Boston Monuments celebrate The July 4 th "Pops" at the Esplanade.

Every July 4Th The Boston Pops celebrates our county's independence with traditional American patriotic music.

Every day of the year our Boston monuments guard our esplanade with some of the most memorable sculptures depicting our Nation's and Boston historical leaders. George Patton, WWII hero and Charles Devens, civil war hero both of military leadership. Both men are comemerated as Boston stautes populating the Boston Esplanade.

Arthur Fiedler's creation of the Boston Pops is memorialized by Hemlicks sculptural head which celebrates another form of heroic leadership; musical foresight.

The sculptor, Helmick, depicts Fiedler’s forceful musical passion embodied in a monument constructed of granite and layers of aluminum, an exception to Boston's theme of bronze and stone sculptures, but Fiedler was an exception in symphonic conductors.

Famed and beloved conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra for fifty years, 1929-1979, Arthur Fiedler founded the free Esplanade concerts still performed in Boston’s summer evenings

at the nearby Hatch Shell.

Cambridge sculptor Ralph Helmick earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1974 and an M.F.A. from the Boston Museum School in 1980. This monumental head is built up of cut out layers of aluminum in varying thicknesses, a distinctive technique originated by Helmick.

Joe Gallo, author, of "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"celebrates our country's birthday with another Boston hero immortalized in Hemlick's monument to Arthur Fiedler.

Vendome Firemen's Monument Remembered June 17th. a Boston Monument.

Vendome Firemen Monument (1997)
Commonwealth Ave Mall Dartmouth Street Ted Clausen and Peter White, Sculptors Bronze / Granite
A reminder of impending death penetrates and surrounds me as I approach this work of art, this memorial for all Firemen who risk their lives for all of us each day that they stand watch.

When that Bell Rings We are All the Same, We are a Team, We have One Job to do. FF Thomas W. Beck with Engine Co. 32 March 22, 1937 – June 17, 1972
2:35 PM There is smoke in the Café of the Hotel Vendome on Commonwealth Ave / Dartmouth
2:40 PM Fire Fighters arrive, finding smoke and flames
coming from the third and fourth floors
Fire Fighter Joseph F. Boucher, JRS January 10, 1944-June 17, 1972
2:45 PM District Four Reports Box 1571 a working fire 2:46 PM A second alarm is struck
New Vendome Building in Background

Lt. Thomas J. Carroll Engine Co. 32
May 18, 1925-June 17, 1972
3:02 PM A third alarm is struck.

We save lives and property. We are no heroes. We do what we love. We do our jobs.
- Fire Fighter Charles E. Dolan Ladder Co. 13 September 6, 1924-June 17, 1972
We don’t talk about the tragic fires. It would be too much. We go home to our families.

3:06 PM A fourth alarm is struck.
Lt. John E. Hanbury, Jr. Ladder Co. 13 May 20, 1926 - June 17, 1972
“Our families know that each day could be our last. It’s just part of the work.”
FF Richard B. Magee Engine Co. 33 September 17, 1932 - June 17, 1972
“The worst is death, but you learn to let go. You wouldn’t be able to do your job.”
5:28 PM Without warning four floors of the Vendome collapse, burying twenty-five firefighters

“There is the unknown in every fire. You do your job, follow the plan: still something can go wrong.”
FF Paul Murphy Engine Co. 32 March 5, 1936 - June 17, 1972
2:00 AM Fire Fighters search the rubber until all are accounted for. Nine fire fighters are dead, sixteen are injured. “Investigators reveal that the Vendome did not collapse because of the fire, but from structural weakness.”

FF Joseph P. Sanivk Ladder Co. 13 August 8, 1924 - June 17, 1972

Sometimes you have to say “There’s nothing more we could have done.”
Losing a fire fighter brings back every other loss.”
Taken from the Stone

Boston is America, America is Boston
"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"can be purcased through Amazon.com

Boston Monuments: Boston Public Library Copley Square Talk

Joe Gallo spoke at the Rabb Lecture Hall last Thursday for the "Never To Late Club series". Joe met new friends and reunited with some of his Boston Monuments both inside Boston Public Library and outside in Copley Square. Branchette and Faun were dancing on the water within Fredrick MacMonnies courtyard water fountain. Sir Henry Vane by Fredrick MacMonnies was there greeting me at the original entrance of this McKim Italian Rennasance edifice. Daniel Chester French's low relief Panel Doors Truth and Romance, Knowledge and Wisdom and Music and Poetry were there as well. Guarding the Library's street entrance of the BPL, Bela Pratts' Art and Science sit contemplatively in the sun.

The only square in America named after an American artist, John Copley by Lewis Cohen stands talk outside on busy Copley Square.

Nancy Shon's Tortoise and Hare racing to the Marathon finishing line of life. Bob Shure's Boston Marathon Memorial Monument celebrating for all men, all women and all disabled athelets their victories.

Augustus Saint -Gaudens' Phillip Brooks stands tall with Jesus outside, Henry Hobbs Richardson's masterpiece, Trinity Church.

Finally and sadly a most recent monument is emerging in Copley Square, The Boston Bombing Memorial waits to be conceived with Bronze and Stone.

All of the above artists and monuments inspired and directed me in that day's Boston Bronze and Stones talk.

The inspiration of the Bobby Orr Moument for the Boston Bruins team.

Government Center / TD Gardens, Cause Way Street H. Weber, Sculptor Bronze / Granite

Boston’s great Bobby Orr serves as inspiration for all who visit the TD Garden. Orr and the Boston Bruins, the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions, are honored in this monument to triumph, victory, athletic accomplishment, and team spirit.

Under a clear blue sky on a cool spring afternoon, in the shadow of TD Garden and in front of thousands of adoring fans, friends and family, Bobby Orr unveiled the 800-pound bronze statue commemorating his famous overtime goal against the St. Louis Blues that gave the Boston Bruins the 1970 Stanley Cup 40 years ago.

The ultimate team player, Orr was thrilled to learn that the base of the statue bears a replica of that section of the Stanley Cup that bears the names of all his teammates, coaches and team officials.

“There is nothing more valuable in life than the love and support from friends and family,” Orr said. “That makes me the richest man in the world.” The statue stands at the West end of TD Garden, about 20 yardsfrom Causeway Street, which Harry Sin- den, the coach of the 1970 Bruins and later general manager and president of the team, suggested to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino be renamed “Bobby Orr Place.”

Orr was joined by former teammates Johnny Bucyk, Derek Sanderson, Ken Hodge Sr., Johnny “Pie” McKenzie, Don Marcotte and Gary Doak. Orr gave spe- cial thanks to Kathy Bailey, the widow ofGarnet “Ace” Bailey who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. (Read more: http://www.foxnews. com/sports/2010/05/10/orr-statue-un- veiled-flight-forever/#ixzz1877IiEtX, Dec. 14, 2010).

Boston Baseball Monuments and Statues 2013

The 2013 baseball season is upon us, and with this sport Boston's Public Art and artists have created memorable athletic individuals and positive roll models for us all.

Two monuments celebrating "Ted Williams "by Franc Talarico and "Teammates" by Antonio Tobias Mendez are both artist and tell us about the meaning of American baseball.

Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and also was a Triple Crown winner. A nineteen-time All Star, he had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30,1918 – July 5, 2002), was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox (1939-1942 and 1946-1960).

Williams was the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone

with 500 or more home runs. His career year was 1941, when he hit .406 with 37 HR, 120 RBI, and 135 runs scored. His .551 on base percentage set a record that stood for 61 years. Nicknamed “The Kid”, “The Splendid Splinter”, “Teddy Ballgame”, and “The Thumper” because of his hitting prowess, Williams’ career was twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot. An avid sports fisherman, he hosted a television show about fishing and was inducted into the IGA Fishing Hall of Fame.

Ted Williams was one of the greatest hitters who ever lived, an American patriot, and a pioneer in the development of the Jimmy Fund. Ted will forever be one of the great heroes in the history of baseball, Boston, and America. He amassed 521 home runs despite sacrificing five years in his prime to serve his country during World War II and the Korean War. He was a relentless champion of children, such as this child to whom he is offering his cap, in their battles against cancer, and helped make the Jimmy Fund at the Dana Farber Cancer Center Institute the world renowned center of research it is today.

"Ted Williams"Monument outside of Fenway Park

"The memory of Ted Williams will forever be a point of pride for the Boston Red Sox, the people of Boston, New England, and the United States of America. Dedicated this 16th day of April, 2004."

(Taken from the Bronze)

"Teammates"

"The Red Sox fans the world over, they are simply known as Bobby, Ted, Dom and Johnny."

(Taken from the Bronze)

These are our Red Sox Hall of Famers. Williams, Pesky, Doerr and DiMaggio have a permanent home at Fenway Park. Watching Ted Williams on TV hit home runs out of Fenway Park was a Sunday ritual for my father and I, as for many of us in Boston.

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"by Joe Gallo is a guidebook mapping and story telling of Boston's Monuments and Statues dotting our parks and streets of the City of Boston.