Straus Park

Straus Park is a small, poignant memorial park at the intersection of Broadway and West End Avenue at West 106th Street on the Upper West Side. The park honors Isidor and Ida Straus, the husband and wife who died together in the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, in one of the most famous love stories to emerge from the disaster.

Isidor Straus was the co-owner of Macy's department store and a former United States Congressman. When the Titanic was sinking, Ida refused to board a lifeboat without her husband, and Isidor refused to board before the women and children. According to witnesses, the couple was last seen sitting together on deck chairs as the ship went down.

The park features a bronze memorial sculpture by Augustus Lukeman depicting a reclining female figure representing Memory, gazing into a reflecting pool. The inscription reads: 'Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives and in their death they were not divided.' The Strauses lived nearby on Broadway at West 105th Street.

The park's location at the intersection of Broadway and West End Avenue creates a triangular green space planted with mature trees and perennial gardens. The intimate scale of the park makes the memorial feel personal rather than monumental, as if one has stumbled upon a private moment of remembrance.

Straus Park is one of the most emotionally resonant memorials in New York City. The story of Isidor and Ida Straus, choosing to die together rather than be separated, has moved visitors for over a century and gives this tiny park a significance that far exceeds its modest dimensions.