Plan to replace Abraham Lincoln statue in Wilkinsburg moving along

Abraham Lincoln could be back on his Wilkinsburg perch in time for his Feb. 12 birthday next year.

For the past 18 months, a group of Wilkinsburg residents have been working to raise $70,000 to build a new bronze, life-size statue of the 16th president of the United States. The statue stood at the intersection of Penn Avenue and Ardmore Boulevard for decades.

A GoFundMe page was created in April 2019. Then, this past February, an anonymous donor offered to match donations in honor of Lincoln’s birthday, helping to push the creation of a new statue closer to becoming a reality.

“The statue is now in the foundry. It has been sculpted. We didn’t have to have all the money to get it going,” said Wilkinsburg Historical Society President Anne Elise Morris. “I have seen the clay version. It is beautiful. It’s absolutely stunning.”

It would replace the old copper statue of Lincoln that stood in the same spot for over a century but met with more than its share of mishaps — the latest of which happened in 2018 when a car lost control on Penn Avenue and plowed through part of the fencing surrounding the statue.

Morris, who has been spearheading the effort, said as of Monday the pace of fundraising has exceeded her expectations and brought in about $62,000 so far.

“There are some things that the community really values and particularly people that remember their grandmas helping to contribute towards the original statue or they remember visiting that statue when they were students in the Wilkinsburg School District,” she said.

“A lot of these old-timers really wanted it and I got quite a few notes from those people saying, ‘If it doesn’t happen now, today’s generation is not going to remember a Lincoln statue being there. They’re not going to care.’ ”

The reason the statue was placed there in the first place in 1916 was as part of the celebration of the opening of the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway. Wilkinsburg’s Penn Avenue is a segment of the highway and the Lincoln statue was erected at the Ardmore/Penn/Ross intersection.

The Lincoln statue’s ensuing misadventures are legendary. They include a 1981 incident in which an intoxicated couple stole the statue by breaking it off at the ankles. They took it to a Westmoreland County farm near Greensburg where, fearful that they would be discovered, they proceeded to bury the statue in a shallow grave before turning themselves in.

Abe was returned to his spot in 1984, but his weakened ankles couldn’t withstand a 1992 wind storm that knocked him off the pedestal once more. Though the Lincoln statue was repaired and rededicated in 2001, it had become obvious after the 2018 car incident that a whole new structure was needed.

Artists from around the world contacted the Wilkinsburg Historical Society to express interest in creating the new statue, but a Pittsburgh-area artist was chosen. Morris said the identity of the sculptor is being kept secret until a date closer to the unveiling.

A new concrete platform was put in place earlier this summer as part of a restoration project along Route 30. But Morris said a new dark granite pedestal, which is coming from India, is needed, adding another $15,000 to the project.

“The old one was not usable. It didn’t pass the structural engineer’s test, and you’re certainly not going to have a beautiful new statue and a new viewing area to set it in — and then have the part that holds it together in poor shape,” she said.

What Morris and others involved in the effort to bring a new Lincoln statue to Wilkinsburg could not have anticipated is the heightened nationwide concern and debate over statues of political and military figures, even honest Abe.

Historians rank Lincoln as one of America’s greatest presidents, celebrated for his leadership in the Civil War, his eloquence and the emancipation of slaves. As legacies come under scrutiny, some critics note that he approved the hanging of 38 Dakota Native American men in 1862, the largest government-sanctioned mass execution in U.S. history, though he commuted the sentences of more than 260 who were also condemned by the military commission.

“I believe that most people realize that nobody’s perfect and every decision has a back story to it,” said Morris. “Looking back 150 years ago, although Lincoln was not a perfect man, he certainly did start the ball rolling to free three-and-a-half million African-American slaves. And he did what he had to do to save the Union. If anybody deserved to have a statue honoring them, it’s Abraham Lincoln.”

And Anne Elise Morris is looking forward to the day when that statue is restored to its rightful place in Wilkinsburg.

“It’s going to be beautiful. People are going to be enjoying it for a couple hundred years.”