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William Huskisson (1770 -1830). First Member of Parliament for Liverpool - 1825 -1830. Killed accidentally by a railway locomotive at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1830.

392/0/10361 DUKE'S TERRACE 05-MAR-10 Statue of William Huskisson II. Memorial statue. 1846. Cast by Ferdinand von Miller, director of the Royal Foundry in Munich, from marble statue of 1836 by sculptor John Gibson. Bronze.

DESCRIPTION: Huskisson is depicted as a standing figure looking down in reflection. He is wearing a Roman toga with right shoulder and part of chest exposed. Left hand raised across chest and right hand holding a scroll. Behind is a bollard inscribed OPUS IOANNIS GIBSON ROMAE. / FUDIT FERD. MILLER MONACHII. / MDCCCXLVII.

Modern granite plinth not of special interest.

HISTORY: William Huskisson (1770-1830) was MP for Liverpool (1823-30), keen advocate for free trade, and supporter of Roman Catholic emancipation. First ever railway fatality, knocked down by Stevenson's Rocket on the occasion of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830.

A public subscription for a memorial raised Ł3,000 and a competition was agreed. Subsequently John Gibson, a celebrated local sculptor who had trained under Antonio Canova, was awarded the commission without recourse to a competition. A marble statue of 1833 was placed in Huskisson's mausoleum (q.v.), designed by John Foster Jnr in St James's Cemetery, Liverpool. A large number of subscribers complained that the statue could not be properly seen. Huskisson's wife paid for a second marble version to be made for the Customs House. It was instead placed at the Royal Exchange, London, now in Pimlico Gardens. Mrs Huskisson then paid for the third, bronze version. It was unveiled in 1847 in front of the Customs House. After World War II the Customs House was demolished due to bomb damage. In 1954 the statue was moved to the N end of the boulevard separating Princes Avenue and Princes Road. The pedestal remains, but the statue was pulled from it in 1982 because it was erroneously believed that Huskisson was a slave trader. It was then housed at the Oratory, St James's Mount Gardens until 2005, when it was moved to its present location.

The statue has been restored since 1997 when it was described as having been coated in black epoxy resin and the surface of the bronze was extensively pitted with larger holes.

SOURCES: Terry Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Liverpool (Liverpool, 1997), 150-3.


REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
The memorial statue to William Huskisson is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is a well-executed memorial statue by the renowned Victorian sculptor, John Gibson, cast in bronze from the 1846 marble version by Ferdinand von Miller, Director of the Royal Foundry of Munich
* The subject is interestingly portrayed in classical drapery, in the manner of a Roman senator, giving an air of grave dignity and simplicity, in contrast to the prevailing fashion of the time of using contemporary dress for memorial statues
* Huskisson, who was MP for Liverpool (1823-30) and advocate for free trade, is now most commonly remembered for his notorious death as the first ever railway fatality, being run over by Stevenson's Rocket at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830.

Source: English Heritage

From Public Sculpture of Sussex

"On 15 September 1830, at the opening ceremonies for the world's first ever passenger steam railway (between Liverpool and Manchester), Huskisson was run over and killed by Stephenson's Rocket because he had not taken sufficient care before crossing the track to start a conversation with the Duke of Wellington. He lived for a few hours after the accident, was lucid enough to dictate and sign a codicil to his will, and met his end with dignity.
He had been politically instrumental in bringing about the new and very visible triumph of technology that was the Liverpool and Manchester railway line.

William Huskisson was born in Worcestershire in 1770. In 1793 he entered parliament as MP for Morpeth, Northumberland. In 1804 he was elected for the constituency of Liskeard and became Secretary of the Treasury. He held the same appointment in Portland's ministry of 1804-09. In 1811 he became a Commissioner of the Woods and Forests. In 1823 he was appointed as President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy in Liverpool's ministry. Under Wellington he was Colonial Secretary but resigned in 1828.
Huskisson had threatened to resign on a number of occasions. Wellington may have been completely wearied by Huskisson's constant threats to resign. Huskisson's tendered his resignation over what was to be done with the two parliamentary seats that were to be disenfranchised for corruption in 1828 (Penryn and East Retford) - not expecting his resignation accepted. Wellington perhaps was glad of an excuse to remove him.
Charles Greville wrote about Huskisson, soon af

Fulton Street Mall, Brooklyn

Summary

The A.I. Namm & Son Department Store building at 450-458 Fulton Street is the sole surviving portion of the important enterprise that once covered nearly one entire block, and despite the alteration of its base, remains a significant architectural and commercial feature of downtown Brooklyn. Adolph I. Namm was a Polish immigrant who transferred his Manhattan upholstery and embroidery trimmings business to Brooklyn in 1885. He opened a new store in 1891 at No. 452 on the stretch of upper Fulton Street that was becoming Brooklyn’s commercial nucleus. Namm’s business expanded into a highly successful department store that made him quite wealthy.
Benjamin Harrison Namm, his son, succeeded in running the firm, which became A.I. Namm & Son. By the 1920s, Namm’s was one of the largest such American stores, in competition in Brooklyn with Abraham & Straus. This structure, Namm’s last architectural phase, was built in 1924-25 and 1928-29 to the design of architects Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler, and consists of a structural steel frame with reinforced concrete floors, clad in Indiana limestone with bronze trim.
The highly sophisticated, elegant modern design, with a rounded corner, contrasts monumental sculptural masonry piers, vertical window bays, and decorative bronze spandrel panels. The design was undoubtedly by Kohn, one of the few American architects who had produced aesthetically noteworthy and interesting work (c. 1905-15) influenced by the Vienna Secession. He explored a different modern aesthetic in the 1920s, a period when American architects were searching for modern architectural forms through various avenues. In 1957, this Fulton Street property, then Namm-Loeser’s Department Store, was purchased by the parent firm of Abraham & Straus and adapted for offices and stores.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

A.I. Namm & Son

Adolph I. Namm (1856-1920), born in Posen, Prussia (formerly and currently Poznan, Poland), immigrated to New York City around 1870. An Adolph Namm appears in city directories in 1877-79 as a dealer in frames on Eighth Avenue. A later newspaper article referred to Namm’s initial business as shades, screens, upholstery, and floor coverings. By 1882, he was listed with a trimmings concern on Sixth Avenue in the Ladies’ Mile shopping district, apparently continuing a family business. He transferred his enterprise to Brooklyn in 1885, relocating to No. 286 Fulton Street, about two blocks north of City Hall. An advertisement in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called Namm a “dealer and manufacturer of upholstery and embroidery trimmings.” By 1887, Namm had expanded to the upper three stories of 335-337 Fulton Street (aka 310-312 Washington Street). As reported in the New York Times, he was arrested in 1888 for “selling mats made by convict laborers, and failing to label them properly.” The Fulton Street building that Namm rented burned to the ground (in a fire of undetermined cause) in December 1890. Though Namm estimated his loss in draperies, embroidery, and other stock to be about $50,000, it was reported that he expected to be reimbursed through insurance. The Times noted at that time that

a few weeks ago Mr. Namm leased the lot at Hoyt and Fulton Streets for $10,000 for ten years, and started

to erect a store to cost $60,000. He already has three stores, but he proposed to consolidate his business

in this new building.

An advertisement for a sale at Namm’s in March 1891 indicated that it was for “a short time only at the old store, prior to removal to our new building.”

Namm’s new store at 452 Fulton Street, located between Hoyt Street and Elm Place, carried merchandise similar to the previous ones. It was eventually expanded into a highly successful dry goods store with 80 departments, and the business made A.I. Namm quite wealthy. He “always gave credit to his wife [Cecelia Meyers Namm]... for having been his strongest influence in building up the establishment from its beginning.” Due to poor health, though, Namm retired from active participation in the store in 1910. His son, Benjamin Harrison Namm (1888-1969), succeeded in running the firm, which became A.I. Namm & Son. B.H. Namm, who became president of the company in 1916, had studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, began as a stock clerk in his father’s store, and served in the Corps of Engineers and other divisions during World War I, becoming a major. He was a president of the National Retail Dry Goods Association (1945-46) and was active in Brooklyn civic causes, including the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities. His favorite sales motto was “Don’t sell America short -- sell it shirts.” B.H. Namm’s brother-in-law, Edgar Allen Baum, joined the firm as vice president.

Between 1890 and 1940, the Namm establishment purchased most of the block on which its store was situated, except for several properties (Nos. 462-470) on the eastern end of the Fult