A Small Monument with a Big Message in Roosevelt Park
Tucked along Coffman Street beside the St. Vrain Memorial Building in Roosevelt Park is a heartening smaller-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty. Longmont’s “little sister” was installed in 1950 and is a mid-century relic of a nationwide campaign launched by the organization then named Boy Scouts of America to “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty.” Starting in 1948, Scouts held fundraising campaigns to purchase and install these copper-sheet replicas of Lady Liberty throughout the U.S. Approximately 200 were installed in 39 U.S. states, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, and the Philippines.
The statues were installed not just as a monuments but as visible symbols of reassurance against the era’s mounting anxieties. The daily news was filled with stories about the Cold War and, soon, the Korean War. Many citizens worried about the future of American democracy.
The miniature statues were the brain-child of Kansas businessman, Boy Scout leader, and philanthropist J. P. Whitaker, who was moved by a homemade Statue of Liberty replica made of concrete and chicken wire he saw while traveling through Iowa. He had a mold made of a miniature Lady Liberty and commissioned a Chicago company to manufacture them. Scout troops raised money to purchase the statues at $350 apiece. They also worked with community leaders to build pedestals to install the “little sisters” in public parks and elsewhere.
Time and mistreatment took its toll on Longmont’s replica. By 1976, six of the seven spikes on her crown were broken. Members of the Longmont Noon Optimist Club took it upon themselves to have the statue refurbished to its original state.
Today, passersby still pause when they see her. Some even leave little trinkets and flowers. Occasionally, tour and school groups pose for photos, torch arm lifted, and recite the famous lines from Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” written in 1883 to help raise funds for the original statue’s pedestal:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
She may be a “little sister,” but for those who pause to recite Lazarus’ words, she still holds open the door of hope to all in Longmont.
A photograph taken for an article in September 1975 advocating that Longmont’s Statue of Liberty be restored to its original state.