A man walks past a bust of Robert E. Lee as it stands in the "Hall of Fame for Great Americans" on the campus of Bronx Community College in the Bronx borough of New York City. Aug. 17, 2018. gettyimagesbank-TNS

Democrats have rolled their eyes at President Donald Trump’s plan for a National Garden of American Heroes in Washington, but they’re looking at it all wrong. An outdoor showcase of classical sculpture depicting major historical figures is a brilliant idea — and the best part is: It already exists! It just needs a little TLC, and the country’s 250th anniversary is the perfect opportunity to provide it.

The Hall of Fame of Great Americans was dedicated 125 years ago this month at New York University’s Bronx campus, on a bluff overlooking Manhattan — and it was practically made to appeal to Trump. It’s a paragon of neoclassical colonnaded architecture, conceived by the beau-ideal of Beaux-Arts and Renaissance revivalism, Stanford White. Its nearly 100 outdoor sculptures of iconic Americans were crafted by masters like Daniel Chester French, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and James Earle Fraser. And its plaques were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the artist renowned for his jewelry and glass designs. It’s a tour de force of American monumentalism.

When it opened in 1901, it was an immediate hit, hailed as the “American Westminster........

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