By Ashton Ward
A commemorative statue of Joseph Smith, placed in New York City over the anniversary of the LDS prophet”s 200th birthday in 2005, now sits in the garage of an LDS church in Harlem waiting for a permanent home.
Claudia Bushman, who lives in New York, instigated the original statue”s placement in New York City. She said she felt that there needed to be some recognition in New York, since the prophet lived there.
“Joseph Smith”s birthday was coming up and [we were] thinking that it would be nice if we did something impressive,” Bushman said.
Joseph Smith lived in New York City for a short time starting in 1836, and is believed to have resided on Pearl Street, near where the statue was temporarily placed.
After deciding to start the project, Bushman and a fellow ward member worked with LDS Church members in Utah to decide how to get the funding for the statue. Steve Glenn and Dee Jay Bawdin, of Mormon Art in Provo, donated an original statue.
“We thought it would be nice to have his likeness back in New York,” Glenn said. “We did an original piece of art and donated it to the cause back there.”
Smith”s likeness is accurate to life, Glenn said, because it is based on the death mask mold taken shortly after his death.
After months of being turned down by city officials, Bushman entered the statue in a contest. The community board voted it down, but before the Dec. 23 goal, space was granted for the statue.
“It just didn”t look like it was going to be able to happen … right down the line it was one difficult deadline after another,” Bushman said. “But that just made it better in lots of way, we just loved having it here.”
The statue stayed at the pier from Dec. 2005 to June 2006, the temporary time allotted by the city. Bushman is now working with private landowners to find a permanent home for the statue. In the meantime, it will stay in Harlem.
