Liberty Pole - Weathervane - Chief Tammany - Old York Road and Wood Street - 1862 - 1894 - 1924

Inquirer 5 July 1862

Inquirer 29 June 1894

Some bits and pieces on the long lost Liberty Pole with a Wooden Indian figure of St. Tammany that once graced the traffic triangle around Old York Road and Wood Street. 

I have reprinted the image form the Library of Congress of a 1938 WPA poster that fits the description of Philly icon and some newspaper bits from 1894 that says the "weather vane" was pointing, from 1862 that puts its address at OYR and Wood St. and a reprint of a Phila. Bulletin Article in a New York Newspaper from Jan 1924. 

Over all, I have used a measure to compare the 9-1/2 H X 9 foot W of the Harry Kyriakodis Hidden City Article. Have you seen the Indian Pole?

A lot of speculation here but thinking about it, let me say this. 

Was it a Weathervane or decoration? Weathervane of Chief Tammany of the size and weights mentioned make me think that as a weather vane it was would a high maintenance item needing grease up top to lubricate a turning figure to the wind. 

I am reminded that the original Diana weathervane on the original Madison Square Garden in 1892 was too big and too heavy to do the job of weathervane and was farmed out to the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago 1893 only to be eventually destroyed or damaged when that exhibit building burnt down after the closing of the fair. That it is was the second smaller lighter copper Diana weathervane stood above that MSG until 1925 and eventually making it to the Philly Museum of Art. 

That the repairs suggested in the 1894 article was paint and copper trim around the edge to retard further rot on the wood when the paint had faded. 

Speaking of paint, I would think that the primary benefactor of the Liberty Pole and weathervane would be done by the French Paint company that probably contributed paint to maintaining brightness of a local object of interest. 

The 1924 article on wooden Indians indicate that the whole thing was still standing as of January 1924. That is also the year of Howard B French's, one of the local merchants so enthusiastic about saving the old monument, death.

That without paint and maintenance, the top likely fell off in pieces is a good thunderstorm one day. It is taken down, put in storage and or tossed by post 1924 merchants who do not want the expense of something the city probably would not maintain. 

The image on the WPA poster of a wooden Indian weathervane might be a true likeness. 

I would like to think that this old relic in semi-original condition in bits, pieces or a glued together whole is in some private collection somewhere in some upstate New York mansion of old money that has yet to catalog or dispose of old art work in storage etc. 

Geneseo NY Livingston Democrat 2 Jan 1924

Inquirer 4 May 1894


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