Posted by Saul Weber on Fri, May 24, 2024

LET’S GET SERIOUS
With the Hall of Fame being located in The Bronx, a question comes up as to how many Bronxites are in the Hall of Fame?
When you look at the physical busts at the Hall of Fame, you are physically looking at TWO and a HALF BRONXITES.
#ONE is EDGAR A POE = Poe Cottage, Poe Park, Grand Concurse and E. Kingsbridge Rd.
#TWO is MARK TWAIN = spent time living in Riverdale at Wave Hill.

The HALF is involved with another bit of trivia concerning the Hall of Fame, specifically which is the only bust here that IS NOT larger than life. The answer is the bust of George Washington.

The bust comes from a casting of a statue of Washington done by Houdon who used a real life-casting of Washington’s head. For the rest of the statue, since Washington couldn’t be in France. Gouverneur Morris [Morrisania] went to France on business in 1789 and served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1792 to 1794, who had a similar appearance body-wise got used as the model for the rest of the statue. When the bust for Washington was commissioned, they went and took a casting of the top portion of the statue [head/neck], so looking the Washington’s bust today, you are looking at Washington’s head and the rest of the bust which belongs to G. Morris.

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