The South Arch / The North Arch

Philadelphia's Smith Memorial Arch honors Pennsylvania's military heroes of the Civil War through a pair of arches topped by tall pillars, a project involving 12 noted sculptors over a 15-year period and regarded as one of the most ambitious monuments of the Victorian era in the United States. It was built through the bequest of Richard A. Smith, a Philadelphian who made his fortune making type used in printing, who had a model and designs prepared before his death, left $500,000 to complete and maintain it, appointed James H. Windrim as architect in his will, and left the selection of artists to the Fairmount Park Art Association. In addition to figures representing Victory, Courage, Heroism, Fame, Strength, Peace, and the Army and Navy, the memorial features statues of Smith, Windrim, attorney John B. Gest, and Pennsylvanians associated with the Civil War including George B. McClellan, George Gordon Meade, S.W. Crawford, John Hartranft, James A. Beaver, Winfield Scott Hancock, John Fulton Reynolds, John A.B. Dahlgren, David Dixon Porter, and Andrew Gregg Curtin. The Fairmount Park Art Association chose twelve distinguished sculptors, including two women and four Philadelphians, and several of the artists also created other works in Fairmount Park and Philadelphia. The fifty-six names on the pylons memorialize other Pennsylvanians who fought in the Civil War, and the stone seating areas on the north side are known as the Whispering Benches because a whisper into the curved wall at one end can be heard at the other end.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States