Lake Park Friends has raised more than $80,000 to replace a pair of bronze eagles long ago stolen from the park’s monument to Erastus B. Wolcott.
The eagles were stolen around 1970, though details on the theft are slim. Lake Park Friends could offer no details on it, nor could any contemporary newspaper reports be found.
Wolcott was an early settler and a pioneer in many ways. One of the earliest physicians in the state, he performed the first successful removal of a diseased kidney. During the Civil War he served as the state’s Surgeon General and afterward, he pitched the idea for the Soldiers’ Home and was its first governor.
The monument, which is located just north of the North Point Lighthouse and the Lion Bridge, features a 15-foot statue of Wolcott on a horse atop a large pedestal that includes long benches at the end of which were smaller plinths that held the eagles. It was funded by a bequest from Wolcott’s widow Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott, who died in 1915.
The bronzes were the work of Francis Herman Packer, who had studied at Cooper Union in New York and with Beaux Arts sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in France.
The pedestal is the work of New York architect Albert Randolph Ross, who designed the Milwaukee County Courthouse and, with Alfred C. Clas, the Safety Building.
Sculptor Jeremy Wolf is creating the new eagles, which based on renderings appear to be very similar to the lost originals.
According to Nat Blaz, chair of Lake Park’s Improvements Committee, the project is expected to take about two years from now.
“The sculptor will develop a clay model that will get handed off to the casting company for development of the bronze,” Blaz said. “This is a very exciting project for us, which was first started back in October of 2021 when I reached out to Beth (Sahagian-Allsopp, of Vanguard Sculpture Services) to start discussing it and she referred me to Jeremy for design.”
Lake Park Friends raised the funds at its annual Cirque de Lake Park event, which was held on Sept. 6, as well as via sponsorships, a paddle-raiser appeal, silent auctions, a raffle and sales of “Park Pup” leashes.
“Lake Park Friends wants to thank the many donors who are making it possible for us to restore our park’s storied history,” said LPF Board President Joanne Barndt.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
