“Night” at the Brooklyn Museum

The statue below, called Night, used to guard one of the entrances to the original Penn Station, a glorious figure greeting millions of commuters every year. Retired now, she sits in the outdoor sculpture garden at the Brooklyn Museum. 

 Night used to be paired with a similar figure, Day. Four sets of Night and Day were created by sculptor Adolph Weinman in 1910 for Penn Station; each pink-granite pair framed the sides of a clock.

So how did she end up in Brooklyn? When Penn Station was torn down in 1963, much of the art and architectural details that made the station such a jewel went straight to landfill. Night was soon retrieved from a dump in the Meadowlands. The whereabouts of her partner, Day, are unclear.

Another set of Night and Day, along with some original Penn Station eagles, somehow made their way to a park in Kansas City, Missouri. The photo below, with Night on the right, provides a better idea of what the originals looked like.