Continued from the Smithsonian database (url below):
"On his proper left is a small pedestal with a cross on the front, a globe on top and a bird on top of the globe. It comes to about his hip in height. (NOTE: THIS FEATURE IS NO LONGER IN PLACE.) Several statues of this design were made. A twin to this statue stands in Columbus, Ohio. Monument committee: Briggs Real Estate Co.
Height 30 ft"
I learned of the sculpture from Peter van der Krogt's COLUMBUS MONUMENTS PAGES at: (
visit link)
"Description - Statue of Columbus, standing with a globe in his left hand and calipers in his right hand. On his left is a small pedestal with a cross on the front, a globe on top and a bird on top of the globe.
Artist - Alphons Pelser (... - 1895), German-American sculptor in Salem, Ohio, worked for W.H. Mullins Company.
Annotation - The Uplands neighborhood was developed in 1902 by the Briggs Real Estate Company. The statue was donated to this neighborhood by Briggs and it stood atop a large concrete pillar in the intersection of Columbia Terrace and Institute Place streets. The statue stood there until the late 1940's, when it was then considered a traffic hazard. It was moved to the end of Columbia Terrace and place in Laura Bradley Park which borders the neighborhood. Over the years, it started to deteriorate and was vandalized. It was removed sometime in the 1970's, and placed in storage. Money was raised for a restoration, and finally, in the early 1980's, it was restored. A new concrete pillar was erected similar to the original one in 1902, and in 1984, the statue was unveiled and rededicated. Sadly though, the pedestal and globe off to his side was lost in storage and a duplicate was not replicated. The photograph Todd Schierer sent me shows the statue in it's original location in 1902. However, comparing it with the new photo it seems a complete different statue.
The statue is identical to the one in Columbus, Ohio, and Phillipsburg, N.J. "
While waymarking for this category, I have traded some emails with Peter van der Krogt in the Netherlands over the past few years, helping to correct and complete Columbus statue information for the Chicago area.
More on Laura Bradley Park from the Illinois River Road website at (
visit link)
"Established in the late 19th century, the 140-acre Laura Bradley Park is the centerpiece of Peoria's University District. Operated by the Peoria Park District, this large park, located adjacent to Bradley University, traverses a high bluff woodland that grades down into the floodplain of Dry Run Creek. Along with numerous picnic sites, the park also features a beautiful Japanese bridge over Dry Run Creek, a disc golf course, walking/jogging trails, a cross-country track, tennis, volleyball, shuffleboard and horseshoe courts, and Corn Stock Theatre, a performing arts theater, and a new dog park, all strewn through a magnificent oak-hickory urban forest. "