Stereoview card image ca. 1870s of the George Washington Monument
which stood in Monroe Park, 1871-1883. The image
is courtesy of the Valentine Museum.
which stood in Monroe Park, 1871-1883. The image
is courtesy of the Valentine Museum.
Reverse of the Washington Monument stereoview card,
published by the Anderson Gallery (owned by David H. Anderson, photographer).
The bronze monument that stood in Monroe Park from 1871 to 1883 was a copy of the life-size marble "George Washington" statue by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) that has stood under the interior dome of the Rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol building since 1796.
Houdon was an accomplished and well-known French sculptor who visited George Washington at Mount Vernon in 1785 to make clay life models of him. According to the Visitor's Guide of the State Capitol, Houdon's Washington statue was begun in 1785, signed "1788," completed in 1791 or 1792, and delivered in 1796.
"George Washington" statue by Houdon
in the rotunda of the Virginia state capitol building.
The standing figure of Washington is shown
in his general's uniform. His right hand holds a stick and his left arm
rests on a pedestal over which a coat is draped.
Self portrait of William James Hubard (1807-1862)
The marble Houdon statue of Washington was copied in bronze by artist William James Hubard. Born in England in 1807, Hubard arrived in the United States in 1824. He worked as an artist in a few different cities before arriving in Virginia and settling in Gloucester County in the early 1830s. He soon established a successful career as a portrait artist. By the early 1850s, he had moved to Richmond. He and his wife, Maria Mason Tabb Hubard, began living just outside the city on in what is now the 1100 block of Grove Avenue. He became a close friend of Mann S. Valentine II (1824-1892), a wealthy Richmonder who in the 1870s would produce a highly popular medical elixir called Valentine Meat Juice. He was the benefactor of the Valentine Museum. Hubard was introduced to many Richmonders through Valentine which helped his portrait business.
Hubard experimented in a variety of art forms including early photography. In 1853, Hubard and Valentine teamed up with photographer Montgomery P. Simons (1816-1877) to produce a series of 30 daguerreotypes that explored the "passions" of man.
Mann S. Valentine II as seen in one of the 30
daguerreotypes produced as part of the Passion series.
At about the same time he helped produce the Passion series of daguerreotypes, Hubard became interested in making bronze duplicate statues of the Houdon statue of Washington.
The General Assembly passed an act authorizing Hubard to
make casts of the Houdon statue in January of 1853,
The Daily Dispatch
An article detailing Hubard's life and work appeared in the Jan. 11, 1948 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and described his work with the bronze statues.
On this project he secured the blessing of the Virginia Legislature, which granted him the exclusive right, for seven years, to make three plaster casts from the original statue in the State Capitol. He made only two casts however, fearing a third might damage the Houdon marble.
His reproduction of the statue occupied the greatest part of his time and interest, and took all his money, from 1853 to 1860. His letters and those of his friends reveal that severe financial difficulties were caused by this undertaking.
Near his house [known as Rose Cottage] just outside the city limits, in the neighborhood of what is now the 1100 block of Grove Ave., he equipped a foundry where six bronze replicas of the Houdon state were finally cast after many misadventures.
– Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jan. 11, 1948.
Six bronze statues were made of Washington by Hubard.
Below is their story of which one of the six resided in Monroe Park for 12 years.
Newspaper item gives us the detail that Hubard had made
a plaster copy of the Houdan statue of Washington by March of 1856.
One of the bronze copies was placed on the grounds of the Virginia Military Institute - unveiled in 1856. After the occupation of Lexington during the American Civil War, it was temporarily relocated to Wheeling, West Virginia, and returned in 1866. You can view the statue HERE.
A second copy was placed on the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol in 1857. This sculpture replaced a marble sculpture of Washington by Antonio Canova that was destroyed when the North Carolina State Capitol building went up in flames in 1831. You can view this copy HERE. .
A third copy is on the grounds of the South Carolina State House (installed in 1858).
And now there were three remaining Washington bronze statues. The Civil War had started in 1860 thus making it harder for Hubard to sell them.
Drew Carneal in his Richmond's Fan District (1996) discuses the statues and how Hubard died in 1862.
Carneal writes:
Unable to find buyers during these tumultuous years for his three remaining Washington statues, William J. Hubard had retooled his foundry to produce brass cannon and also had begun experimenting with explosives. His inexperience proved fatal. On the afternoon of 13 February 1862 an explosion shattered the quiet of Sydney. Hubard had left some powder drying on a stove, it ignited, detonating a bomb lying nearby. Mortally injured and with his coat afire, Hubard walked to his home where frantic efforts were made to save him. Despite the amputation of his left leg and attended by noted Confederate Sallie Tompkins, Hubard died two days later. After services at Saint James Church, this gifted man was buried in Hollywood Cemetery. It is reported that after Richmond fell his house was ransacked and many of his artistic works destroyed. In 1873, Mrs. Hubard, who had returned to Gloucester to live, sold the house, and it was demolished during the 1880s. (page 61-64).
Copy number four sits in Lafayette Park in St. Louis, Missouri. It's history is recounted on a web site on the history of Lafayette Park. It states:
The copy we have came to the park in a very circuitous way. An account in “The Missouri Republican” states that Hubard placed the statue at an exhibition in St. Louis in 1860, hoping that the City Council would buy it at a price of $10,000. They did not and Hubard borrowed $5,000 using the statue as collateral. When he was unable to pay the note the statue was sold at auction to pay the debt and bought in by the lenders.
Another version, by George McCue in “Sculpture City”, 1988, states that Hubard’s widow offered it for sale to the Missouri Legislature, which declined to purchase it, and it somehow became security for a loan and was sold to pay the debt. Then Charles Gibson, a prominent attorney who lived at 2050 Lafayette, directly across from the park, bought it and placed it in his yard. and later accepted an offer from the City to purchase it,
The “Report of the Board of Improvement of Lafayette Park, 1874,” states that the Board of Improvement bought it for the park. Charles Gibson was a member of the Board of Improvement from 1866 until 1871. The dedication was held May 15, 1869. Many prominent men who resided in houses facing the park contributed large sums to enhance the park and it is reasonable to assume that Gibson was instrumental in acquiring it for the park.
Two bronze statues remained in the custody of Hubard's widow, Maria Mason Tabb Hubard. The fifth statue was the one that ended up in Monroe Park. More about that below.
The sixth was purchased in 1884 and sits in the lobby of the New York City Hall.
One of the original plaster casts that Hubard created of the Houdan marble statue has an interesting history. Today, it is being preserved and will be displayed in a new museum in Yorktown. Hubard's wife sold this plaster statue for $2,000 to the U. S. government and it sat in the Hall of Representatives at the U. S. Capitol for 80 years. It was then transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. In 2007 it was rescued from obscurity by the Library of Virginia and then given to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
Now, about the fifth statue -
In October of 1870, the statue was repaired (where was it stored?)
- ready to be seen in public?
By December of 1879, the city accepted the statue and ordered a pedestal to be made.
On June 14, 1871, the monument was unveiled in Monroe Park.
What was the location of the Washington Monument in Monroe Park?
Image from the "Beers Illustrated atlas of the city of Richmond, Va.", 1877 - see the complete volume HERE.
Above is the Beers Atlas image combined with a recent Google Maps image. The monument seems to have been placed directly opposite of what is now the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart - possibly where the statue of Williams Carter Wickham stood from 1891 to 2020 in the park.
Removal of the statue.
In this lengthy article published in the Daily Dispatch on August 2, 1883, it notes that the statue in Monroe Park had been sold by Hubard's widow,Maria Mason Tabb Hubard, to the University of Missouri. It remained there for some time before it was moved to several locations before ending up in 1920 at the Rotunda of Alumni Hall at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Miami University has a web page devoted to its complicated history and its travels after it was removed from Monroe Park.
This article (see below) also gives details that at one time the statue stood on the grounds of the state capitol before being moved to Monroe Park. It's worth reading:
The statue was shipped from Richmond to Missouri on August 14, 1883. That ended its twelve year history in Monroe Park.
Here is the monument today that stood in Monroe Park - now in the Alumni Hall at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
----------------------------------------------
William J. Hubard still resides in Richmond in Hollywood Cemetery.
The Washington Monument in Monroe Park, 1871-1883:
-- Ray B.
----------------------------
Note: Details of Hubard's life are from a master's thesis by L. Theadore Batt entitled "The Graphic Works of William James Hubard" (1990) details his life and work and is available in VCU Libraries. Many of his paintings and papers daguerreotypes are housed in the Valentine Museum. Another good source is the exhibit catalog, "William James Hubard, 1807-1862; A Concurrent Survey and Exhibit, January, 1948" is also available in VCU Libraries.
For more information about Monroe Park, read The Ghosts and Glories of Monroe Park: A Sesquicentennial History by David M. Clinger, published in 1998. David Clinger (1933-2016) was a kind man and very accomplished. Another wonderful source about the park is Drew St. John Carneal's Richmond Fan District (1996). Carneal (1938-2015) was a gentleman whose research on the history and architecture of the Fan District is invaluable. Lastly, this report on Monroe Park which was published in 2008 and owes much of its work to two Richmond city planners, • Larry Miller, Department
of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities and T. Tyler Potterfield, Department of
Community Development. Potterfield was a good friend and one of the original editors of The Shockoe Examiner. If you are interested in Richmond history, you should acquire his Nonesuch Place: A History of the Richmond Landscape (2009).
One last thanks is to Todd Woodson, Richmond native, drummer, activist, and all around good guy. He has worked for decades to help preserve Monroe Park and to make it better. Todd runs a Facebook public page called "Fans of Monroe Park" that is worth visiting.
- Ray
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