Bronze Eagles at Memorial Park

[ubben]

I was walking through Memorial Park today enjoying the awesome storminess and saw a sign at the entrance. A 'notice of public hearing' for May 27th at 3pm at 214 N. Hogan Street. The work proposed for Memorial Park is 'addition of bronze eagles.' Huh? This could be good depending on style and location. Anyone know anything about it?

[blizz01]

Check this article scraped from JAXSCENE -
http://jaxscene.blogspot.com/2009/05/eagles-go-up-for-vote-at-memorial-park.html

[ubben]

Well, dang. Those look pretty cool! Even better that they were there originally. Go Eagles!

[heights unknown]

I was walking through Memorial Park today enjoying the awesome storminess and saw a sign at the entrance. A 'notice of public hearing' for May 27th at 3pm at 214 N. Hogan Street. The work proposed for Memorial Park is 'addition of bronze eagles.' Huh? This could be good depending on style and location. Anyone know anything about it?

Where will they be placed?  I hope they are fastened or bolted down good; these days someone will steal them if they're not.

Heights Unknown

[DetroitInJAX]

Now THAT is cool.. cant wait to see them!

[BridgeTroll]

Hmmm... Interestingly...

sometime in the mid-1930s the pair of eagles was removed from the park in Riverside and placed in Confederate Park in Springfield, where they remain today.

[blizz01]

That's how those Springfielders roll - even back then!

[blizz01]

From last month's Met Jax Feature (they don't look very bronze anymore....)

[stephElf]

effin sweet! I hope they get installed STAT.

[blizz01]

I did a quick search on the presumed sculptor & went directly to this post (from ~9 years ago) in a genealogy website:

C. Adrian Pillars lived in St. Augustine, Florida from about 1919-1932. He taught at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota from 1932-35, and died in Jacksonville, FL in 1937. His home and studio at 16 May Street in St. Augustine, known as "The Pink Castle", is one of the landmarks of the nation's oldest city, and is pictured in my book "The Houses of St. Augustine." His father John A. Pillars was the manager of the City Gates Filling Station in St. Augustine, and Horace A. Pillars, whom I assume was his brother, also lived here.
Adrian Pillars studied with Lorado Taft and Daniel Chester French. His most famous work is the statue of Winged Victory in Memorial Park in Jacksonville. He did the two statues in the national Capitol of Floridians, General Edmund Kirby Smith and Dr. John Gorrie. He also did the World War I Memorial Flagpole and some smaller works in St. Augustine, where his patron was Dr. Andrew Anderson.
Pillars was married twice, divorced once. His son died in an auto accident, but two daughters survived, both in Jacksonville. I believe one is still living.
There will be a lecture here next week by an art historian from Washington about artists from St. Augustine which will include mention of Pillars. The current owner of his house has talked about establishing a Pillars Sculpture Award at the St. Augustine Art Association.
There is a biographical sketch of Pillars in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, volume 34, pp. 188-9. It includes mention of his parents and grandparents, wives and children, as well as an account of his career. There is some information about him here at the St. Augustine Historical Society Library as well.

[BridgeTroll]

Great find Blizz...

[RiversideLoki]

That's excellent!

[Springfield Girl]

Mr. Pillars also did the fountain in Klutho Park in Springfield for the Springfield Improvement Ass./Womens Club as a memorial for an influential president in the early 1900's. He is supposedly Florida's most famous sculptor.