BGuthrie Photos: NY -- NYC -- Central Park -- Bethesda Terrace and Fountain

NY -- NYC -- Central Park -- Bethesda Terrace and Fountain:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BETH_180824_022.JPG: Wedding pictures
2. BETH_180824_058.JPG: Landmarks of New York Bethesda Fountain and Terrace Designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, these stairways, terrace and fountain were the focal feature of the original plan for Central Park by Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. The fountain sculpture by Emma Stebbins, inspired by the biblical account of the miraculous pool of Bethesda, was installed in 1873
3. BETH_180824_061.JPG: Navy Terrace Named in honor of the men and women of New York City who served their country during the world wards in the United States Navy United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Dedicated May 24, 1947
4. BETH_180824_168.JPG: More photography partners
5. BETH_180824_248.JPG: Bethesda Terrace Landscape Endowed in 1987 by Bradley Isham Collins
6. BETH_180824_250.JPG: 1887
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Description of Subject Matter: Minton Tile Ceiling at Bethesda Terrace
The Minton tile ceiling in the arcade of Bethesda Terrace was created in the 1860s. It is one of the Park's main architectural features. A grand staircase connects the Mall to the subterranean arcade. Made up of 49 panels, the ceiling features almost 16,000 elaborately patterned encaustic tiles, handmade by England’s renowned Minton and Company.
Not fully indoors or outdoors, the arcade was conceived as an open-air reception hall that would provide visitors with shelter from rain and heat. The highlight of the arcade is the magnificent Minton Tile ceiling designed by British-born architect and designer, Jacob Wrey Mould, who also conceived of the decorative carvings throughout the Terrace.
Encaustic tiles, originally created to cover floors, are made of individual colored clays pressed and fired into the tile to form the design. The arcade at Bethesda Terrace is the only place in the world where these Minton tiles are used for a ceiling. The niches that flank the walls of the arcade are covered with trompe l'oeil paintings that resemble the colored stone inlay design that was never completed.
Over the decades, the 50-ton ceiling deteriorated. In 1983, the tile panels were removed and placed in storage because of extensive damage. The restoration of the ceiling hinged on necessary funding, which the Conservancy obtained by 2004. Thanks to generous individuals and foundations, the Conservancy was able to accomplish this challenging restoration.
Reopened in March 2007, the tile ceiling reﬂects the light coming from Bethesda Terrace and the Mall and transforms the arcade from a dark passageway to a glorious jewel box of pattern, color, and light.
The above was from http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/minton-tiles-at-bethesda.html

Bethesda Fountain
Rising from Bethesda Terrace is Bethesda Fountain, with the famous Angel of the Waters statue atop. The statue references the Gospel of John, which describes an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers. The fountain commemorates the Croton water system, which first brought fresh water to New York City in 1842. The angel carries a lily in her left hand — a symbol of the water's purity, very important to a city that had previously suffered from a devastating cholera epidemic before the system was established. The piece is the only statue that was commissioned for the Park. Created by Emma Stebbins, it also marked the first time a woman received a public art commission in New York City.
The above was from http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/bethesda-fountain.html
Wikipedia Description: Bethesda Terrace and Fountain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bethesda Terrace is on two levels, united by two grand staircases and a lesser one that passes under Terrace Drive. They provide passage southward to the Elkan Naumburg bandshell and The Mall at the center of the park. The upper terrace flanks the 72nd Street Cross Drive and the lower terrace provides a podium for viewing the Lake. The mustard-olive colored carved stone is New Brunswick sandstone, with a harder stone for cappings, with granite steps and landings, and herringbone pattern paving of Roman brick laid on edge.

Bethesda Terrace

The Terrace

Bethesda Terrace became a site for an outdoor luncheon restaurant at the end of the 1960s, then became a congregating spot for the Hair generation before devolving into a drug-trafficking venue in the 1970s. The fountain, which had been dry for decades, was restored in its initial campaign, in 1980 and 1981, by the Central Park Conservancy as the centerpiece of its plan to renovate Central Park. The Terrace, designed by Calvert Vaux with sculptural decoration by Jacob Wrey Mould, was restored in the following season, its stonework disassembled, cleaned, deteriorated surfaces removed, restored, patched, and reset.

Resodding, and 50 new trees, 3,500 shrubs and 3,000 ground cover plants specified by Philip Winslow followed in 1986, most of which, having matured into dense blocks, were removed in 2008, to make way for plants native to the United States. The Minton encaustic tiles of the ceiling of the arcade between the flanking stairs, designed by Mould, were removed in 1987, cleaned, restored, completed with additional new tiles, and reinstalled in 2007.

Following an illustration in an 1891 book by the Superintendent of Planting in Central Park, Vaux's assistant and partner, Samuel Parsons, the lower basin once again has water lilies, lotus, and papyrus, grown in removable pots.

Bethesda Fountain

Bethesda Fountain is the central feature on the lower level of the terrace, constructed between 1859 and 1864, which is enclosed within two elliptical balustrades.

The pool is centered by a fountain sculpture designed by Emma Stebbins in 1868 and unveiled in 1873. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a public commission for a major work of art in New York City. The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a female winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. It was the only statue in the park called for in the original design. Beneath her are four four-foot cherubs representing Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace. Also called the Angel of the Waters, the statue refers to Healing the paralytic at Bethesda, a story from the Gospel of John about an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. In Central Park the referent is the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water: thus the angel carries a lily in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below.

The base of the fountain was designed by the architect of all the original built features of Central Park, Calvert Vaux, with sculptural details, as usual, by Jacob Wrey Mould. In Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted's 1858 Greensward Plan, the terrace at the end of the Mall overlooking the naturalistic landscape of the Lake was simply called The Water Terrace, but after the unveiling of the angel, its name was changed to Bethesda Terrace.

The panels of carving in the abstracted organic style propounded by Owen Jones, a mentor of the sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould are organized by an iconographical program of themes: the Seasons, the Times of Day, the Ages of Mankind. Considerable latitude was offered the carvers executing the work, following Ruskinian principles.
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