Strengthening the Statue of Liberty

A Chimborazo Park monument stands tall, thanks to generations of Richmonders | Photos courtesy Richmond Times-Dispatch Collection, The Valentine

by Harry Kollatz Jr.

August 25, 2023

10:10 AM

A replica of the Statue of Liberty is unveiled on Feb. 11, 1951, in Chimborazo Park.

The public reveal of the Statue of Liberty was at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11, 1951, a chilly Sunday during Boy Scout Anniversary Week.

The replica of the Lady came to stand on the brow of Chimborazo Hill in Richmond’s East End through a catalyst of commemorations and a public display of patriotism. 

The “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty” campaign coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America in 1949. At that time, J.P. “Jack” Whitaker was president of his automobile battery cable company, as well as commissioner of the Scouts’ Kansas City Area Council and was considering the best way both to mark the BSA’s anniversary and to demonstrate the better values of the nation.

The tensions between the West and the Communist Soviet Union and China were becoming known as the Cold War. A proxy conflict erupted between the two sides in 1950 when Communist-backed North Korea invaded Western-supported South Korea. The United Nations moved to avert escalation. President Harry Truman deemed the country’s role a “police action.” 

By the time of the “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty” effort, the undeclared war in Korea generated big headlines accompanied by grim photographs of weary, snow-bound soldiers: “Richmond Marine Writes Home About the ‘Fightingest Retreat’”; “Allied Patrols Re-Enter Seoul, Find Chinese Reds Have Fled”; and “[United Nations] Guns Pound Burning City.” Meanwhile, near Las Vegas, atomic bomb tests were underway, and detectors picked up radioactive snow in Troy, New York.

With this historic backdrop, Whitaker chose to seed the land with replicas of the Statue of Liberty. The Friedley-Voshardt Co. of Chicago, a manufacturer of metal ceiling sheathing, supplied the 290 pounds of sheet copper statue parts. It also created a method for assembling the 42 sheets of stamped copper around interior braces to support the facsimiles of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s “Liberty Enlightening the World,” aka the Statue of Liberty. The copper was about the thickness of a half-dollar.

The statues were installed from 1949 to 1952 in 39 states, as well as in several U.S. possessions and territories.

George P. Freeman, who was executive director of the Robert E. Lee Boy Scouts Council in 1951, recalled for a 1978 newspaper article that the downtown clothier Berry-Burk underwrote the approximately $1,000 cost of shipping the $350 Liberty kit to Richmond. The cost of the packaged materials was defrayed by a penny donated by every member of the Richmond Scouts. 

The kit included instructions for constructing a scaled-down version of the New York City pedestal and the 11-pointed island base, which was the responsibility of the Scouts. Richmond’s Liberty stands on a base made of city street paving stones. 

In the ongoing tradition of placing statues in Richmond, while the city administration approved of this representation of Liberty, disagreement arose about its placement. Freeman asked City Council to put the statue in the State Capitol, but such approval exceeded the council’s authority. Council members then suggested the Chimborazo site, although the American Legion wanted her near the Robert E. Lee Bridge on Belvidere Street. Offering panoramic views, Chimborazo won out.

Lady Liberty at its 1951 unveiling

The press touted a huge dedication and predicted 3,000 spectators, but the severe cold perhaps worked to thin the crowd to a reported total of “hundreds.” Despite the temperatures, the hearty John Marshall High School Band performed, as did Boy Scout Troop 85’s drum and bugle corps. Patriotic airs served as prologues to officials and speeches. Into the base were deposited scrolls bearing the names of the boys who contributed to the project. Most of the other 145 units in the council were expected to insert the roll call of their memberships through a small opening left in the base. 

The pedestal tablet read, “With the faith and courage of their forefathers who made possible the freedom of the United States, the Boy Scouts of America dedicate this copy of the Statue of Liberty as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty.” 

It was a fine-sounding sentiment but not quite the same message as the one in New York, written by Jewish American poet and political activist Emma Lazarus, whose sonnet “The New Colossus” includes the famous ringing line of “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

The passage of decades faded Chimborazo Liberty’s gleaming sheen of copper. BB’s and bullets scarred the figure, and vandals wrenched off the spikes of her crown. 

Jeff Jeffress of the Lee Council took notice of the situation. Active in the BSA for most of his life and an Eagle Scout, he hadn’t participated in the original unveiling, but he was determined to repair Lady Liberty. He and the Neighbors of Chimborazo Park initiated a fund drive toward restoration. 

Jeffress, 82 years old at the time Richmond magazine spoke with him in 1996, described volunteer offers for assistance. But when Jeffress approached the city with the plans, he said he encountered a snag. He recalled how, “typical for governmental activity, they ended up appropriating $30,000 for something we were going to do for almost nothing and drug their feet for a year. We would’ve done it a year earlier and for less.”

Greek immigrant and Cincinnati foundryman Eleftherios (meaning “liberty”) Karkadoulias took one month to refresh Lady Liberty. She returned gleaming to Chimborazo for 1986’s Glorious Fourth.

The Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union dissolved, and the Cold War transformed into an anxious age of dangers foreign and domestic. Richmond’s Liberty withstood assaults of weather and hooligans.

The Liberties scattered throughout the country endured similar fates. In the early 1990s, Heritage Preservation and the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum joined together for a Save Outdoor Sculptures project that assisted in the restoration of several of the statues. In most cases, however, Lady Liberty required the attention of its constituency, such as in 2019, when 1708 Gallery selected Chimborazo as the site for its annual InLight event and artist Sandy Williams IV chose as his contribution “The Arm of Liberty.”

Before and during the exhibition, Williams and his assistants undertook a careful cleaning of the statue and the site. The scaffolding that girded Liberty displayed restoration and protection, but several passersby misunderstood Williams’ work. Virginia Commonwealth University’s VCUArts blog noted his surprise at accusations of damaging the statue and insults that he was an “ignoramus.” Williams observed that people may prefer that vintage statues be left alone. Even the original Statue of Liberty is oxidized green.

“There’s an attachment to patinas,” Williams said. “It’s a collection of time that tells you how long something has dominated that space. By cleaning it, I felt like I was hitting the reset button on that statue.”

Portions of this column appeared in the July 1996 issue of Richmond magazine.

by Harry Kollatz Jr.

August 25, 2023

10:10 AM