Alexander Lyman Holley has Moved

During a recent trip, my mother forwarded me a photograph of my grandmother and a friend in Washington Square Park, supposedly taken in 1960. It piqued my curiosity… could I re-create the photograph today? Searching on my iPhone, I could not make out using Google Street View the precise spot they were standing. I couldn't even find the buildings in the background. I could make out several letters in the statue behind them, and it turns out its a bronze bust created in 1889 of A. L. Holley. For perspective, my grandmother was born in 1903, so this thing was only 14 years old when she was born. You can see at the website linked above that the background of the bust has changed; the base is different (in both cases it sits on a semi-circular base), but the background in the first picture, left, shows the same background building in the photograph taken in 1960. The smaller inset photograph (right) shows the position today. So where would I take my photograph? In front of the statue, or the buildings? I did take a panoramic photograph of the park using my iPhone. In fact, these are two panoramas stitched together. I would have done a better job if I had been thinking of doing this when I took the two photographs.
What would have been helpful in the 1960 photograph would have been the location of the arch. In fact, we thought maybe the arch wasn't there in 1960, but records indicate that it was. My guess is that Holley was placed right next to the arch. In the 1960 photograph, we can see in the distance the statue of Garibaldi. The same statue is visible in the panorama, just to the left of the seam. The problem is that today there is a playground erected behind the arch, and it would make sense that if a playground were being erected, we might want to move old Mr. Holley to a better spot. So my educated guess is that the precise reconstruction is impossible. It was a fun little detective search, however. Later in the evening, I had dinner in the same area, and tried my hand again at a photograph. I was obviously too far away this time, but the buildings are in the background, on the other side of the arch. I am not sad that I was not required to wear boots or that snow was not on the ground. It's certainly curious to me how things change over time (the color on the top of the building behind me is now green (copper?), but in the 1960 photograph appears brown). Stepping into a modern theater with a historic photograph was a lot of fun. The map above (thanks Google!) shows the perspective I wish I had earlier this week. You can see the buildings (Space Market) and the one adjacent (belonging to NYU). Poor Holley is not labeled; but I added "lightbulb" icons where the current Holley is located (bottom) and where I believe the original photograph was taken (top-right of arch).