Statues draw crowds in downtown Greenville

They're not exactly the kinds of statues that inspire pilgrimages, but they've done wonders for Greenville, S.C., nonetheless.

Among the seven standing along Main Street, put up with private funds during a revitalization that has downtown teeming with pedestrians again, are city founder Vardry McBee, laser inventor Charles Townes, botanist Joel Poinsett, Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene and former Mayor Max Heller.

Most visitors have probably never heard of these people, but there's still a constant stream of children playing on them and adults moseying around them and snapping pictures, City Manager James Bourey said. They also played a big part in getting Greenville included in an upcoming book on the 100 best American cities for art.

The fact is, people love statues, he said.

"They add to the ambience significantly," Mr. Bourey said, "to the point that it is a more fun place to be, a more attractive place."

Told that Augusta has six bronze larger-than-life statues of golf legends locked up in a maintenance building near the Savannah River, Mr. Bourey said the city ought to dust them off, set them out somewhere and do some landscaping around them.

"I would think they'd be very popular," he said, "and would reflect the golf history of Augusta, which is huge."

Every day those sculptures stay concealed the city loses something, says Barry White, the president and CEO of the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau. To get an idea of what, he said, look no further than the Broad Street median across from Augusta Common.

"Have you ever seen people have their picture made with the James Brown statue? All the time," Mr. White said. "When you travel somewhere, you want to have a photo made of something that's intimate of that destination.

"They'll take that photo, and they'll go back and tell others about it," he said. "It's good publicity."

And while Ray Floyd might not attract as many pilgrims as the Godfather of Soul, for a city that's home to the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, Augusta has a dearth of golf-related sites for tourists, Mr. White said.

Golfer statues downtown could fill that void, he said.

"It's a lot safer than walking across Washington Road," Mr. White said, referring to tourists who park their cars and dash across five lanes to snap a shot in front of the Magnolia Lane entrance to Augusta National Golf Club.

Among those frustrated by the situation is Zenos Frudakis, the Philadelphia sculptor of the Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones statues. Each took hundreds of hours of painstaking work. For the Jones statue, he studied photographs and films of his subject and heard stories from family and friends. For Mr. Palmer, he even consulted the golfer's dentist to make sure he got the jaw right.

"When you do something like that," Mr. Frudakis said, "to have them in a place where no one can see them, it's like doing a performance of Hamlet and there's nobody in the audience."

He said he can't understand why someone hasn't taken initiative to display them.

"It just seems a waste not to have them somewhere," he said. "Have them in a bank. Have them in a library. How expensive could it be?

"It's a way to stimulate the local economy and to make a town feel better about itself."

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.