This statue in tribute to President William McKinley made a curious exodus through Springfield, Massachusetts, several times. Tributes were quick to follow in the wake of the assassination of McKinley in 1901, and this statue was commissioned and monies raised by subscription drive by the citizens of Springfield. It was slated to be placed in a spot of honor in downtown's historic Court Square.By the time it was finished in 1905, enthusiasm had waned, and it fell to noted wealthy citizen Everett Barney to offer to give the statue a home on his estate. It was dedicated in October 1905. Mr. Barney's estate, of course, is now the expansive Forest Park.
At the time, Springfield's citizens were less than impressed with the statue, which featured a bust of McKinley perched on a short obelisk, at the foot of which was a life-size figure of a woman in the act of paying tribute to the fallen president with the offer of what appears to be a large olive branch. Or palm frond. It was ridiculed.
When Mr. Barney passed away and his estate donated to the city, there was again a debate as to what to do with the statue. In 1928 it was moved back to Court Square and placed behind City Hall, and neglected and forgotten about, until the early 1960s when it was suggested to move it back to Forest Park where it might at least be seen. By that time, a chunk of Barney's lovely estate, including his villa on Pecousic Hill, was destroyed by the construction of I-91.
In 2015, the statue was on the move again, this time back to Court Square at a spot on the Extension behind the Old First Church. Traffic passes by, but McKinley and the mysterious lady at his feet are a bit more visible to cars and pedestrians alike.
Interestingly, the back of this postcard mailed in 1908 makes a reference to some convention of women in town. On June 1, 1908, Mrs. Freeman of Westerly, Rhode Island, writes: "Arrived in Springfield at 12:45. Had a nice trip. There is a delegation of 110 women here of course there is lots of noise."
Have a look here at a previous post on the William McKinley monument in Adams, Massachusetts.
Source: Springfield Union-News, October 13, 1997, article by Carol Malley.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;
Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;
States of Mind: New England,
A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.
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