Something Fishy About "The Spirit of Detroit"

Photo courtesy of Chris Ahern Photography LLC

The Spirit of Detroit statue has graced the site of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (originally known as the City-County Building) on the corner of Woodward and Jefferson Avenues since its installation on September 21, 1958. The Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority commissioned the public art as a salute to the new City-County Building on August 2, 1955 with the expressed goal of representing "hope, progress, and the spirit of man."

Royal Oak, Michigan sculptor Marshall Fredericks was chosen to design the statue in keeping with the Building Authority's vision statement. Fredericks waived his artist's commission believing the project was part of his civic responsibility. A plaque in front of the sculpture reads, "The artist expresses the concept that God, through the spirit of man, is manifest in the family, the noblest human relationship." Though the statue was unnamed by its creator, it became popularly known as The Spirit of Detroit becoming the ubiquitous symbol representing the City of Detroit.

Spirit of Detroit model and sculptor Marshall Fredericks.

After the design concept was sculpted in clay and agreed upon by the Building Authority, Fredericks cast the model in plaster at one-quarter scale of what the final product would become. Under his supervision, the scale model was shipped to Oslo, Norway to a foundry large enough to cast the statue in bronze. The model was scaled up to 26 feet tall. This statue soon became known as the largest bronze statue cast since the Renaissance.

The focal point of the statue is a supernatural-sized, seated figure covered in a rich green patina. In his left hand, this colossus holds a gilded sphere emanating golden rays lighting the heavens symbolizing God. In his right hand, the figure holds a gilded family of four symbolizing human relationships. The theme reflects mid-twentieth century views commonly held at the time of the statue's creation.

The massive, nine-ton statue was designed to be installed on a marble base with a curved marble background wall thirty-six feet wide by forty-five feet high, weighing in at a combined sixty tons. The wall contains the seal of the City of Detroit and the seal of Wayne County that Fredericks designed especially for the wall because none had previously existed. Beneath the government seals, the wall contains a New Testament inscription.

"NOW THE LORD IS THAT SPIRIT

AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS,

THERE IS LIBERTY"

                            --2 Corinthians (3:17)

Designed by J.O. Lewis in 1827 representing the devastating fire that destroyed the city in 1805. The Latin inscription reads "We Hope For Better Things--It Will Rise From the Ashes."

The Wayne County seal was designed especially for the monument by Marshall Fredericks in 1955. The seal commemorates the signing of a peace treaty between Ottawa War Chief Pontiac and American Brigadier General Anthony Wayne.

 

 

After the sculpture was cast, it underwent three weeks of heat and cupric nitrate treatments to oxidize the bronze giving it a deep green patina. To ship the statue safely to Detroit, a steel platform was built to load and unload it from the cargo hold of the German freighter Thomas Schulte. The freighter was chartered to make the 4,800 mile sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and up the Saint Lawrence Seaway to the Port of Detroit.

Before shipment, every surface of the giant bronze statue was wrapped in layers of burlap cloth for protection. The statue was positioned face and knees down onto a custom built, steel platform and a wooden framework to prevent the statue from shifting during transport. The freighter was also shipping a cache of Mercedes-Benz cars, commercial building materials, and crated food products in its cargo hold.

The Thomas Schulte arrived several days later than scheduled at the Detroit Harbor Terminal on Sunday, September 20, 1958 at 6:55 am. Stevedores on the ship and workers from Dearborn Machinery Movers on the dock were prepared to lift the steel platform from the freighter's cargo hold. To witness the unloading, Fredericks, his wife, a couple of newspapermen, and a Detroit policeman waited anxiously.

But there was an unexpected problem. Ed Galli, president of Dearborn Machinery Movers, referred to The Spirit of Detroit in the Detroit Free Press as "that stinking statue" and for good reason. Galli had volunteered his company's services as a civic gesture. The job was supposed to take six hours and was costing him double time because the freighter was a few days late from its estimated date of arrival, so his union workers were making overtime on a Sunday.

The statue was supposed to be unencumbered in the hold for a simple lift with a crane onto a flatbed trailer, a short trip to the County Building job site, and installation onto the statue's pedestal. Somewhere along the journey, the Mercedes-Benz cars and commercial building supplies were off-loaded leaving four tons of sardines and pickled herring behind in the cargo hold which tumbled onto the statue. Enough of the containers sprung leaks to thoroughly drench the statue's burlap wrapping in a "gooey, odoriferous sardine oil."

First, Galli's men had to help rearrange the ship's cargo hold and rinse off the "little fishy" residue before the statue could be lifted safely onto the flatbed trailer which took a few extra hours. Rather than the installation finishing at noon as scheduled, the job was completed around 7:30 pm. The cost overrun was $5,000, more than Galli had bargained for. It is believed that Marshall Fredericks made good on the unexpected, added expense. The official unveiling and dedication of the statue took place as scheduled three days later on Wednesday, September 23, 1958.

The Original Spirit of Detroit Promotional Film 1959