3. Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and More Are Honored in Stone
In 1922, at a cost of $16,000, the Cathedral installed a stone parapet. The parapet contained “one sculpture for each of the Christian centuries, each figure being that of the personage who in that 100 years did the most, in the opinion of the Cathedral authorities, for the uplift of the world.” The twentieth-century niche was left empty with instructions that it was to remain empty for seventy-eight years in order to determine who would be worthy of filling the void for the century. According to the New York Times, the front runners in 1922 were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, and Charles Evans Hughes. The niche was eventually filled with a statue of Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Einstein, and Gandhi carved by Chris Pellettieri.