New York Korean War Veterans Memorial, Battery Park

This monument in Battery Park, north of Castle Clinton, honors military personnel who served in the Korean Conflict (1950–1953). The memorial, dedicated in 1991, was designed by Welsh-born artist Mac Adams and is notable as one of the first Korean War memorials erected in the United States.

In 1987 the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee was formed to raise money to build a monument to commemorate the soldiers of the “forgotten war.” Mac Adams’ winning design, features a 15-foot-high black granite stele with the shape of a Korean War soldier cut out of the center. Also known as “The Universal Soldier,” the figure forms a silhouette that allows viewers to see through the monument to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Adams also designed the piece to function as a sundial. Every July 27 at 10 a.m., the anniversary of the exact moment in New York when hostilities ceased in Korea, the sun shines through the soldier’s head and illuminates the commemorative plaque installed in the ground at the foot of the statue.

One of the three tiers in the base of the monument is decorated with a mosaic of flags of the countries that participated in the U.N.-sponsored mission. The plaza’s paving blocks are inscribed with the number of dead, wounded, and missing in action from each of the 22 countries that participated in the war. Korean War veterans are also commemorated in New York with the Korean War Veterans Plaza at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, and the Korean War Veterans Parkway in Staten Island, previously known as the Richmond Parkway until it was renamed in April 1997 by the New York State Legislature.

Photo 622