Abraham Lincoln
I drive by this statue about once a week but I’m either late or it’s dark. It’s in a weird place near where “the old William Penn Highway meets the old Lincoln Highway” (this is how we give directions in Pittsburgh); without much else around it. There’s a great picture on page 34 of the Wilkinsburg Historical Society’s book– you can see Lincoln on the right side in the grass. I can only see it for a second as I drive past so I was never quite sure it was Lincoln until just recently when I had time to stop.
The statue was unveiled on June 9, 1916 during a celebration for the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s elimination of several undesirable grade crossings. I’ll direct you to Chris Potter’s joke about that, but actually it was a big project of lowering the street and raising the railroad tracks undertaken because many people died at the railroad crossings. Check out the photographs in chapter 6 of the book by the Wilkinsburg Historical Society of the construction. Who knew?!?
The base reads “Erected by Wilkinsburg Schoolchildren June 1916″.
This statue has quite a history all by itself– it was stolen in 1981, broken off at the ankles by a drunk couple who then buried it in a field in Westmoreland County. They later fessed up and paid for the statue to be put up again.
Alfonso Pelzer sculpted this and there are 6 other copies– Middlesex, NJ; Brighton, MI; Boise, ID; Wooster College in Wooster, OH; Detroit, MI; and Fremont, NE. The ones in Wooster and Detroit have been stolen at various times as well.
It’s made of copper sheeting hammered into a die by W. H. Mullins Co; it was created to look like cast bronze but be lighter and cheaper. It only weighs about 80 lbs, which explains the ease with which it can be stolen. Then, in 1992 it was found laying in the grass, broken off at the ankles again from unknown causes. It hung out in the municipal building for a while. In 2001, Ol’ Abe got a steel skeleton and a fence around him to keep him around for a lot longer, hopefully. The Wilkinsburg Historical Society has had a wreath-laying ceremony at the statue on Lincoln’s birthday every year since the 2001 rededication.
I did not notice anything that would have indicated the statue had been damaged– the restoration by James Shipman with help from students was done very well.
There’s a surprising amount of discrepancy online in the dates and details of the ups and downs of this statue’s lifetime– does it weigh 80 lbs or 150 lbs? Was it restored in 2001 or 2002? Did it cost $700 or $900 originally? I tried to find the most agreed upon set, but apologies if I’ve gotten something wrong.
|
|
Posted in Wilkinsburg | No Comments »