A century-old institution in the Bronx, The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, was thrust into the headlines over the summer when Confederate statues were removed from it. In recent years, the once-renowned Hall of Fame has operated in obscurity, attracting few vistors or interest. Many Bronx residents don't even know it's there. NY1's Erin Clarke filed the following report:

They're a who's who of Americans: Presidents, artists, abolitionists, scientists, enshrined along a 630-foot walkway at the tip of the Bronx Community College campus.

''They were meant to be a little larger than life so we could look up to them as heroes," said Remo Cosentino, Bronx Community College Historian.

In its hey-day tourists flocked to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans - the first Hall of Fame in the country.

Lavish celebrations took place every five years to unveil new additions.

"Bands playing, lectures and lots of students around, said Lloyd Ultan, Bronx County Historian. "And on each stage of the process it would get headlines in the newspapers."

The hall was so famous, it even got a nod in the 1939 film classic 'The Wizard of Oz'.

"When Dorothy's house comes down and kills the Wicked Witch and the Munchkins come around and they sing and dance around her and celebrate her and the last line in the song that they sing is," Ultan noted.

But today, the hall is largely forgotten.

On warm days students find refuge among the stoic statues.

But these great Americans are mostly ignored.

The hall's significance is lost on many of the students who pass through it each day.

The hall's first vote was in 1900, the first installation in 1907.

But no bust has been erected since George Washington Carver in 1976.

That same year the last election was held

Clara Barton, Louis Brandeis, Luther Burbank and Andrew Carnegie were inducted. But their statues were never built as interest in the hall waned. 

"The money for building the four that are not there was never collected," Cosentino said.

The hall was once part of NYU.

Faced with financial hardship, NYU sold its University Heights Campus which became the home of Bronx Community College.

This summer, the hall was thrust back into the headlines when the busts of confederate generals were ordered removed by Governor Andrew Cuomo - something the borough historian thinks was illegal because the hall is a National Historic site.

"The two statues were removed without any participation really by any official body," Ultan said.

Today, 96 statues remain. 

There's room for just six more busts. The college hopes to fill those spots.

Plans to re-start nominations are underway, but it's unclear when they would take place, where the funding would come from, and if that would restore the Hall to its former glory.

Still, the hall manages to thrill the occasional tourist who wanders into it.

"An Unexpected Treat" one visitor posted on Trip Advisor.com "Wow, the original Hall of Fame. Almost no one knows this exists."

And historians are hopeful. 

"It would be, I think a tremendous tourist attraction," Ultan added.