Newsboy Tribute - Belle Isle - Detroit, Michigan
Posted by: 
GT.US
N 42° 20.257 W 082° 59.552
17T E 335855 N 4689185
This fountain and statue are a tribute to the newsboys of Detroit.
Waymark Code: WM5WKZ
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 02/21/2009
Views: 9
The Founatin is inscribed "The Evening News to the Newsboys of Detroit".
The following website (
visit link) tells us:
"A young newsboy drops coins from one hand into another. Under his left arm he holds a bundle of papers and over his shoulder is swung a blacking kit. At his feet, sits a dog. The Newsboy Drinking Fountain was presented to the City of Detroit by James E. Scripps, with an estimated cost of $3,500. The occasion for the unveiling was the Newsboy's outing. On July 6, 1897, about 5,000 newsboys flocked to Belle Isle from Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Ann Arbor and Jackson. Mayor Maybury gave a speech and ended the outing by granting the bronze newsboy a formal license to sell papers and giving the dog a tag. Games followed (THE DETROIT NEWS, July 7, 1897.) The interior of the stone fountain is inscribed "The Evening News to the/ Newsboys of Detroit." The Newsboy has been stolen twice---once in 1966, and again in 1974. A $100 reward was offered for his return. The fountain was restored in 1997, and a replacement of the original newsboy figure was installed. The plumbing works are no longer there.
"
The plaque reads:
" 'PARTNERS'
Newsboy and His Dog
Original Sculptor Frederick Dunbar, 1897
Newsboy Sculptor Janice B. Trimpe, 1997
The 1997 renovation was made possible through the efforts of a grant from the Gannett Foundation and donations by the Detroit Recreation Department Janice B. Trimpe, Center for Creative Studies and Venus Bronze Works, Inc."
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