Courthouse statues on display downtown until 2 pm – Youngstown Vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN Restored copper statues are on public display at the street level in front of the Mahoning County Courthouse, 120 Market St., until 2 p.m. today, when they will be hoisted back to their pedestal on the roof of the 106-year-old building, which is undergoing restoration.

While they are on display, the Mahoning County commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. today in the courthouse rotunda.

The three hollow statues, which were restored by an Oberlin firm after being removed from the courthouse roof in October 2010, are named Justice, on the left, Strength and Authority in the center; and Law on the right.

The statues arrived in front on the courthouse at 6 a.m. today and are being displayed behind a fence on a flatbed trailer in the southbound curb lane of Market Street.

Their heads, which had to be removed for highway bridge clearance purposes, were bolted back on shortly after their downtown arrival today.

The center statue in the one-ton cluster is 14 feet high; and the cluster is 16 feet, 10 inches wide and 79 inches deep.

They did a great job, I think. It says a lot about our tax dollars at work, Doug Martinec, construction superintendent with Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown, said of the statue restoration crew this morning.

The statues were restored at the McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservatory Laboratory Inc. in Oberlin.

Murphy is the building restoration projects general contractor.

The courthouse restoration project has included replacement of rusted statue pedestal support beams and of the buildings roof and replacement of 730 pieces of the buildings fired clay masonry, known as terra cotta, around the buildings upper perimeter.

The project was delayed by the need to replace unforeseen asbestos roofing discovered in the pedestal.

In January 2017, the commissioners added $853,529 to the $6 million restoration project to cover additional work to be performed this year, including brick repairs and replacement of rotted original wooden window frames in two interior window wells.

The building, which opened March 6, 1911, has a granite exterior and a marble interior and was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

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Courthouse statues on display downtown until 2 pm - Youngstown Vindicator