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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 6, 2006 Lincoln headed to storage Despite $280 in gifts, repair funds lacking By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland’s Lincoln Statue remains headless at the entrance of Lithia Park. Vandals beheaded him in August. Graham Lewis | For the Tidings The remains of the Abraham Lincoln statue are in limbo. The 91-year-old statue has stood headless at the entrance to Lithia Park since vandals decapitated Lincoln in August. Now parks officials are considering removing Lincoln’s body from the granite boulder that acts as a pedestal until a plan to repair the marble homage to the former U.S. president has been devised. “I think we’re going to try to do that — take it down,” Ashland Parks Superintendent Steve Gies said. The statue will likely be put in storage until funding is allocated to sculpt a new head. That cost has been estimated between $8,000 and $15,000, according to Gies. Residents have donated $280 toward the project, staff at the parks department office reported. In 1915, Gwin S. Butler donated the statue to the City of Ashland to memorialize his stepfather, pioneer Jacob Thompson, who moved to Ashland in 1847. The six-foot-tall piece was originally sculpted in Florence, Italy, by A. Frilli. Lincoln has lost his noggin’ twice in the past and been relegated to storage after each act of vandalism. The first occurred about four decades ago. “It’s head broken off, the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Ashland’s Lithia Park may be removed from its site,” the Daily Tidings reported on Oct. 24, 1967. “Costs of fixing the statue periodically have become too high, park officials say.” The statue was removed. Months later, the Tidings reported the statue’s storage site was amid weeds at the city sewage disposal plant. The parks commission decided to repair the piece and turned to the Southern Oregon College art department for help. Art department chairman Dr. Frank Bedogne selected a student of his, Hamid Ghavam to sand-blast blue paint off of Lincoln, repair his head and fix his right hand, which held a scroll and was missing a couple of fingers. “Those days, it took me about a month. Of course, I was a student,” said Ghavam, now a 68-year-old Ashland resident. “I did a lot of the patching.” Ghavam’s work was completed 38 years ago and Lincoln resumed his lookout at the entrance to the park. “I never touched art again,” said Ghavam, who moved back to his home in Iran for several years before returning to Ashland to raise his family in 1975. But, Ghavam’s effort was only the first time Abe needed assistance. The statue was vandalized again more than 25 years ago, according to Gies. After that damage, it was consigned to storage for more than a decade. Eventually, the statue was restored by Jeffrey Bernard and, in 1990, reintroduced to the public with a new head on his shoulders. The missing portion of his hand and the scroll were never replaced because officials feared they would be broken off again. Once again, the expense of repairing Lincoln may put the statue back into storage. “They have to fix it,” Ghavam said. “Lincoln did a lot for this country.” The Ashland Parks and Recreation would have to approve the expenditure. At this point, the commission has not discussed fixing the statue. “It hasn’t risen from the staff level to the commission,” commission chair Rich Rosenthal said. “I’m not saying that it won’t.” DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams