A larger than life, sculptured, bronze statue of Chloe Clark is now finished and was on display for the public at a May 26 open house at The Bronze Works in Tacoma. The statue will be moved to DuPont’s Chloe Clark Elementary School, the statue’s permanent location, once the site work is finished.
Mary Hammond says
Lovely sculpture – would it be too much to ask that the sculptor be identified?
Mary Hammond, University Place
Ben Sclair says
The sculptor is John Hemphill at The Bronze Works (253-588-5915). Sorry I missed that.
Mary Hammond says
Hi again, Ben – I see that you are misattributing the Chloe Clark statue to Hemphill, who chairs the Chloe Clark Memorial Committee. According to chloeclarkstatue.com (see CC Memorial Fact Sheet), Dr. John P. Jewell of Vaughn is the sculptor. His works are nearly as ubiquitous in the area as Larry Anderson’s. See his website at home.centurytel.net/johnpjewell/ Interestingly, Jewell was formerly an elementary school principal in the Steilacoom Historical School District. Many of his sculptures are commissioned by schools and libraries.
— Mary Hammond, University Place
PS – Looks like the News Tribune will be giving it some press in the coming days –
blogs.thenewstribune.com/street/2009/06/02/chloe_clark_statue_done_but_school_will_
Chloe Clark statue done, but school will wait a year for installation
Posted by Brent Champaco @ 11:59:12 am
She stands 6 feet high, school bell in hand and keeping a watchful eye on her students.
But the bronze statue of pioneering schoolteacher Chloe Clark doesn’t overlook an untouched prairie or a backdrop of Evergreen trees, scenes she might have seen when she first started teaching at Fort Nisqually (now DuPont) in 1840 at a mission school. She was the first school teacher to arrive in the South Sound, historians say.
Instead, Clark’s statue overlooks buildings and asphalt near the Bronze Works foundry in Tacoma. The group of history enthusiasts who raised $86,000 for the statue’s creation is ecstatic that it’s complete.
But they’ll have to wait until 2010 for the statue’s installation at Chloe Clark Elementary School in DuPont. The Steilacoom Historical School District must perform about $100,000 worth of landscape improvements, including clearing trees and readying the area for a pedestal for the statue.
“Are we disappointed? I think so,” said Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Hemphill, chairman of the Chloe Clark Memorial Committee. “But it is a lot of work.”
Once the statue is installed at the school at the corner of Palisade Boulevard and Haskell Street in Dupont, he said, “the community is going to be very pleased.”
Chloe Clark’s statue will remain at the Bronze Works foundry, 2506 Fawcett Ave. in Tacoma, at least for now. The owner [of the foundry, not the statue. methinks! – mh], Kevin Keating, says visitors can view the statue, which on sunny days is placed outside the front door. The foundry is building an A-frame of a pioneer schoolhouse that will accompany the statue.
Read more about this story in the print edition in the coming days.