Are these statues the faded remains of lions? Dogs? Or mythological creatures, like griffins?
At 73 St. Marks Place between Second and First Avenues stand these crumbled visages of some aggressive animal, now weathered and faceless.
They’re embracing shields—a fierce touch.
Imagine the foreboding welcome they offered visitors who approached this basement doorway on St. Marks, more than a century ago the main drag of Kleindeutschland.
This was the city’s former Little Germany neighborhood until the early 1900s, resplendent with beer gardens, theaters, libraries, churches.
And shooting clubs—like this one across the street, its emblem still on the facade.
Tags: 73 St. Marks Place, East Village oddities, griffin statues nyc, Kleindeutschland, lion statues doorways, Little Germany New York City, St. Marks Place NYC, statues outside doorways
Ephemeral New York 
February 17, 2014 at 8:01 am |
Do you think they might sell them?
Just asking!! These cannot stay out much longer and survive !!
I have some lovely sphinxes!!
You can see them,…www.mccormickinteriors.com
Take a peek !!!
Penelope
February 18, 2014 at 4:42 am |
I am certain these are not original by any means, these were likely just cheap concrete commercially sold statues someone placed there at some point, maybe in the 1970s or something like that, since then they have begun falling apart and had some vandalism too probably.
These were the typical seated lions holding a shield sold by dozens of firms for decades, theres similar ones on Ebay all the time, some are mass produced from China made of stone.
February 21, 2014 at 7:20 am |
RD is right! However, you were very bright to have found them! They could have been real treasures! Keep peeking around! (aren’t you glad I didn’t say “peaking”? every single blog says “Peaking” when they mean “peeking”! Good grief! Who was their English teacher???!!??!
February 21, 2014 at 6:06 pm |
They were lions, and have been there a LOOONG time. They were chipping even when I was a little girl regularly passing them in the 60s. I’d always pet them as I passed them; I still do pat the remnants of their heads as I walk by them. Somewhere I have a photo of them in the early 80s, not as bad as they are now, but definitely further along on their decay than they were when I was little. I’m glad they’re still there, in whatever form, as a reminder to those of us who remember them from earlier days.
May 5, 2015 at 4:56 pm |
Absolutely. I am 63 (2015) and I grew up in that neighborhood and they have been there as far back as my fading memory goes.
February 23, 2014 at 1:32 am |
Google “Lion of St. Mark”. Wikipedia has an interesting history of the symbol.
February 23, 2014 at 2:17 am |
Yes, thanks!
August 13, 2014 at 2:18 pm |
[…] – East Village monsters: What are those things guarding this home on St. Marks Place? [Ephemeral New York] […]
January 13, 2015 at 4:42 pm |
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