New Haven Independent

Posted by: William Kurtz | November 12, 2009 4:02 PM

What a fantastic idea.

Posted by: robn | November 13, 2009 4:37 PM

great idea!

Posted by: Common Sense | November 13, 2009 7:46 PM

I remember seeing the bust of Mayor Henry G. Lewis many times at its East Rock location as I traveled to the summit in my younger years. It is a shame that at some point many years ago that it was vandalized like so many other memorials around the city. I have a post card of the Mayor Lewis monument. Why not restore the monument and pedestal like the War Memorial was done at the East Rock Summit. While it might be a good idea I'm sure the drawback would be it would be vandalized again.

Posted by: Evan S | December 1, 2009 12:15 PM

Many thanks for this Object Lesson in absence and history.

Yandell's bust of Mayor Lewis could easily and inexpensively be reproduced in durable resin via 3D CNC machine leaving three panels for artists and/or how about rotating resin busts of Friends of East Rock Park Youth at Work student interns?

http://ferpyouthatwork.blogspot.com/

The resin could be the color of weathered bronze but won't have scrap value to entice criminals and if it ever gets vandalized it could be easily be remade from the original CAD file.

Seems like a small thing to do for such a visible monument in New Haven's most visited, largest and flagship park let alone memorializing Lewis as originally intended:

"As we look through that list of attorneys of 1862, our eyes rest upon the names of two, now gone, who had both been prominent officials of the courts while they held their sessions on the Green, and whose subsequent careers of usefulness and distinction invest their names with a special interest as among those which New Haven will longest cherish with gratitude and honor. The first of these names, in order, is that of Henry G. Lewis. He had been Clerk of the Superior Court from 1847 to 1851, and in 1862 he gave up his legal practice to engage in other pursuits. In 1870 he was elected Mayor of New Haven, and continued in office till 1877, and was again elected for two years in 1880. To his foresight, public spirit and energy during his first official term as Mayor, in the face of strong opposition, New Haven is indebted for the system of sewers which all now see to have been indispensable for the comfort and health of the community. He took an active interest in the improvement of our streets and it was during his first administration that their general reconstruction with Telford pavements was begun. During his second mayoralty he promoted the opening of East Rock Park and after his retirement from official life he aided in the establishment of our present public park system. It was his warm heart and ready brain which originated that New Haven institution known as "Orphans' Day," and his bust, fitly placed on the summit of East Rock Park, which he helped to create, looks with equal fitness toward one of those orphan homes which he so warmly befriended."

(Page 178 from Chronicles of New Haven Green from 1638 to 1862: a series of papers read before the New Haven Colony Historical Society,
Henry Taylor Blake, 1898.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=cxbVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA178&dq=%22Henry+G.+Lewis%22+east+rock++%22new+haven%22#v=onepage&q=%22Henry%20G.%20Lewis%22%20east%20rock%20%22new%20haven%22&f=false