Bethesda Terrace

Bethesda Terrace overlooks The Lake in New York City's Central Park. It is on two levels, united by two grand staircases and a lesser one that passes under Terrace Drive to provide passage southward to the Elkan Naumburg bandshell and The Mall, of which this is the architectural culmination, the theatrical set-piece at the center of the park. The upper terrace flanks the 72nd Street Cross Drive and the lower terrace provides a podium for viewing the Lake. The mustard-olive colored carved stone is New Brunswick sandstone, with a harder stone for cappings, with granite steps and landings, and herringbone paving of Roman brick laid on edge.

Bethesda Fountain

Bethesda Fountain is the central feature on the lower level of the terrace, constructed in 1859-64, which is enclosed within two elliptical balustrades.

The pool is centered by a fountain sculpture designed by Emma Stebbins in 1868 and unveiled in 1873. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a public commission for a major work of art in New York City. The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a female winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. It was the only statue in the park called for in the original design. Beneath her are four four-foot cherubs representing Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace. Also called the Angel of the Waters, the statue refers to the Gospel of John, Chapter 5 where there is a description of an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. In Central Park the referent is the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water: thus the angel carries a lily in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below.

The base of the fountain was designed by the architect of all the original built features of Central Park, Calvert Vaux, with sculptural details, as usual, by Jacob Wrey Mould. In Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted's 1858 Greensward Plan, the terrace at the end of the Mall overlooking the naturalistic landscape of the Lake was simply called The Water Terrace, but after the unveiling of the angel, its name was changed to Bethesda Terrace.

The panels of carving in the abstracted organic style propounded by Owen Jones, a mentor of the sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould are organized by an iconographical program of themes: the Seasons, the Times of Day, the Ages of Mankind. Considerable latitude was offered the carvers executing the work, following Ruskinian principles.

Bethesda Terrace became a site for an outdoor luncheon restaurant at the end of the 1960s, then became a congregating spot for the Hair generation before devolving into a drug-trafficking venue in the 1970s. The fountain, which had been dry for decades, was restored in its initial campaign, 1980-81, by the Central Park Conservancy as the centerpiece of its plan to renovate Central Park. The Terrace, designed by Vaux with sculptural decoration by Mould, was restored in the following season, its stonework disassembled, cleaned, deteriorated surfaces removed, restored and patched and reset. Resodding, and fifty new trees, 3,500 shrubs and 3,000 ground cover plants specified by Philip Winslow followed in 1986, most of which, having matured into dense blocks, were removed in 2008, to make way for plants native to the United States. The Minton encaustic tiles of the ceiling of the arcade between the flanking stairs, designed by Mould, were removed in 1987, cleaned, restored, completed with additional new tiles and reinstalled in 2007.

Following an illustration in an 1891 book by the Superintendent of Planting in Central Park, Calvert Vaux's assistant and partner, Samuel Parsons, today in summer, the lower basin once again has water lilies, lotus and papyrus, grown in removable pots.

In Popular Culture

  • The fountain and terrace are featured in the October 1, 2008 episode of Lipstick Jungle (TV series).
  • In Gossip Girl (TV Series), the terrace is a sanctuary for Serena van der Woodsen when she is troubled.
  • The statue plays a part in the play and movie, Angels in America by Tony Kushner. (Kushner's assertion that the statue commemorates American Civil War dead is actually incorrect.)
  • Bialystock prays for Bloom to reconsider at the fountain in The Producers by Mel Brooks.
  • They Might Be Giants shot their 1988 music video They'll Need a Crane at Bethesda Terrace and fountain.
  • The fountain is the setting for the final scene between Didi and Sexton in Neil Gaiman's Sandman spin-off story '.
  • The 1973 movie version of the musical play Godspell opens at the Bethesda Fountain with the character John the Baptist (David Haskell) standing in the top pool, holding the hand of the angel, and singing the musical number "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord".
  • The starting point of the first episode of The Amazing Race is at Bethesda Fountain.
  • In Stuart Little 2 the scene were Falcon is killed is at Bethesda Fountain.
  • The fountain is referenced as the place Alan Swann bathes nude in My Favorite Year.
  • In the 1996 movie Ransom, the Terrace is the place where Tom Mullen's (Mel Gibson) son Sean is kidnapped during a science contest.
  • The fountain and terrace are featured in Middle Park in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
  • The fountain is the final scene of the song "That's How You Know" in the 2007 film Enchanted.
  • It is also in and Elf.
  • The statue is featured on the cover art for the 2008 Bauhaus album Go Away White.
  • In the 1997 cult classic Fools Rush In, Matthew Perry's character mentions the fountain as a place where all of New York passes by.
  • The terrace is the grounds of a boss fight in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of the video game Alone in the Dark.

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HISTORY
3 July 2012
Designed by Emma Stebbins and dedicated in 1873, this fountain was the only sculpture commissioned as part of Central Park’s original design. Its official name is “Angel of the Waters.”
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11 April 2018
Magnificent part of Central Park. The fountain is a celebrity on it's own! It has probably appeared in more movies than any other monument in the park.Giant bubble-blowers are available all year round
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11 April 2018
Humorously, Bethesda Terrace reminds me of the mission "Meltdown" in Grand Theft Auto IV. The fountain and lower passage are featured in Middle Park, the game's take on Central Park
AlAnoud A AlGhunaim
8 November 2021
Street performers, outstanding scenery and perfect if you’re into doing your own thing in the middle of the city! My favorite spot to get a book and cup of coffee then let the hours pass by peacefully
Edwulf
22 June 2015
sing all your favorite songs from enchanted movie here, take pics or see a proposal, face back the fountain, throw a penny over your shoulder, clap 3 times & say New York! You'll return here someday!
Vito Tartaglia
14 October 2015
One of my five NY preferite places. Stunning by any side, not only the fountain but all the terrace. Underpass is great, too, and often there're artists exploiting its peculiar acoustics.
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0.1km from The Mall, New York, NY 10024, USA Get directions
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Fri 11:00 AM–7:00 PM
Sat-Sun 8:00 AM–8:00 PM
Mon 11:00 AM–7:00 PM
Tue Noon–7:00 PM

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