Police Officers Monument, (sculpture).

Police Officers Monument, (sculpture).

Woods, G. W., d. 1981, sculptor.

Leggett, Graham C., designer.

Carolina Casting Corporation, founder.

Leggett Marble and Granite Company, fabricator.

Police Officers Monument, (sculpture).

Sculpture: Modeled 1964-1965. Cast ca. 1965-1982; Base: 1964. Dedicated Sept. 21, 1964.

Sculpture: stainless steel over iron; Base: Elberton blue granite.

Sculpture: approx. 5 ft. 10 in. x 1 ft. 6 in. x 11 in.; Base: approx. 4 ft. 10 in. x 3 ft. 1 in. x 3 ft. 1 in.

(Front of base:) ABOVE AND BEYOND/"LEST WE FORGET"/DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY/OF POLICE OFFICERS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/IN THE LINE OF DUTY (West side of base:) ABOVE AND BEYOND/"LEST WE FORGET"/SAVANNAH POLICE OFFICERS/(list of names follows) (Back of base:) ABOVE AND BEYOND/"LEST WE FORGET"/SAVANNAH POLICE OFFICERS (East side of base:) ABOVE AND BEYOND/"LEST WE FORGET"/OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS/(list of names follows) unsigned

A full-length figure of a uniformed, male police officer stands at attention. He wears a hat, with a holstered gun by his proper right side. The sculpture is mounted on a square base decorated with a police shield on all four sides. The sculpture and base are set within a low, square, brick planter.

Portrait male -- Ketterman, R. I. -- Full length

Occupation -- Service -- Policeman

Dress -- Uniform -- Police Uniform

Outdoor Sculpture -- Georgia -- Savannah

Administered by City of Savannah, Park & Tree Department, P. O. Box 1027, Savannah, Georgia 31402

Located Oglethorpe Avenue & Habersham Street median, Savannah, Georgia 31401

The monument commemorates the policemen of Savannah, Georgia who have died in the line of duty since 1869. It was commissioned by a monument committee formed by the Policeman Officers' Wives Association. The idea for the monument originated in 1963 when Association President Nell (Mrs. J. Percy) Fountain promised the wife of slain officer Harry H. Akins to perpetuate the memory of slain policemen. The site for the monument was dedicated June 12, 1964. The base was designed and fabricated by Graham C. Legget, owner of Leggett Marble and Granite Company of Savannah, and was dedicated without the policeman figure on Sept. 21, 1964. The figure was modeled in 1964-1965 in white pine by local artist G. W. Woods, using city patrolman R. I. Ketterman as a model. The pine model was burned in an attempt to cast it in bronze. Policemen of the Savannah Police Department later found the charred model and restored it, paying for a new casting at Carolina Casting Corporation. The names on the granite inscription plaques on the base contained misspelled names and had to be replaced. According to the 1993 SOS! survey, the sculpture was cleaned and varnished after the iron rusted and bled through to the exterior stainless steel.

IAS files contain: listing of names on base, with history of individuals listed (supplied by the Savannah Police Department); articles from the Savannah Morning News: June 13, 1964; Aug. 11, 1964, pg. 6A; Sept. 22, 1964, pg. 8B (discussing dedication of base); Feb. 19, 1965; an excerpt from a report for the Savannah Park and Tree Department entitled "The Monuments and Fountains of Savannah" by Dorothy H. Stewart, June, 1993, pg. 513-514.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Georgia survey, 1993.

Savannah Morning News, Sept. 22, 1964.

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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