John Plankinton statue

Last updated
John Plankinton bronze statue at Milwaukee Grand Plankinton Arcade John Plankinton statue in circular atrium close-up.jpg
John Plankinton bronze statue at Milwaukee Grand Plankinton Arcade

The John Plankinton statue is a six-foot lifelike representation of the businessman and industrialist. It took the sculptor six months to make and was initially placed in the Plankinton House Hotel in downtown Milwaukee in 1892. It is presently located in the Grand's Plankinton Arcade shopping plaza, a redevelopment project at the same location where the hotel once stood. It was completely restored in 2012.

John Plankinton American businessman and meatpacking industrialist who helped finance the construction of many buildings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

John Plankinton was an American businessman and a Milwaukee-based meatpacking industrialist. He is noted for expansive real estate developments in Milwaukee, including the Plankinton House Hotel, and also for his generous philanthropy.

Contents

Background

The background history of the bronze statue starts shortly after John Plankinton's death in March 1891. The idea for a statue or bust was proposed seven months later in October 1891. [1] Richard Henry Park, known as the Florentine sculptor, had already done statues for the Plankinton family so was commissioned by his son William to make the bronze statue in 1892. [2] [3] Park made the six-foot bronze statue with a realistic lifelike representation of John Plankinton standing at ease. [4] It was initially placed in the rotunda of the Plankinton House Hotel in downtown Milwaukee on March 28, 1892. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Richard Henry Park was an American sculptor who worked in marble and bronze. He was commissioned to do work by the wealthy of the nineteenth century. He also created sculptures for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.

William Plankinton

William Plankinton was an American businessman, manufacturer, and industrialist. He followed in his father's footsteps in the meat packing and meat processing industry. As a businessman he was associated with the Milwaukee museum, public library, industrial exposition and Chamber of Commerce. He was also a banker.

Rotunda (architecture) building with a circular ground plan

A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building. The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome.

Park, who spent six months in Chicago working on the John Plankinton bronze statue, [3] was perhaps a surprising choice as Park had betrayed Elizabeth Plankinton (William's sister) and married another woman in 1887, leaving her disappointed and distraught. [8] [9] Described as a good looking statue, it was unveiled in a rotunda in the Plankinton House Hotel in June 1892. It remained there until a redevelopment into a shopping district in 1916 took place of the property and the hotel taken down. It was called originally the Plankinton Arcade and had billiard and bowling in the basement. The property was again remodeled in the 1970s and then called the John Plankinton Mall. The latest redesign of the property in 1980–1982 incorporated a circular atrium specifically for the statue. The property was again renamed and then called Shops of Grand Avenue or sometimes shortened to The Grand shopping plaza. Grand Avenue was the 19th century prestigious street name where the property is located and is now Wisconsin Avenue. In 2012 restoration work was done to the bronze statue that took several months. Afterwards it was returned to its base made by the American Bronze Company. This base at the foot of the bronze statue is titled John Plankinton 1820 – 1891. The statue on its 15-foot pedestal is now a permanent part of the shopping plaza and seen by hundreds daily. [3] [7] [10]

Elizabeth Plankinton

Elizabeth Ann or AnnePlankinton was an American philanthropist in the early 20th century, the daughter of Milwaukee businessman John Plankinton. She supported local artists and artisans. One of her notable gifts was the 1885 statue of George Washington that was ultimately placed in Milwaukee's Monument Square. The people of Milwaukee called Plankinton the "municipal patroness" because of her generosity and she was also known as "Miss Lizzie".

The American Bronze Company aka American White Bronze Company was a company that produced, and sold through trade catalogs, zinc statues and memorials. It was founded in about 1885, initially as a subsidiary of the Monumental Bronze Company. In 1892 the foundry, owned by Paul Cornell, was located in Grand Crossing, Illinois where Cornell owned a watch company. Around 1900 the company moved to in Chicago. The firm is best known for producing cemetery monuments and Civil War monuments, for both the Union and Confederate causes.

Bronze statue views

Renovation work

Related Research Articles

The Avenue (Milwaukee) urban shopping plaza in Westown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Avenue is an urban shopping plaza that spans three city blocks in the downtown neighborhood of Westown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Cleveland Arcade

The Arcade in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, is a Victorian-era structure of two nine-story buildings, joined by a five-story arcade with a glass skylight spanning over 300 feet, along the four balconies. Erected in 1890, at a cost of $867,000, the Arcade opened on Memorial Day, and is identified as one of the earliest indoor shopping malls in the United States. The Arcade was modified in 1939, remodeling the Euclid Avenue entrance and adding some structural support. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Hundreds of replicas of the Statue of Liberty have been created worldwide.

James Ludington businessman

James Ludington was an American entrepreneur, businessman, lumber baron, and real estate developer. As a businessman he would loan money to other businessmen. In one such loan he had to foreclose for delinquent payments on a sawmill operation in Michigan. He ultimately obtained the sawmill in the village of Pere Marquette. Ludington platted the land there and formed a town with a lumber company operation. He later sold his interest to the lumber company for a large sum of money and became very wealthy. The town later changed its name and became Ludington, Michigan, although he never lived there.

John S. Conway (artist) American artist

John S. Conway, an artist and sculptor, was born February 21, 1852 in Dayton, Ohio. His middle name is listed differently in different sources as Severinus, Severine and Severino. He received his artistic training at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ecole Julien, and at the École des Beaux-Arts. Conway also lived in Milwaukee, Italy, and New Jersey. While Conway was in Paris, Robert William Vonnoh, a fellow art student, painted his portrait.

<i>Gertie the Duck</i>

Gertie the Duck is an icon of Milwaukee, Wisconsin history and the subject of a 4-foot tall bronze sculpture by American artist Gwendolyn Gillen. It was installed on the Wisconsin Avenue bridge in September 1997.

Albert C. Nash American architect

Albert C. Nash was an architect in Cincinnati, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a founding member of the Cincinnati chapter of the American Institute of Architects and served twice as the group's president, from 1873 to 1877 and 1882 to 1885. The Milwaukee Court House that was constructed in 1872 and demolished 1939, as well as St. Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee.

Chase Tower (Milwaukee)

The Chase Tower is a 22-story, 288-foot-tall (88 m) high-rise building in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Built in the International style, the building has a very dark green, almost black, facade. It is located alongside the Milwaukee River, at the corner of East Wisconsin Avenue and North Water Street. The Chase Tower includes 480,000 square feet of office space and a 746-space parking structure.

Henry Bergh is a statue by American artist James H. Mahoney located at the Wisconsin Humane Society in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The bronze statue portrays Henry Bergh, the father of the humane movement in the United States, holding a cane in his proper right hand and petting a dog with a bandaged paw with his proper left hand. It was created in 1891 and stands 9 feet high.

<i>Spirit of Commerce</i> artwork by Gustave Haug

Spirit of Commerce is a public artwork by German artist Gustav Haug located in Jackson Park, which is on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. This zinc sculpture is 15 feet tall and sits on a red granite pedestal near the park's lagoon. It is the oldest public sculpture in Milwaukee.

<i>Washington Monument</i> (Milwaukee) artwork by Richard Henry Park

The Washington Monument is a public artwork by American artist Richard Henry Park located on the Court of Honor in front of the Milwaukee Public Library Central Library, which is near Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bronze sculpture is a full-length portrait of a 43-year-old George Washington, and stands on a granite pedestal; a bronze woman points up at Washington while a child, also made out of bronze, gazes upward. It was sculpted by Richard Henry Park and was erected in 1885 with philanthropic financial support from Elizabeth Plankinton. The statue was restored 2016-2018.

<i>General Douglas MacArthur</i> (Dean) artwork by Robert Dean

General Douglas MacArthur is a public artwork by American artist Robert L. Dean, a 1953 graduate of the United States Military Academy. Previously, the statue was located in MacArthur Square in the Milwaukee Civic Center Plaza, downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. On June 7, 2014, it was relocated to its new waterfront location at Veterans' Park, next to the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center. With full military honors, the bronze statue of General Douglas MacArthur was rededicated at its new home on June 7, 2014. The ceremony was the capstone event for the MacArthur Memorial Week, held nearly 35 years after the statue's original dedication on June 8, 1979.

Sculptor Aloys Loeher (1850–1904) was an American sculptor. He created a signature piece which was exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Among his other works are the Siegfried Monument in New York, the Fritz Reuter Monument in Chicago, and a number of medals and busts.

Elizabeth Plankinton House

The Elizabeth Plankinton House was a stone structure in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, intended to be the residence for Elizabeth Plankinton. Built between 1886 and 1888 by John Plankinton for his daughter as a wedding gift, it cost at least $100,000. Architect Edward Townsend Mix designed the house in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It was located opposite John Plankinton's own house on Grand Avenue in an upscale residential area of the western part of the city, near other mansions. Mrs. Margaret Johnston was the only person to have a permanent residence in the house (1896–1904). The Knights of Columbus used the property between 1910 and 1978. Despite being listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the house was demolished on October 11, 1980, to make way for student facilities for Marquette University.

William Plankinton Mansion

The William Plankinton Mansion was built in 1876 by the millionaire meatpacking entrepeneur John Plankinton and presented as a wedding gift when his son William Plankinton married Mary Ella Woods. Located at 1529 W. Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Victorian style residence was designed by E. Townsend Mix, the most prominent Milwaukee architect of that era. One of its notable ornaments was a lion's head on its external marble-faced construction. The interior featured ornate woodwork, and the stairwell was illuminated by a stained glass window. The building was sold in 1918 to Marquette University and for decades served as a hospital annex. In 1969 it was demolished to make way for new university structures.

Gwen Gillen American sculptor

Gwendolyn "Gwen" Gillen was an American sculptor and artist. Her best known works include a bronze sculpture of actress Mary Tyler Moore tossing her Tam o' shanter hat into the air as a homage to the final scene of opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Gillen life-size sculpture of Moore, which dedicated in 2002 in the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, has own of the city's most recognizable landmarks and "symbol of Minneapolis". Her other well known pieces include a 4-foot bronze sculpture of Gertie the Duck, which was installed on the Wisconsin Avenue bridge in Milwaukee in 1997.

References

  1. ↑ Richardson, Genesee (October 10, 1891). "John Plankinton". The Weekly Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin – via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  2. ↑ "Statue of John Plankinton". The Belleville Telescope. Belleville, Kansas. April 29, 1892 – via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  3. 1 2 3 Stingl, Jim (2016). "Statue's history put to rights by sleuthing". Milwaukee News online. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Statue of the late John Plankinton". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. March 21, 1892 – via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  5. ↑ "Statue Placed". Las Vegas Daily Optic. East Las Vegas, New Mexico. March 28, 1892 – via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  6. ↑ "Statue of John Plankinton". Lincoln Daily News. Lincoln, Nebraska. April 13, 1892 – via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  7. 1 2 "History-A Timeline / The history of The Shops of Grand Avenue is as rich as the City it serves". The Shops of Grand Avenue. Mid-America. 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Elizabeth Plankinton Residence". Raynor Memorial Libraries. Marquette University. 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Elizabeth Plankinton House, Milwaukee Wisconsin". Historic Structures. 2009. Retrieved February 5, 2017. She was to have been married to Richard Hamilton Park, the British sculptor of the above, but was deserted in favor of a dancer from Minneapolis.
  10. ↑ "Remember When...the Plankinton Arcade was remodeled?". Remember When. Milwaukee Public Library. 2016. Retrieved February 2, 2017.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.