MEYER STATUE WILL
STAND ON PASEO.
SITE IS CHOSEN BETWEEN NINTH
AND TENTH STREETS.
BRONZE STATUE TO BE ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF A. R. MEYER ON THE PASEO, BETWEEN NINTH AND TENTH STREETS.
After spending almost the entire day yesterday going over the boulevards and through the parks of the city, the members of the Meyer statue committee, together with Daniel Chester French, the sculptor, late yesterday agreed upon a point on the Paseo between Ninth and Tenth streets, for the location of the bronze statue to be erected of the late A. R. Meyer, first president of the park board. The statue will be near the south end of the block and will face toward the south. The immediate surroundings for the statue will be decided upon by the park board.
This will be the first public statue to be erected in Kansas City, and will be in honor of the man to whom perhaps more credit is due for the splendid park and boulevard system for which Kansas City is now noted, than any other.
The model for the monument was sent ahead by Mr. French with the request that it not be opened until his arrival. It was first opened at 10 o'clock yesterday morning in the Commercial Club rooms, in the presence of Mr. French and the members of the statue committee. The model was unanimously accepted by the committee and, on recommendation of that body, was later accepted by the city art committees. A committee composed of E. M. Clendening, H. D. Ashley and Frank A. Faxon was named to frame a suitable inscription for the base of the monument.
The monument consists of a main structure of Knoxville marble fifteen feet in height, about seven feet in width and two feet in depth from front to back, resting on a base of the same material about ten by six feet.
The monument is surrounded by an ornamental cap, and the main stone, containing the portrait of Mr. Meyer, is supported by an ornamental stone, resting on the base proper. The portrait of Mr. Meyer will be in bronze, let into the main stone of the monument, and will show a figure seven and a half feet in height. It has been the endeavor of the sculptor to suggest Mr. Meyer as the originator of the park system, and he is represented as standing out of doors with his right hand resting on an open map, which lies upon a marble Pompeian table. The left hand holds a pair of field glasses, and a tree under which he is standing is introduced at the right.
Mr. French will remain in Kansas City until tonight. He expects to have the statue finished in about a year.
