Four more presidential statues to be unveiled Saturday

Bronzes to join 27 already installed in downtown Rapid City

By Journal staff | Thursday, September 13, 2007

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RAPID CITY - Four more bronze presidential statues - Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft - will be unveiled during a ceremony at noon Saturday in the Elks Theater, the City of Presidents Foundation announced.

They are the newest installments in the City of Presidents, a 10-year project to place 40 life-size presidential statues on street corners in downtown Rapid City.

For the unveiling ceremony, the statues will be on stage at the Elks Theater. Later next week, the bronzes will take their places in downtown Rapid City.

They will join 27 existing statues of past presidents that have already been installed downtown.

When the City of Presidents project began in 2000, organizers planned to install the statues of all 40 past presidents on downtown street corners over a 10-year period. Four different sculptors are doing one statue per year.

They began with the first two and the last two former presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. They've been working their way toward the middle of the pack.

This year's lineup:

* Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, by artist James Van Nuys, will be installed at Ninth and Main streets. The donor is May Jane Wendt.

* James Buchanan, the 15th president, by artist James Michael Maher, will be installed at Ninth and Main streets. The donor is Ludwick Trust.

* Theodore Roosevelt, the 25th president, by artist John Lopez, will be installed at Ninth and Main streets, in front of Teddy's Bar and Grill. Donors are Dale and Jackie Fullerton.

* William Howard Taft, the 26th president, by artist Lee Leuning, will be installed at Main Street and Mount Rushmore Road.

The master of ceremonies at Saturday's unveiling will be Steve Rolinger, a member of the City of Presidents Foundation board. Don Perdue, board president, will introduce past donors, and Dallerie Davis, vice president, will introduce the artists.

Music will be provided by soloist Karen Williams and guitarist James Van Nuys, who is also one of the sculptors.

The Presidents Information Center, 631 Main St., will be open after the unveiling and the reception. The center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. from May to September.