City Hall Relief (North Side) - Camden, NJ
N 39° 56.715 W 075° 07.178
18S E 489780 N 4421687
Located at 520 Market St, this relief sculpture is simply amazing, but it is completely lost in a city of blight & crime. Unless you read the Smithsonian Inventory page & know to look for it, chances are, you'll never see this brilliant work of art.
Waymark Code: WM7RZJ
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 11/28/2009
Views: 4
There are two of these gems located at Camden City Hall. This 20 ft. X 15 ft. bronze relief depicts life of long ago. There is some text at the bottom which reads "County of Camden 1844". The building, constructed in 1929, is amazingly, not on the NRHP but in of itself is a wonderful work of art. 50 feet above this sculpture is a huge expansive engraved quotation, "No Legacy is so Rich as Honesty". The front has another long quotation, like the other in physical length (about 30 ft), "Where There is no Vision the People Perish." After eighty years, this sculpture still looks brand new. It is a wonder the locals have yet to destroy it as everything else in their path has been leveled, decimated, graffitied and defaced. Rather than try to describe this remarkable relief work, I will simply use the Smithsonian Inventory page.
The following excerpts come from the Smithsonian inventory page for this sculpture.
SOURCE
Inscription
"E. Vonhebel Gorham Foundry, Providence RI signed Founder's mark appears."
Description
"Two relief panels featuring cityscapes of Camden, including such landmarks as City Hall, the waterfront, and a Civil War memorial. Both panels are mounted on the rear facade of City Hall."