Another Wilmington Relocated Statue: Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont


 Another Wilmington Relocated Statue

Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont

President James Garfield is not the only personage whose statue was relocated in Wilmington.  In 1884 Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont (his spelling) was memorialized by the dedication of statue in Washington, DC.  The statue, by sculptor Launt Thompson, was erected in Washington's Pacific Circle, renamed Dupont Circle (the official DC spelling). Here it is in 1900 [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Dupont_Circle_1900.png].

A Washington Post column from 2015 gives more of the story.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/before-there-was-a-fountain-in-dupont-circle-there-was-a-statue-an-ugly-one/2015/12/12/cbf0d08c-a04a-11e5-8728-1af6af208198_story.html

In 1917 the statue was removed and transported to Wilmington, replaced by the more imposing fountain also commemorating Admiral Du Pont, designed by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon.


The statue now is a neighbor of mine.  It marks the Tower Road entrance to Rockford Park at W 19th St.  He is featured here in a postcard from my collection, no date but probably from the 1950s.  It was published by Delmar Mdse. Sales Co., a companion business to the Delmar News Agency, my employer during my high school and college years. 
 

As our family was growing up by Rockford Park, Admiral Du Pont was called "the man with an apple in his mouth."  From the perspective of a ten year old looking up the Admiral's bulbous chin gave that appearance.


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