Christopher Columbus Statue - Arrigo Park, Chicago, IL
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adgorn
N 41° 52.309 W 087° 39.695
16T E 445099 N 4635755
This 9-ft bronze statue was completed in Rome, Italy on July 22, 1892 by Moses Ezekiel, a leading American sculptor. It was commissioned by the owners of the Columbus Memorial Building for the opening of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Waymark Code: WM6YC5
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 08/05/2009
Views: 7
When completed, it received the blessing of Pope Leo XIII and was shipped to Chicago. It was first displayed at the Italian Pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Then it was moved to the corner of the newly constructed Columbus Memorial Building, located on State and Washington Streets in downtown Chicago.
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"The Columbus statue lost its perch on the Columbus Memorial Building when the building was torn down in 1959. For six years the statue reclined on its back in a lumberyard until the Chicago Tribune published a story about it inglorious situation. According to the Chicago Tribune, "Chicagoans of Italian extraction acted, and several months later the statue was back on its feet again, a star attraction of the city's 1965 Columbus Day parade." A committee headed by Attorney Victor A. Arrigo was instrumental in sparking community interest in the statue. As a result of this community spirit, the statue was formally dedicated in Columbus Plaza (Arrigo Park) on Columbus Day the next year (1966)."
The statue is now located in the center of a granite fountain in Columbus Plaza of Arrigo Park on the corner of Loomis and Polk streets in the Old Italian section of Chicago.