Smoketown Monument, (sculpture).

Smoketown Monument, (sculpture).

Hamilton, Ed, 1947- , sculptor.

May-Miller, Zephra, sculptor.

Brasch, John, contractor.

Barry, Stephen J., contractor.

Niemco Fabricators, fabricator.

Muldoon Monument Company, contractor.

Brasch-Barry General Contractors, contractor.

Smoketown Monument, (sculpture).

Smoketown Community Monument, (sculpture).

Commissioned 1990. 1991. Installed Dec. 9, 1991. Dedicated April 30, 1992.

Sculpture: stainless steel; Base: concrete.

Sculpture: approx. 12 x 12 x 1 ft.; Base: approx. 2 x 11 x 5 ft.

Ed Hamilton, Zaphra (sic) May Miller (Front middle of base:) Dedicated to/Our Boxing Legends/And the Children of Smoketown/who are Our Future/Unity-Strength-Love/Ed Hamilton & Zephra May-Miller, Artists/Alderman Rhonda K. Richardson/April 30, 1992 signed

An abstract sculpture of two boxing gloves overlapping to form a heart. Each boxing glove is cut out in the middle, with solid thumbs. The sculpture is mounted atop a two-part rectangular base that is secured in the ground.

Recreation -- Sport & Play -- Boxing

Outdoor Sculpture -- Kentucky -- Louisville

Administered by Presbyterian Community Center, 760 South Hancock Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202

Located 800 Hancock Street & 400 Lampton Street, Louisville, Kentucky

The Louisville Board of Alderman allocated $35,000 for the sculpture. The sculpture project was as an effort by Operation Brightside and 10th Ward Alderman Rhonda Richardson, Chairperson of the Smoketown Monument Planning Committee, to beautify the corner of Hancock and Lampton streets in the Smoketown neighborhood of Louisville, and to secure it for local children. In the preceding years, a number of children playing in the neighborhood had been killed or injured by motorists unaware that the site was a dead-end street. The sculpture pays tribute to Louisville boxing legends, including Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Ellis, who trained at the nearby Presbyterian Community Center, then called the Grace Hope Center. The sculpture is the first public art project in Louisville designed by African Americans and located in an African-American neighborhood. Assisting the artists were Niemco Fabricators, contractors John Brasch and Stephen J. Barry of Brasch-Barry General Contractors, and the Muldoon Monument Company. The sculpture is illuminated by ground lights.

IAS files contain the following related articles from The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY): April 4, 1990, pg. 1, 3; Dec. 26, 1990, Neighborhoods sect., pg. 1, 4; July 17, 1991, Neighborhoods sect., pg. 1-2; Dec. 18, 1991, Neighborhoods sect., pg. 1, 6. IAS files also contain an article from the Tenth Ward Times (April 1992); a fundraising flyer and the dedication program.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Kentucky survey, 1994.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), Dec. 18, 1991, Neighborhoods sect., pg. 6.

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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