Franklin Pierce - Rapid City, SD
Posted by: 
beagle39z
N 44° 04.921 W 103° 13.948
13T E 641515 N 4882501
Visitors to Rapid City are greeted by the City of Presidents, a series of life-size bronze statues of our nation’s past presidents along the city’s sidewalks.
The project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency.
Waymark Code: WMFAC7
Location: South Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 09/19/2012
Views: 7
Franklin Pierce, Fourteenth President of the United States - 1853-1857
Franklin Pierce became friends with author Nathanial Hawthorne while they were students at Bowdoin College in Maine. Hawthorne would go on to write the official Franklin Pierce campaign biography, and in 1853, Pierce appointed him as United States consul in Liverpool, England.
Pierce's son died in a train accident while the family was on their way to Washington to his inauguration in February 1853.
Pierce was the first president to put a Christmas tree in the White House. He did so in an attempt to cheer up his wife who was still mourning over the death of their son.
One issue that caused a lot of criticism against Pierce was the Ostend Manifesto. This was a document published in the New York Herald which stated that if Spain was not willing to sell Cuba to the U.S., the United States would consider taking aggressive action to get it.
Bronze statue of Pierce with a sad, haunted look, reflecting his tragic personal life. Two of his children died very young and his third and last child was killed in a train wreck on the way to Pierce’s inauguration.
He is shown here holding his top hat and cane and wearing his Iverness Great Coat.
Location: Corner of Main Street and 9th
Sculptor: James Van Nuys
Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.