Harteau had served in numerous government positions in the city throughout his life, including as a parks commissioner under Brooklyn Mayor Daniel D. Whitney.

Despite legal challenges to the will and the consolidation of New York City, when his widow died in 1913, efforts were made to erect a monument for the Marquis de Lafayette.

[6] The bronze relief was cast by the Gorham foundry, while granite for the surrounding structure was provided by the Presbrey-Coykendall Company, which also served as the project's general contractor.

The horse is tended to by an African American groom wearing a military uniform, with a cockade and feather in his hat and something such as a blanket or a cloak draped across one of his shoulders.

[4] The memorial bears the following inscriptions:[10] THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE [---] THIS MONUMENT WAS / ERECTED AND PRESENTED BY HENRY HARTEAU A DISTINGUISHED CITIZEN OF BROOKLYN TO BE AN / ENDURING TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF ONE WHO AS / A FRIEND AND COMPANION OF THE IMMORTAL WASH INGTON FOUGHT TO ESTABLISH IN OUR COUNTRY / THOSE VITAL PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY AND HUMAN / BROTHERHOOD WHICH HE AFTERWARD LABORED TO ESTABLISH IN HIS OWNTHIS MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED AND DEDICATED BY / MARSHALL JOFFRE AND M. VIVANI OF THE FRENCH / WAR COMMISSION, MAY 10, 1917According to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, there is some debate among scholars as to the identity of the figure alongside Lafayette in the painting that the memorial is based upon, with some positing that it is James Armistead Lafayette, an enslaved African American who served under Lafayette during the American Revolutionary War.