Hall of Fame for Great Americans
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans (Hall of Fame in American) is a Hall of Fame in New York City .
location
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is located in the New York borough of Bronx , on the grounds of the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York . It is located at the top of a ridge that towers above the University Heights district and which was originally part of the New York University campus .
Origins
The Hall of Fame was inaugurated on May 30, 1901 . It was a project by Henry Mitchell MacCracken , the then chancellor of the university, who wanted to honor particularly deserving citizens of the USA and bring them to the public's attention. It was the first hall of fame in the United States. The elaborate building was donated by the philanthropist Helen Miller Shepard .
Concept and architecture
The Hall of Fame, built by the architect Stanford White , is laid out in the form of a curved 192-meter-long neoclassical colonnade in the open air.
The spaces between the columns provide space for the installation of a total of 102 bronze portrait - busts on pedestals . A bronze plaque is affixed below each monument, giving the sitter's name, important biographical data, outstanding achievements and memorable quotes. Each of the busts had to be created specifically for the Hall of Fame and was not allowed to be copied for a period of 50 years after it was erected.
Selection criteria
To qualify for inclusion in the Hall of Fame nominated to be the person in question had to US citizens by birth or - since 1914 - Naturalization be, have died 25 years earlier (1900 to 1920 this period was only 10 years) and a significant Contribute to the economy , politics or culture of the USA.
Any citizen of the United States could propose candidates for nomination. The selection was made every five years (after 1970 every three years) by vote by an electoral body consisting of prominent representatives from all states . Originally a simple majority was sufficient for acceptance; In the years 1925 to 1940 a three-fifths majority was necessary, after which they returned to the original electoral mode. In 1976 the majority election was replaced by a points system.
Only two people, Constance Fenimore Woolson (nominated 1900) and Orville Wright (admitted 1965), were exceptionally allowed to vote early because they were only six and 17 years dead, respectively.
Todays situation
In the first decades of its existence, the Hall of Fame was a major New York landmark and a place of national importance. Admission to the ranks of those honored there was viewed as a weighty act and an outstanding honor.
However, the Hall of Fame's appeal and importance dwindled over the years; the facility fell into disuse, and the private donations from which it was financed since entry was free dried up.
In 1973 the university moved to a new campus; the site, and with it the building of the Hall of Fame, was taken over by the state of New York . The dilapidated colonnades were renovated in the late 1970s with public funds for $ 3 million; in the following years another $ 200,000 was raised for the restoration of the busts, some of which were heavily weathered.
With the Hall of Fame's funds exhausted due to the lack of donations, no new meetings of the electoral body have been organized since 1976. Of the 102 honorees, only 98 are represented by busts, as it was not possible to finance monuments for those who were last admitted in the 1970s.
Members of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans
The honorees in the order of their admission to the Hall of Fame:
The last three people inducted into the Hall of Fame and Louis D. Brandeis are not represented by busts.
