John Paul Jones Enters Hall of Fame
Full Honors at Length Paid to First Naval Hero, Whose Desperate Bravery on the Bon Homme Richard Snatched Victory From Defeat – Sea Fighter Rose From Cabin Boy to Commander
In 1925, a century before Trump’s proposed “National Garden of American Heroes,” NYC had a “Hall of Fame for American Heroes.” Last updated in 1976, it’s since fallen into obscurity.
New York Times Magazine wrote about it in 1925, upon the induction of John Paul Jones.
The Revolutionary War naval officer was one of two inductees that year, alongside stage actor Edwin Booth. (Who’s better remembered today as the brother of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth, more than for his actual acting accomplishments.)
Launched in 1900, NYC’s hall selected several honorees from American history every five years: 1900, 1905, 1910, etc. Then they added four more people in 1973, three more in 1976…
…then that was it. The final few honorees weren’t even sculpted for statues in the hall at all. A 2009 New York Times headline called the hall “forgotten and forlorn.” By 2018, the existing statues were deteriorating due to lack of upkeep.
In 2025, America is building a new sculpture garden, (likely) tilted towards figures beloved by the modern right.
I wrote about it for the nonpartisan political news and analysis website The Fulcrum back in June, analyzing congressional legislation called the National Garden for America’s 250th Anniversary Act. (I write a regular feature called ‘Congress Bill Spotlight’ – check it out here!)
The statue garden will feature 250 statues of notable Americans, opening in 2026 for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence signing. While the congressional legislation didn’t pass individually, congressional Republicans ultimately folded it into far larger legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law on July 4 for the symbolism.
The garden’s site has not yet been selected, though the previous hall’s site of New York City now seems extremely unlikely. After all, Trump declared it would be “hard” for him to send NYC federal money if Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election – as he did last Tuesday. More likely sites are Washington, D.C. or perhaps South Dakota near Mount Rushmore.
The exact 250 statues and honorees have not yet been selected, either. But in January 2021, during the final days of his first term, Trump released a list of 250 names for consideration. (Though they’re potentially subject to change.)
So, how do the honorees from the original hall in 1925 compare to Trump’s proposed honorees in 2025?
The original NYC hall ultimately ended with 102 honorees, but only 65 had been selected by that article’s publication in 1925. Of those, 25 (or 38%) were also on Trump’s list:
John Adams
John James Audubon
Daniel Boone
Henry Clay
James Fenimore Cooper
Jonathan Edwards
Ralph Waldo Emerson
David Farragut
Benjamin Franklin
Ulysses S. Grant
Alexander Hamilton
Patrick Henry
Andrew Jackson
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
James Madison
Maria Mitchell
Samuel Morse
Edgar Allan Poe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Gilbert Stuart
Mark Twain
George Washington
Roger Williams
A few noteworthy names added to the original NYC hall by 1925 that weren’t on Trump’s list include:
John Quincy Adams
Robert Fulton
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Washington Irving
Robert E. Lee, removed in 2017
John Marshall
Eli Whitney
Of the 37 inductees who would be selected for the NYC hall after that 1925 NYT Mag article, 16 (or 43%) were also on Trump’s list:
Susan B. Anthony
Clara Barton
Alexander Graham Bell
Andrew Carnegie
George Washington Carver
Grover Cleveland
Thomas Edison
William Penn
Walter Reed
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Henry David Thoreau
Booker T. Washington
Walt Whitman
Orville Wright
Wilbur Wright
A few notable names later added to the original NYC hall between 1930 to 1976 that weren’t on Trump’s list include:
Louis Brandeis
Stonewall Jackson, removed in 2017
John Paul Jones
James Monroe
Thomas Paine
John Philip Sousa
Woodrow Wilson
John Paul Jones Enters Hall of Fame: Full Honors at Length Paid to First Naval Hero, Whose Desperate Bravery on the Bon Homme Richard Snatched Victory From Defeat – Sea Fighter Rose From Cabin Boy to Commander
Published: Sunday, November 8, 1925