City College of New York is located far up in Manhattan, near Harlem. Since the early 1900s their elegant buildings, designed by famed architect George Post, have featured gargoyles. Technically because they do not drain water they are officially known as grotesques, but gargoyles sounds so much better.
Unfortunately by the 1960s many of the gargoyles had fallen into disrepair, at times falling off the buildings. In the 1980s a campaign began to restore the buildings and gargoyles. As part of this the broken ones were taken off, cataloged, and recreated.
The old broken ones then sat in a dumpster for the next 20 years. Eventually they were removed from the dumpsters and placed in the lawn next to the School of Architecture, resulting in a ‘Gargoyle Graveyard’.
Fear not – the new ones and the buildings of CCNY are featured on the next posting.
RDZ Photography 