Uncle Sam stands tall again
Fair relic installed outside railway museum
DANBURY — Uncle Sam, the iconic 38-foot statue that once stood watch over the city’s fairgrounds, returned to his place of prominence Wednesday at his new home.
A crane and a crew of workers spent the sunny afternoon outside the Danbury Railway Museum bolting down the Danbury Fair relic, which was returned to the city in December after a 36year sabbatical.
The city will spend the next few weeks pouring a concrete base, installing lighting, and preparing a designated spot to take Sam selfies.
“We want to make sure people have a place where they can take photos of Uncle Sam, do a selfie,
and promote the city on social media,” said Stephen Nocera, who oversees the Office of Project Excellence. “This is a testament to our heritage, but in a forward-thinking and new way.”
Small crowds and passers-by stopped by the White Street site Wednesday to watch a crane lower Sam down onto steel supports.
There hasn’t been this much excitement in downtown Danbury over an installation since the city erected its 100-foot flagpole on Main Street in 2017.
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who has made the return of Uncle Sam a priority, said a dedication will take place as soon as the summer.
The mayor added that contrary to what some people posted on Twitter
in response to his photos of the event, Uncle Sam is not missing a left hand. The hand was removed to make the transfer of the huge statute easier.
“The reason it’s off is because it’s hard to get him under the overpass of the highway,” Boughton said. “It’s here, and it has a cane attached to it.”
The statue spent the intervening decades entertaining families at the Magic Forest family amusement park in Lake George, N.Y. Magic Forest owner Jack Gillette bought Uncle Sam and a slew of other Danbury Fair treasures at the one-week auction in April 1982 after the fair closed for the last time, but the giant sculpture had spent a chunk of the 20th century overlooking the fair.
Boughton struck a
$50,000 deal with Gillette for Uncle Sam, his fencing, plus a Cinderella exhibit that was built on the Danbury fairgrounds decades ago. It was expected to cost another $50,000 to
$100,000 to transport, refurbish, install and light Uncle Sam.
“You can’t put a price on this — this has memories for many, many people who lived in Danbury during the height of the great state fair, but also it’s a symbol of America and of American government,” Boughton said at Wednesday’s installation. “It will preside over our downtown as we continue to following our evolution as a city.”