Oakland County dedicates new, old Lady Justice statues

metromode, 8/27/2009

The sheet will come off Oakland County's Lady Justice, both the new and old versions, on Tuesday in a public ceremony.

The Oakland County Courthouse will unveil the new statue that will stand guard at the court's entrance in downtown Pontiac. It will also feature a new marble base that will support the piece of public art.

"We'll have the original out there as well," says Steven Stanford, an Oakland County project coordinator for facilities engineering.

The year-long project began last year when harsh weather damaged the original 105-year-old statue, ripping off the scales and cracking her arm. The Fine Arts Sculpture Center in Clarkston recently conducted a $40,900 restoration of Lady Justice.

A long life outdoors has weakened her zinc statue frame to the point that it must be indoors to survive. The original statue will be kept on display inside the courthouse for the remainder of its life.

A new bronze copy of the statue will replace the original in the courthouse's south plaza. The county also replaced the stucco base with one of marble to match the courthouse's exterior.

The county bought the 9-foot-tall statue in 1904 from W.H. Mullins, a Salem, Ohio-based statue manufacturer. She stood guard in front of the old Oakland County Courthouse until 1962, when the building was demolished. After spending the next two decades in storage, she was returned to the plaza in front of the new courthouse.

Source: Steven Stanford, project coordinator for facilities engineering at Oakland County
Writer: Jon Zemke

Pontiac