Wondering what’s up with the Alki Statue of Liberty and why it’s not back in place yet? There’s an update in this week’s WS Herald.
West Seattle, Washington
21 Wednesday
Wondering what’s up with the Alki Statue of Liberty and why it’s not back in place yet? There’s an update in this week’s WS Herald.
There’s going to be a meeting on July 11th at 7 PM at Starbucks on Alki about what’s going to be happening with the statue. Enough of these steering committees. This statue recasting has been going on for at leasy 12 years.
Personally, I think the new statue should be installed now on the old base, while funds are being raised for the fancy, dancy new Plaza that’s been proposed. I understand the finished statue is going to be displayed at the Tacoma Art Walk this month (not sure of date) even before we get to see it. Doesn’t sound right. We miss her here at Alki. This is where she belongs. I’ll be at that meeting on July 11th, for sure. Hope to see you all there, too.
The church my wife and daughter go to is in the process of raising three million dollars pretty quickly, all from WS parishioners. It seems bizarre we can’t raise a fraction of that to put back up a statue that is already cast and done.
This is silly – put the statue on the perfectly good, existing base and be done with it.
Hey they could charge a toll to all the kids cruising Alki and pay for a nice new home for the old dear:)
Ummm… could I be the only one in West Seattle who finds the statue tacky? The craft involved is akin to a dollar-store souvenir of the real New York statue of liberty. I think someone needs to boost the standards of the boyscout merit badge for metal casting. Honest question: what do people like about the thing? Do you really not think it looks cheap?
What happened to the big American flag that you could see going across WS bridge?
She was, indeed, looking very weather-worn.
The original statue was simply a thin copper plating overlaid on a plaster core. It probably wasn’t meant to sit on a beach where 50-plus years of salt water could do great damage. Huge cracks developed, and although she had been patched many times, it seemed that the cracks became more and more noticeable. She has more sentimental value than great artistic value.
She is part of our local history, and identity. And we’re quickly losing our identity with so many of our houses and other buildings being replaced by condos and townhouses which IMO, 99.9998% of, are alot tackier than a weather-worn statue that has proudly stood at our beach for 50+ years.
She was also the perfect local gathering place/memorial/shrine, to honor the 9/11 victims.
Mike
Jiggers…the man who owns the building took his business to Arizona because of the taxes here…and I guess he took his flag with him….
No, the statue wasn’t just a random little tourist statue for no reason. There was a historical point.
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LITTLE NEW YORK
The Liberty Deli only a recent manifestation of Alki’s historical connection to New York. Seattle’s first white settlers landed on Alki in 1851 and named their settlement New York Alki. Alki (pronounced “al-key,†not “al-kai ,†by old-timers) is a term meaning “by and by†in Chinook, the language of the people white settlers evicted from the site. The name reflected the settlers’ optimistic plans for Alki.
Settlers called Alki’s first popular beach Coney Island Beach, after the famous New York island. In 1907, investors built Luna Park, an amusement park, at the head of the Duwamish and modeled it on New York’s famous Luna Park on Coney Island. The Alki neighborhood, dubbed the “Coney Island of the West,†regularly drew crowds of 30,000 on weekends until the park closed in 1913. The Luna Park Cafe (2918 Avalon Way) is part of the original structure and survives under the West Seattle Bridge
http://archives.thedaily.washington.edu/1998/010698/fatchance.html
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