Sculpture In Lincoln Park Replaced Decades After Being Stolen
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A more than 100-year-old bronze statue stolen from Lincoln Park back in the fifties has been re-cast and was re-dedicated today. WBBM's Mike Krauser reports its original intent was to keep men away from liquor.
The statue is called fountain girl. It is a bronze girl on a granite pedestal with a bowl in her hands dripping water into a pool.
Sculpture In Lincoln Park Replaced Decades After Being Stolen
The original was commissioned by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for the 1893 World's Columbian exposition.
"Men were going into the bars to get a drink of ice water and then they would be enticed to stay and drink something else and so we said lets give you a place to get your ice water and you won't have to go into the bar and that's where the fountain idea started," said Sara Ward with the WCTU.
Cindy Mitchell, former parks commissioner, says a woman who wants to be anonymous helped to make this happen.
"She came to me and she said I want to bring her back because I remember as a little girl playing there and I loved that sculpture," said Mitchell.
And today in the south end of Lincoln park, fountain girl is back.
