Meanwhile, the statue itself is a historical oddity.

Built in 1925, it was not constructed out of the city government’s desire to recognize Schuyler's public service to a newborn nation. Instead, It was the work of George Hawley, a wealthy benefactor who commissioned it and convinced city leaders to place it in a highly trafficked roundabout in front of City Hall to honor his deceased wife, Theodora Hawley.

The Times Union's archives suggest that Hawley, a student of the American Revolution, was responding to what he saw as a dearth of public statues to the city’s prominent past citizens.