John Purroy Mitchel
East Drive along the Reservoir at the 90th street entrance to the park
John Purroy Mitchel (1879 - 1918) was a reformist mayor of New York City from 1914 to 1917 and was the youngest mayor ever elected. After losing a bid for a second term, Mitchel enlisted in the Army aviation corps to serve in World War I and was killed on July 6, 1918 after falling 500 feet from a a plane during a training flight in Lake Charles, LA. A memorial committee hired architects Thomas Hastings and Don Barber to design the expansive granite stele and commissioned German-born sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870 - 1952) to design the gilded bronze portrait bust. The monument was dedicated in 1928. It was conserved in 1986 and regilded in 1998. (reference)
John Purroy Mitchel
John Purroy Mitchel