirable qualities of this remarkable and many-sided man.


Taken off in the very prime of his professional career, he left a gaping void, for to the fine arts and to civic betterment he had rendered at all times inestimable service. It is a situation that I can best describe by saying that, although some years have elapsed since his untimely end, no one has taken his place.


His virility, his keen conception of the dignity of the art of architecture, his willingness to be the standard-bearer par excellence of an idea, made him at all times an acknowledged leader in the profession.


He found time for all, notwithstanding the exaction of his busy workaday life. I believe that I correctly interpret the sentiment of the architectural profession when I say that we not only esteemed but that we loved him —we loved his high sense of honor, his kindliness, the sweetness of his nature, and the consideration and tact with which he handled the great mass of professional questions continually placed before him for solution by his colleagues.


It is to the affection in which the profession holds his memory that this memorial is due.

The memorial, designed by Mr. Carrere's partner, Thomas Hastings, is the only monument, with the exception of the Richard Hunt Memorial, erected to any architect in this country. It speaks well for the increasing public appreciation of belles-lettres and the fine arts that a place in one of the city's garden-spots should have been set aside to perpetuate the memory of a great artist.

Section of Terrace Wall with tablet to John Merven Carrare

Here in this lovely park, in the autumn, in the winter time, through the hot, lazy summer days, let the passerby who holds in greatest affection all that is beautiful in life pause an instant to lay at this shrine a token of appreciation to one who carried high at every turn the banner of the ideal and the true.


The committee in charge of this memorial included the following distinguished members of the architectural profession: Joseph H. Freedlander, Chairman, Donn Barber, Electus D. Litchfield, H. Van Buren Magonigle, William Rutherford Mead, Benjamin Wistar Morris.

*** Terrace and Balustrade - Milford Pink Granite***

Memorial at wikimapia.org.


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