The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, is the original “Hall of Fame” in the United States. “Fame” here means “renown” (rather than today’s more common meaning of “celebrity”). Its originator, Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, acknowledged inspiration from the Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Fame) in Munich.
It is a (secular) “national shrine” on the grounds of the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. Though the Hall’s renown has itself faded, its glorious architecture remains, and the hall stands as a shrine not just to great men, but to Roman ideals of fame favored at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Completed in 1900, as part of the original New York University campus at the site, the building was donated by Helen Gould and was formally dedicated on May 30, 1901. It was originated by Dr. Henry Mitchell MacCracken, Chancellor of New York University from 1891 to 1910, and was designed as part of the construction of an undergraduate college of that university.
The Hall of Fame 630-foot open-air Colonnade to honor prominent Americans who have had a significant impact on this nation’s history.
It stands on the heights occupied by the British army in its successful attack upon Fort Washington in the autumn of 1776.
Address: W 181st Street at University Avenue, Bronx, NY 10453
URL: here
Subway: 4 Line to Burnside Avenue
