Nathan Hale Statue, City Hall Park

Bronze statue of Nathan Hale, City Hall Park, New York City. Photo (originally stereograph) copyright 1908 by Keystone View Company. The City Hall is on the left and the World Building in on the right. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This monument to Nathan Hale, a revolutionary martyr who gave his life for his country in 1776, was erected by the Sons of the Revolution and dedicated on November 25, 1893, anniversary of Evacuation Day.

About 1920 the statue was at the entrance of the City Hall. In 1999 the statue was moved from Broadway at Murray Street to its current location on the lawn facing City Hall’s entrance plaza.

During the Independence War, Nathan Hale (1755-1776), disguised as a Dutch schoolteacher, attempted to infiltrate New York’s British ranks to gather intelligence on the enemy’s Long Island military installations. The young man was captured, however, on the night of September 21, 1776 and hanged for treason the next morning on a gallows believed to have been erected near 63rd Street and First Avenue.

Sculptor Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937) offered a romantic interpretation of Nathan Hale, since no life portrait of the patriot spy exist. The bronze statue is set upon a granite base and illustrates the hero’s last predawn moments. Stanford White was the architect of the monument.