Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2001
Release #285-01

Contact: Sunny Mindel / Peter C. Fenty (212) 788-2958


MAYOR GIULIANI SIGNS BILL ADDING THE NAME "JOHN BIGELOW PLAZA" TO THE INTERSECTION OF 41ST STREET AND FIFTH AVENUE, MANHATTAN

Remarks by Mayor Giuliani at Public Hearing on Local Laws

The final bill before me is Introductory Number 622, sponsored by Council Members Quinn and O'Donovan. The bill would add the name "John Bigelow Plaza" to the intersection of 41st Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

John Bigelow is one of the most distinguished, yet little-known figures, in the history of our City. He was born on November 25, 1817 in Malden-on-Hudson, New York. He practiced law from 1835 until 1848, when he became part owner and editor of the New York Evening Post with the famous poet William Cullen Bryant. He later helped organize the new, anti-slavery Republican Party in 1854 and campaigned for its first presidential nominee, Col. John C. Fremont.

In 1861, President Lincoln appointed Bigelow Consul at Paris and he went on to serve at the court of Napoleon III. When he returned home, Bigelow was elected Secretary of New York State and was later instrumental in resolving the dispute over the route of the Panama Canal, a project he actively supported.

John Bigelow's greatest legacy in the City, however, is the New York Public Library. When Governor Samuel Tilden died in 1886, Bigelow became the trustee of his will, which provided $2.4 million for the establishment of a free public library. With the Governor's money as the primary funding source, Bigelow worked out a plan to combine the City's two existing major collections, the Astor and Lenox collections, to form a new institution, the New York Public Library. When the library was officially established in 1895, Bigelow was chosen as the institution's first president.

John Bigelow was an extraordinarily accomplished man who helped shape some of the most important moments in the history of the City, State and nation. It is fitting therefore, for us to name the intersection of 5th Avenue and 41st Street, "John Bigelow Plaza."

For the reasons previously stated, I will now sign the bill.


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