New Haven Independent

The Angel of Peace, who’s normally perched atop East Rock with olive branch in hand, came down to the ground for the first time this year since 1887 for a much-needed makeover. A festival Tuesday morning gave admirers like the two fellows above a chance to get up close and personal with the 11 1/2-foot statue.

“I’ve been in love with the angel since I was a kid,” said Leon Brown (pictured), a New Haven firefighter. His daughter, Madison (at left), fell in love at age 4. “It’s a father-daughter connection,” he said. They rushed down to the Green to stand in line and get their picture taken by a city-hired photographer.

Taking the podium in a short ceremony, East Rock Alderman Ed Mattison echoed a widespread sentiment across the neighborhood: “Every day I come out of my house on Anderson Street and I look up and I see the hole in the sky where there used to be something beautiful,” he said. “I and my neighbors had no idea how much we would miss having [the Angel] there.”

The angel, inspired by the Civil War and stationed atop the New Haven Soldiers and Sailors Monument, holds an olive branch to represent peace and a laurel wreath to represent victory. Her presence — and absence — are visible from miles away on Interstate 91, where 250,000 travelers pass her each day, according to city officials.

The Angel was sent to Flushing, N.Y., just an island’s hop away from the Statue of Liberty, which was installed just one year earlier, in 1886. Foundry workers cleared the statue’s inner debris, then built new inner armature, explained Francis Miller, whose task it is to restore the exterior. During the Flushing experience, workers got “rained on by textile fragments” that had been inside the statue — and out popped an old shoe (pictured, in Miller’s hands).

Miller didn’t know if the shoe was a luck charm or a functional wedge, but he reckoned it had been there for 120 years.

The Angel will sit on the Green as Miller’s company, ConservArt of Hamden, restores the exterior for the next couple weeks. Miller will blast the angel with water to power-clean her, then “patinate” her in a process involving color-changing propane torches.

Tuesday’s unveiling featured a short performance from budding soldiers from the Hillhouse High School Junior ROTC (pictured).

James Broker showed up in honor of his grandfather, an Irish immigrant named John Malone who worked as a mason on the monument in the 1880s.

New Haven Oral History Project Director Andrew Horowitz and DeStefano Campaign staffer Molly Lindsay were among a couple dozen enthusiasts who got the chance to snap a picture with the 5,000-pound statue.

The Angel returns to her perch in mid-October, at East Rock’s Fall Festival. Until then, the city’s collecting wishes — for peace, health, happiness, or whatever else you’d like to add — on a city website. Click here to go there and add your own.