NYC's Lincoln Building loses its name just in time for Presidents Day
Think “Lincoln” and “New York” and the juxtaposition would most likely conjure up the tunnel or the performing arts center. Until this year, it also would have evoked the majestic Lincoln Building at 60 East 42nd Street. No longer.
With barely a nod to the former president, the owners of the 53-story tower, which opened 80 years ago, changed the name to One Grand Central Place, removed the bronze plaques on which the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural were immortalized and evicted Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of the “seated Lincoln,” the model for the Lincoln Memorial, from the lobby.
The makeover occurred last year, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, and in the wake of much bloviation, which elevated President Obama to the former president’s soul mate. (Mr. Obama hardly discouraged the connection; he recited the oath a year ago with his hand on the same Bible that Lincoln used at his inauguration in 1861.)
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With barely a nod to the former president, the owners of the 53-story tower, which opened 80 years ago, changed the name to One Grand Central Place, removed the bronze plaques on which the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural were immortalized and evicted Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of the “seated Lincoln,” the model for the Lincoln Memorial, from the lobby.
The makeover occurred last year, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, and in the wake of much bloviation, which elevated President Obama to the former president’s soul mate. (Mr. Obama hardly discouraged the connection; he recited the oath a year ago with his hand on the same Bible that Lincoln used at his inauguration in 1861.)