My years as a tour guide and writer at Untapped have provided me with the opportunity to explore the depths of the City. When it comes to monuments and statues in the City I have visited, and can recognize, the vast majority of them. Therefore, while waiting at the checkout counter of a Dunae Reade in Midtown the other day, my attention was caught by a series of what I assumed were New York City scenes above the registers. I recognized most of them, which depicted familiar sites in the city that were located nearby a Duane Reade. However, I was stumped by one photograph. It depicted a statue with a gothic building in the background. Despite my best attempts I was unable to think of a similarly situated statue and building in New York City. I figured if I could identify either the building or the statue I might be able to narrow it down. The only building that I could think of which was somewhat similar in form was Riverside Church but I was sure that there were no statues in front of it. Next, I turned to the statue. I realized that the statue looked very similar to the statue of Nathan Hale I had seen at Yale, of which I knew there were copies, and close enough to the one in City Hall Park. As far as I knew, there was only one statue of Hale in New York City and that one was located in City Hall Park. When it was finally my turn to pay, I asked the cashier if she recognized the sites depicted in the photographs. She did not, though another employee suggested that the photograph has been taken somewhere in Brooklyn.
Midtown Duane Reade
The Incriminating Photographs:
A quick Google search confirmed my suspicions. The photograph depicts a statue of Nathan Hale in front of the Chicago Tribune Building. I can only wonder how Duane Reade mistook New York City for Chicago.
