Oliver Memorial - The Oliver Gang

Oliver Memorial
UPDATE
By Bob Schaeffer
Oliver Memorial Committee
C
onstruction of the Oliver Memorial is
moving forward with full funding of
the project by the City of South Bend
approved in October of 2010. The total project construction cost will be approximately
$650,000 which includes the bronze sculpture, street and trail lighting, Oliver Trail,
Oliver memorial, entry signs and landscape.
The Head Landscape Architect is Jeff Ballard,
ASLA with Danch, Harner & Associates.
The contractor L.L. Geans Construction
Company will build. The Memorial portion
of the project is approximately $375,000.
Supporting brick columns have been
built and the entry sign foundations poured.
The brick columns are a representation of
the columns at the Oliver mansion that support the promenade to the formal garden.
The ornamental arbor built at the Memorial
will help lend a connection back to the mansion. The arbor itself will be constructed of
rough sawn cedar and have a lattice pattern
The Oliver Industrial Park entry sign
on top to provide shade and support for the
climbing vine “Dutchman’s Pipe” that will
be trained to grow up a stainless steel wire
lattice, mounted on the cedar post of the
arbor. Walking through the arbor will also
be where one can view the informational/
historical panels that tell the history of the
Chilled Plow while standing on Memorial
bricks purchased by Oliver collectors supporting the project.
Memorial bricks have been ordered,
including 8x8 inch bricks for the HPOCA
and Chapters that contributed to the project, and will be placed as designed by the
architect. Application forms will always be
available at the Memorial for visitors and will
be available online at the Oliver Gang website for downloading (www.olivergang.org/
olivermemorial.pdf ).
A special thanks to the Center for History
for the work on the informational panels
involving write-ups and pictures. Many hours
of work on the write-ups was done by Travis
Childs, Director of School Programs with
help from David Bainbridge, Senior Curator
at the Center for History.
We have heard comments that this
project, when completed, may be the most
outstanding memorial yet created for a historic manufacturing company in the United
States. Financing the project does not include
maintaining the Memorial when completed.
The City will provide all lighting and cover
the costs including the Oliver Walking Trail
and a spotlight highlighting the Oliver name
near the top of the smoke stack. Unused
money raised by the Memorial Committee
toward the project through donations from
the HPOCA, some HPOCA Chapters, individual members and Oliver friends will now
be diverted to offset this cost along with
involvement by Rose Brick and Material
and other tenants in the Industrial Park.
We will also ask the Oliver Trust for their
The brick columns are supports for the arbor that will be the backdrop for the statue of James Oliver.
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MARCH/APRIL 2011
financial support of the Memorial
fund. Another option may be to invite
the HPOCA to consider helping on
the costs. We are getting bids on these
costs so we have a figure to work with
when talking with interested parties.
Except for the bronze figures,
construction will be completed by
May, 2011. The bronze figure of
James Oliver and #40 Plow by Tuck
Langland will be placed on site by
August, 2011, at which time a dedication
ceremony will be held.
The Oliver Gang became involved in
the project when invited to work with the
City of South Bend and Rose Brick to raise
funds for a Memorial. The writer was asked
by Larry Widner, Oliver Gang President, to
form a committee from the Oliver Gang
to work on the project along with City of
South Bend and Rose Brick & Material.
Oliver Gang members on the committee
are Harry Deckler, Al Ake and later Dick
Westerhouse to manage the fund account.
Rose Brick is represented by Jay Harwood,
Rose Brick Vice-President, with a number
of City of South Bend members over the
years starting with Andy Laurent and ending with Jeff Gibney, Executive Director
of Economic & Community
Development for the City of South
Bend and the moving force on city
funding. The first committee meeting occurred December 10, 2003 at
the County City Building in South
Bend. This has been a long drawn out
process with many changes occurring over seven years while working
on the project with funding having
a major impact on several project design changes and adding costs that
can not be recovered. There are still many
details to be worked out to close the project,
although we will announce the dedication
date as early as possible, hopefully in the
May/June issue.
My special thanks go to Jeff Ballard and Harry
Deckler for contributing to this article.
HELP SUPPORT the OLIVER MEMORIAL PARK
The Oliver Gang, in conjunction with Rose Brick & Materials, and the City of South Bend, will begin construction of the Oliver Memorial Park next
to the newly refurbished Oliver Boilerhouse. You can purchase a brick to be permanently displayed in walkways around the new park.
OPTION #1 Individual
4"x8" brick
3 lines of text
15 characters and spaces per line
$50.00
OPTION #2 Corporate or Family
8"x8" brick
6 lines of text
15 characters and spaces per line
$200.00
ORDER FORM
*For more information on the Corporate logo brick, please contact Dick Westerhouse at the number below.
1
Name:_________________________________________
2
Address:_______________________________________
3
City:___________________________________________
State:_________________ Zip:______________________
Phone:_________________________________________
Option #1 ❑ $50
Option #2 ❑ $200
OPTION #3 Corporate Logo Brick*
8"x8" (Please send copy of logo with order form)
With or without text
Number of lines depends on size of logo
$250.00
Option #3 ❑ $250
Please fill in the boxes exactly as you want them to
read on your brick. Mail your order form with a check
made payable to:
4
5
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When filling out the boxes above, use only 3 lines for the Individual brick. All blank
spaces and commas will be counted as a character, use only one letter/number/
etc. per box. Please use separate forms for each brick.
The Oliver Memorial Committee
C/O DICK WESTERHOUSE | 6220 E 775 N | MONTICELLO, IN 47960 | 765.414.1977
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