
James Dean - Fairmount, Indiana
N 40° 25.001 W 085° 39.001
16T E 614532 N 4474881
A small memroial park and bust of the local legend and Hollywood actor - James Dean.
Waymark Code: WMFGTH
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 10/18/2012
Views: 15
James Dean Memorial Park
Main & 2nd Streets Fairmount, IN
Dedicated Sept. 30 1995.
Features a larger than life bust of James Dean by Hollywood artist Kenneth Kendall
The centerpiece of the walled park is a two-meter concrete column topped with a bronze bust of the actor. The bust is approximately 1 1/3 times James Dean actual head and is slid bronze. The bust wears "Jimmy's" classic suprised looked with his mouth casually agape.
Plaque reads:
1931 James Dean 1955
This is not a monument to a rebel, those were only the roles he played. James Dean was a American original who on the basis of high school honors and in a period of five years time rose to the pinnacle of theatrical profession and through the magic of motion pictures lives on in legend.
This monument is dedicated as well to all of the loyal fans who continue to come from around the world to pay their respects to Dean and Fairmount, which has become the world’s “hometown”.
Early in 1955 James Dean visited the studio of artist Kenneth Kendall. His question was, “Would you be interested in sculpting me!”. The artist began work the night the actor died. The inscription from an ancient Greek funeral stele reads,
“summer was only beginning”.
Local information:
Fairmount is a town in Fairmount Township, Grant County in east central Indiana. The population is 2,866 at the 2000 census. Fairmount is best known as the boyhood home of actor James Dean, who is buried there and the Giant Bar & Grill, world famous for gigantic fresh breaded tenderloins.
The Fairmount area was settled in the 1830s, mostly by Quakers from North Carolina. The town was laid out in 1850 and named for Fairmount Park in Philadelphia; it was formally incorporated in 1870.
In the 1940s, James Dean lived with an uncle on a farm north of Fairmount. He attended Fairmount High School, graduating in 1949. After his death in 1955 James Dean was brought back to Fairmount and buried in Park Cemetery.
Notable residents:
* James Dean,
* Jim Davis, the cartoonist of the comic strip Garfield, was born in Fairmount, IN.
Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.