Conservators Clean, Wax Defenders of the Union Statue and Memorial Flagpole Before Flagpole’s 2027 Centennial

Conservators hired by the City of Pasadena cleaned, waxed, and repaired two historic City-owned monuments in September — the Defenders of the Union statue in Memorial Park and the Memorial Flagpole at Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards, according to the city.

The work, arranged through the city’s Cultural Affairs Division with a local professional art conservation team, according to Israel Del Toro, acting director of planning and community development, comes before the flagpole’s centennial in 2027. The city describes the flagpole as 117 feet tall; it was dedicated Feb. 12, 1927, to Pasadena residents who served in World War I, with the names of the dead inscribed at its base.

Conservators washed both bronzes, removed mineral deposits with mineral spirits, warmed the metal with a propane torch to help eliminate residual moisture and applied two coats of protective wax before buffing, the city said. At the flagpole, they replaced deteriorated grout on the granite pedestal and plinth.

The 11-foot Union soldier, dedicated May 30, 1906, is the work of Theodora Alice Ruggles Kitson, according to the city. Born in 1871 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kitson studied under English sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson, whom she married in 1893, and won an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris in 1888 at age 19, according to the National Park Service. The agency describes her as “the first woman to be admitted to the National Sculpture Society.” Around 50 versions of her sculpture “The Hiker” stand across the country, and her 73 sculptures at Vicksburg National Military Park are the most of any artist there; she died in 1932.

The statue stands in a park “Originally known as Library Park,” created in 1902, according to The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which says a Civil War monument was dedicated there on Memorial Day 1906. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as part of the Civic Center Historic District, and its Art Deco band shell dates to 1930.

The flagpole was designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue with a bronze relief by Lee Lawrie, the city said. Lawrie’s other work includes “Atlas” at Rockefeller Center, created with Rene Chambellan, and sculpture at the Los Angeles Central Public Library and the Nebraska State Capitol, according to leelawrie.com. The flagpole was first planned as the centerpiece of a traffic circle about 50 feet from where it now stands, The South Pasadenan reported.

Information about the city’s Public Art Program is available from Sam Lee, public art coordinator, at slee@cityofpasadena.net or (626) 744-7547.