Mayor Emanuel Announces Restoration Project For 112-Year-Old Bronze George Washington Monument

August 11, 2016

Mike Claffey    312.744.0707 / Michael.claffey@cityofchicago.org

Susan Hofer    312.742-2006 / Susan.Hofer@cityofchicago.org

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced the start of a project to rehabilitate and restore the 112-year-old George Washington Monument at Martin Luther King Drive and 51st Street. The bronze sculpture of Washington, astride a horse with his sword pointed skyward, serves as a gateway to Washington Park.

As part of the project, the sculpture will be removed from its pedestal to be laser-cleaned, examined for corrosion and fully restored. It will then be placed on a reconstructed pedestal and moved about 25 feet south of its current location in the grassy median along King Drive near the northwest corner of Washington Park. The project is expected to be finished later this year.

The restoration project is being led by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).

“Public art is an important part of the fabric of Chicago,” CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said. “This restoration will ensure this historic statue of George Washington is something the neighborhood can be proud of for generations to come.”

“Just as the City of Chicago embraces new public art, we cherish the artistic legacy left to us by the visionary cultural leaders who shaped Chicago in the 19th and early 20th Centuries,” DCASE Deputy Commissioner for Arts & Creative Industries Tracie Hall said. “This historic statue on one of the City’s grand boulevards has withstood the elements for more than a century and this project will restore its original beauty.”

The statue depicts George Washington during the Revolutionary War period when he served as General and Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. It was originally commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution as a gift to France and unveiled at the Place d’Iéna in Paris on July 3, 1900. Two years later, a committee of Chicagoans asked for permission to install a replica in Washington Park. The Chicago replica was installed in 1904 at the entrance of Washington Park at what was then called Grand Boulevard and is now known as Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

“The George Washington Monument has stood at the gateway to Washington Park for more than a century,” Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) said. “Although we are sorry that he won’t be in his usual spot for this weekend’s Bud Billiken Parade, we look forward to having him back to greet the marchers next year and for decades to come.”

The historic monument was created by two renowned American sculptors: Daniel Chester French, known for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and the Statue of the Republic, also known as the Golden Lady of Jackson Park, which was a centerpiece of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; and Edward Clark Potter, designer of the famed lions outside the New York Public Library.

 

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