1911, dedicated in 1925

Charles and Murray Gordon Memorial Park, more popularly known as the Riverside Oval Park, contains the last survivor of a series of public fountains originally installed along the Riverside Drive extension in 1911. The park went unnamed until 1925, when a post of the Jewish War Veterans dedicated two plaques commemorating Charles and Murray Gordon, who died within three days of each other near the end of World War I in October of 1918. The park features 1920s plane trees and an empty fountain basin. While some early images depict a fountain topped by a statue of a mermaid, entitled “Music of the Waters,” there are no definite records of when it was installed or removed. The statue’s model was Audrey Munson, a silent film actress considered to be America’s first “supermodel.” Since the 1980s, the park has been cared for by the Riverside Oval Association, a neighborhood organization that works to foster community pride and awareness of Audubon Park’s history. Now primarily used as a community garden, the oval has been re-landscaped and surrounded by fences.