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Four more presidents unveiled
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FarkRAPID CITY -- Four more presidential statues will soon take their places in downtown Rapid City. The foursome -- Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft -- was unveiled in a ceremony Saturday at the Elks Theater.
The four will bring the number of statues in the City of Presidents sculpture project to 31. By 2010, organizers say, all 42 past U.S. presidents will be depicted in bronze on downtown street corners.
“Every president -- the good, the bad and the in-between -- will grace the streets of downtown Rapid City,” said Dallerie Davis, a member of the City of Presidents Foundation Board.
The 2007 lineup, she said, included two of the worst presidents and one of the best.
The City of Presidents project is part American history lesson, part outdoor art gallery and part tourist attraction aimed toward visitors who come to see the larger-than life presidential figures on Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Every year, each of four artists -- Lee Leuning, John Lopez, James Maher and James Van Nuys -- researches his presidential subject and creates a bronze figure that he hopes will capture the essence of that president and his place in history.
Franklin Pierce, 14th president
Sculptor Van Nuys admitted that Franklin Pierce was not remembered for any real accomplishments during his time as president. So, Van Nuys focused on Pierce’s troubled personal life.
Pierce was the father of three children, all who died. His last child, an 11-year-old son, was killed in a railroad accident shortly before the inauguration. After the accident, Pierce’s wife refused to go to Washington with him. The president spent four lonely years in the White House.
“He had a haunted look in all the photos, and I tried to capture that,” Van Nuys said. In the sculpture, Pierce stands tall but sadly with his legs apart and looking into the distance.
James Buchanan, 15th president
Buchanan preceded Abraham Lincoln as president. History remembers Buchanan as the president who allowed the nation to lurch toward civil war as the tumultuous debate about slavery raged out of control.
He was sympathetic to what he saw as the rights of slaveholders and even sought to expand American slavery to the island of Cuba.
Sculptor James Maher said that lost opportunity is represented by the scroll of paper Buchanan holds behind his back. The scroll, Maher said, symbolizes Buchanan’s withholding his power at a time when it was most needed. The scroll, Dallerie Davis said, could have been Buchanan’s plan to save the union, a plan that he never used.
Theodore Roosevelt, 25th president
Roosevelt was the shining star of the Saturday’s quartet, Davis told the crowd at the ceremony. He was wildly popular. He loved foreign policy and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. He also coined the term White House.
Alienating Democrats and Republicans alike, he took his causes directly to the people, winning support and rendering influence through his “bully pulpit.”
His personal life was colorful as well. He ranched in North Dakota, fought in the Spanish American War and lived much of his life as a rugged outdoorsman.
Sculptor John Lopez said he tried to capture that color by depicting Roosevelt during his time as a Rough Rider.
Standing tall, straight and confident in his Rough Rider uniform, Lopez’s Roosevelt has a pistol in his belt and a stainless steel sword at his side.
The sword looks so real that tourists will likely try to pull it out of its scabbard. Lopez hopes they try it -- it won’t budge, he assures, but he likes the idea of sculptures that people can have fun with as they get their pictures taken. Lopez’ Calvin Coolidge statue at Fifth and Main streets has a saddle, and frequently children hop on to get their pictures taken.
William Howard Taft, 26th president
Taft was known more for his girth than is political accomplishments. He drew more pleasure from his later service on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 350-pound president reportedly once got stuck in the White House bathtub. (That incident was probably not a sculpture subject.) His favorite pet was a milk cow.
But as sculptor Lee Leuning delved into Taft’s life, he discovered that Taft, a great athlete in his youth, loved baseball. He was the first U.S. president to throw out the opening pitch to launch the baseball season. (Taft was reported to be the creator of the seventh inning stretch, when he decided to take a break during a ballgame.)
“We have plenty of lawyers in dark suits,” Leuning said. He wanted depict something different, something memorable.
Leuning came up with a playful bronze of the portly president intently winding up to deliver his best fastball as he threw the ceremonial opening pitch in the Washington Senators season opener.
During Saturday’s ceremony Don Perdue, founder of the City of Presidents project, thanked the donors who have helped make the presidential statues possible. They were asked to write big checks, “and lo and behold, they are very willing to do it when it gets right down to it,”
The project has three years to go. It has been extended from its original 40-president, 10-year plan.
The artists began in 2000 with the first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, and last two past presidents, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. They have been working their way toward the middle of the pack at the rate of four presidents per year. Each of the four sculptors was to have a chance to create one of the presidents on Mount Rushmore.
But the order broke down in recent years when sculptor Ed Hvlaka got busy with other projects. He dropped out, and last year Van Nuys stepped in.
Back in 2000, the City of Presidents had a number of skeptics. During Saturday’s ceremony, Van Nuys said he was one of them. But with time, Van Nuys said he has become a believer.
At his gallery on Seventh Street, he said, “Tourists who come in universally rave about this project.”
Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com
Jacquolyn Fullerton, far right, admires the newly unveiled statue of Theodore Roosevelt dressed in his U.S. Army Rough Rider uniform at the 8th Unveiling Ceremony for the City of Presidents project at the Elks Theater. She and her husband, Dale, are the donors for John Lopez's sculpture of Roosevelt. To the left is the sculpture of Franklin Pierce which, along with pieces of James Buchanan and William Howard Taft, also was unveiled. (Photo by Dick Kettlewell, Journal staff)
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