Columbus Statue Finds New Home

Nearly five years after the city removed the Christopher Columbus statue from Wooster Square Park amid nationwide racial justice protests, the Elicker administration announced on Friday that the memorial has a new home — at a museum of New Haven artifacts and memorabilia on Hamilton Street.

That’s according to a Friday afternoon press release sent out by city spokesperson Lenny Speiller.

Speiller wrote that the city has reached an art loan agreement with Robert Greenberg’s Lost in New Haven for the Christopher Columbus statue.

The Columbus statue stood in Wooster Square Park from 1892 until one contentious Wednesday on June 24, 2020. It’s spent the past nearly five years in a city Department of Public Works (DPW) facility. 

As of Friday, the statue is now located inside Lost in New Haven’s museum building at 80 Hamilton St. 

Lost in New Haven is still not fully open to the public. Friday’s press release states that the museum is open by appointment and for guided weekend tours, and that it will ​“add more time-toured hours later this year.”

“We have a beautiful new monument, Indicando la via al futuro, at Wooster Square Park that celebrates the Italian immigrant experience in New Haven,” Mayor Justin Elicker is quoted as saying in Friday’s press release, referencing the new statue located where Columbus once stood. ​“However, given the historical significance of the Columbus statue that previously stood there, it was important to find an appropriate place for it to go.”

“It is a privilege to be entrusted with the stewardship of New Haven’s Christopher Columbus Memorial, an important artifact in the city’s history,” Greenberg is quoted as saying in the Friday press release. ​“At Lost in New Haven, residents and visitors will be able to observe this memorial alongside our amazingly diverse collection of other Elm City artifacts that tell the many stories of our city.”

Italian-American critics of the removal of the Columbus statue periodically rallied at the statue’s former home over the years, calling for the statue’s return to Wooster Square Park. A group called the Italian-American Defense League also sued the city to try to get the statue reinstalled.

Friday’s press release states that the Columbus memorial was originally dedicated in Wooster Square Park in 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival to North America. It was funded by donations from Italian immigrants, and it was installed at a time when ​“there was demonstrable prejudice towards immigrants from southern Italy and elsewhere, and over time the sculpture served as a symbol of Italian American culture, history, and sense of belonging in New Haven. In the statue, Columbus holds a small globe in his left hand and held a compass in his right hand, which subsequently disappeared. At Lost in New Haven, the Christopher Columbus Memorial will remain on the same base, which previously rested on the memorial podium at Wooster Square Park. The statue podium itself remains at Wooster Square Park and serves as a background to Indicando la via al future.”