"The Chicago Lincoln" Statue in Lincoln Square (Chicago,IL)
Posted by: adgorn
N 41° 58.128 W 087° 41.340
16T E 442910 N 4646541
Erected Oct 16, 1956, sculpted by Dr. Avard Fairbanks, located at the confluence of Lincoln, Lawrence and Western Avenues on Chicago's north side.
Waymark Code: WM364W
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 02/16/2008
Views: 52
The inscription is quoted from one of Lincoln's Chicago speeches at a Republican banquet on December 10, 1856 - "A free society is not and shall not be a failure."
From (
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"In 1951, 47th Ward Alderman John Hoellen suggested placing a memorial to President Lincoln at the Lincoln, Lawrence and Western intersection. The Illinois General Assembly and Governor William Stratton then signed a bill creating the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Commission to plan it. The commission agreed on a nationwide contest to find a suitable concept for the memorial. Lloyd Ostendorf, an Ohio collector of Lincoln images, proposed the winning statue portraying a beardless Lincoln. Utah sculptor Avard Fairbanks, a protégé of the artist who had created Mt. Rushmore, completed the statue.
Governor Stratton unveiled the statue at a celebration in the fall of 1956. He and Dean Adinamis rode in a Lincoln convertible at the head of a parade that began in Lincoln Park. The statue bears an inscription of Lincoln's own words: "Free society is not, and shall not be a failure. Abraham Lincoln, Chicago, December 10, 1856."
In 1996 the statue was restored for its 40th anniversary."