Flood Memorial Park, (sculpture).

Flood Memorial Park, (sculpture).

Leicester, Andrew, 1948- , sculptor.

Schneider, Tammy, engineer.

Sierschula, Gary, landscape architect.

Whitaker, Francis, blacksmith.

Woolpert Consultants, landscape architect.

Southern Ohio Forge & Anvil, fabricator.

Cavalier Building Group, engineering firm.

Flood Memorial Park, (sculpture).

Commissioned 1984-1985. Dedicated July 22, 1992.

Digital Reference:

Earthwork with ceramic, concrete, stone and painted wrought iron.

Overall: approx. 2 acres. Whirlpool columns: approx. H. 14 ft.; Floodgate columns: approx. H. 8 ft. 4 in.; Name brick wall: approx. H. 1 ft. 6 in. x W. 1 ft. 4 in.; City map: approx. Diam. 96 ft. 6 in.; Levee wall: varies.

(On gate:) SOUTHERN OHIO FORGE & ANVIL unsigned Founder's mark appears.

A terraced two-acre landscaped site including grassy areas, rose plantings, trees, shrubs and six sculptural elements that are connected by pathways. Included in the six sculptural elements are: Whirlpool Columns, Flood Gate, Name Brick Wall, Map of the City of Dayton and Levee Wall. Two twisting columns with a circling pattern of yellow brick are at the entrance to the park representing whirlpools. The columns are connected with a low wall to a brightly painted wrought-iron gate. The gate depicts a map of the flood, the rivers and dams, weather patterns and a schema of the City of Dayton.

Disaster -- Flood

Allegory -- Place -- Dayton

Outdoor Sculpture -- Ohio -- Dayton

Administered by City of Dayton, Department of Planning, P. O. Box 22, Dayton, Ohio 45401

Located Across from Children's Medical Center, Valley Street, Dayton, Ohio

Funded with a National Endowment for the Arts, Art in Public Places grant given in 1986 to the City of Dayton. Additional funds were provided by the Ohio Arts Council, the City of Dayton, the Dayton Foundation, and other corporate and private contributors. The idea for the sculpture originated in 1985 through a national competition sponsored by Dayton's City Beautiful Council "Artists in the Neighborhood Program." The work cost $120,000. Fund raising projects including selling $25 bricks carrying names of contributors to be added to the Name Brick Wall, and a project planned by Dayton public schools and WKEF-TV Channel 22. The work commemorates the 1913 Dayton flood, which killed 300 and caused $100 million in property damage. It stands as testament to the spirit of cooperation that arose out of the fire. Andrew Leicester designed and erected the work in collaboration with Woolpert Consultants, Inc. of Dayton. Gary Sierschula served as landscape architect; Tammy Schneider, structural engineer, and Cavalier Building Group, as engineer. Master blacksmith Francis Whitaker and local craftsmen fabricated the entrance gate. See IAS files for a more detailed description of the piece and its dimensions. IAS files also contain excerpt from "Art for the Public: new collaborations," Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, c. 1988, which gives the commissioning history of the piece.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Ohio survey, 1992.

Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH), March 16, 1992, 4B.

Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH), July 22, 1992.

Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH), July 23, 1992.

Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH), Jan. 16, 1988, pg. 25.

Heritage Preservation SOS! survey of NEA Art in Public Places funded sculpture, 2002.

Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH), July 22, 1992.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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