Statues have been a sticking point in the last year or so.
It seems as though almost everyone who was hero enough to have a memorial to their contributions erected in a public area was also human enough to have darker aspects that have led people to ask for them to be pulled down.
Civil War-era statues? Even more so.
With 2020 being the year the whole country embraced protest, statues became a frequent and favorite target. In Lawrenceville, a war memorial was vandalized. A North Shore police memorial was vandalized more than once.
The statues have been big and small.
In Pittsburgh, the Christopher Columbus figure in Schenley Park became a source of contention amid calls for its removal and a direction from a judge to come to a decision. It even had to be wrapped and taped in advance of Columbus Day. In New Kensington, a memorial for all police officers — but inspired by the killing of city police Officer Brian Shaw in 2017 — was vandalized twice, with the figure of a policeman ripped out the second time.
But while generals, explorers and other leaders have been grafittied or damaged or toppled into the water, one symbol has brought people together to bring back hope.
The statue of Abraham Lincoln that stood in Wilkinsburg for more than 100 years will be replaced.
Lincoln didn’t lose his spot at Penn Avenue and Ardmore Boulevard because of a protest. The ravages of time took their physical toll on the artwork. And in November 2018, it nearly was taken out by a wayward car. He was moved inside the borough building at that point.
The bronze statue that will be erected in the same spot is a new commission from Penn Hills native and widely recognized sculptor Susan Wagner, who has placed her stamp on Southwestern Pennsylvania with her figures of Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski at PNC Park and Dr. Thomas Starzl at the University of Pittsburgh.
The replacement is a community effort. The Wilkinsburg Historical Society has spent two years raising nearly $70,000 to make it happen. A GoFundMe campaign has brought in donations. A Keystone Communities grant refurbished the area where the statue stands and added three new benches.
The statue will be delivered soon and erected later in the year, as weather and the last bit of fundraising to cover both the cost of the piece and its granite base installation are completed.
The passion and emotion that it takes to damage or destroy a statue can flash over in a moment. The outrage to call for removal can be lightning strike.
But the work to put something up will always take more work and time than it does to pull something down.
