Professor Jeff Stein joins us via Zoom from the __. He’s here to tell us the story of a well-known statue. In 1907, six statues were installed at the top of the Black Hawk County Courthouse in Waterloo. They were created by artist Robert De Glass to represent important societal elements...justice, education, agriculture, commerce, industry, and peace. A half century after the statute named Peace was put in place, a rusty stabilizing pipe failed, and Peace tumbled to the ground in 1957. It was put into storage, and when the courthouse was demolished in 1963, four of the statues, of seated figures, were moved to the River Plaza Building in downtown Waterloo. Another had been destroyed.
Peace was the sole remaining statue, and with the help of state legislator and Upper Iowa University alum Don Kimball, Peace was leased to the college for 99 years at a cost of $1 and became a fixture on the campus in Fayette.
She earned the nickname green goddess, and proudly stood atop Alexander-Dickman Hall at Upper Iowa. But 40 years after her move to Fayette, Peace again fell from the roof of a building, this time during a windstorm. Her head and a few limbs were broken. It took two years of repairs, but on September 21st, 2006, a special reinstallation ceremony was held, and Peace returned to the rooftop to look upon the campus. The date was fitting since it was also the International Day of Peace. The century old statue, Peace, which fell to the ground from the top of buildings in two different cities, returned to glory in Fayette on this date in 2006.