Statue of Polish general ready for Williams Park

ST. PETERSBURG -- After nearly three years of preparation, a statue of an American Revolutionary War hero will soon guard a corner of Williams Park downtown. The 1,200-pound bronze likeness of Polish Brig. Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko is the first monument to go up under gift-accepting regulations the city developed in 1999.

The statue is being donated by the American Institute of Polish Culture. After gaining city approval, Wallace West of Pinellas Park, president of the local institute, helped raise $120,000 from organizations and individuals around the country to pay for the $78,000 statue and its installation. Significant donors will be noted on the side of the monument or on the court of honor bricks surrounding it.

Workers poured a foundation for the statue last week and are expected to finish granite facing next. Though it is waiting to be shipped from New Jersey, the statue should be here by June 15. Once the monument is erected and surrounded by a brick pathway, the institute will host a dedication ceremony at the park. The two-hour ceremony is scheduled for July 4 at 10 a.m. and will be open to the public.

Speaking at the dedication will be City Council member Virginia Littrell, a colonel from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, several local generals and a representative from the Pentagon.

Kosciuszko and Gen. Casimir Pulaski were two officers of Polish descent during the Revolutionary War. Kosciuszko selected strategic battle sites at Saratoga and West Point, N.Y.

"We're honoring an individual not only for his role in the Revolutionary War but for his outstanding role as a humanitarian," West said. "It's a gift from Americans of Polish descent to all our fellow Americans."

The statue is one of the largest gifts the city has received, said Virginia Rowell, manager of social service programs. Since the gift ordinance was created around the time the Kosciuszko monument was proposed, anything valued at $10,000 or more must be evaluated by a gift panel. Two representatives from both the public arts commission and the arts advisory committee along with three appointed arts professionals make up the panel. The members examine the gift based on 17 basic guidelines, such as the work's quality, value, historical relevance, feasibility and liability.

Artwork does not have to fit all of the criteria exactly, as long as each is discussed. For example, Kosciuszko has no direct connection to Florida but his relevance to American history was still important, said Mark Winn, chief assistant city attorney.

"The panel recognized that this general had national significance, and obviously St. Petersburg wasn't around in the 1770s," Winn said.

Kosciuszko is honored in a number of monuments around the country, including statues in Chicago, Washington, D.C., West Point and Philadelphia. West said his likeness in St. Petersburg will be the first monument to any Revolutionary War hero in the state.

About 140 members in the American Institute of Polish Culture organize public programs such as concerts, library exhibits or art shows, emphasizing Polish influence. "Our main reason for being is trying to acquaint Americans of the contributions of Poland and the Polish people to the Western world," West said. "I know that our history books pay scant attention to the contributions that were made by anyone other than Anglo-Saxons."

More than 430,000 people of Polish descent live in Florida, an increase of 20,000 from the 1990 census. About 36,000 of them reside in Pinellas County, according to the previous census figures.

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