Jax Stumpes: Roadside America Columbus, OH II (9/3/2015)

Thursday, September 3, 2015
Brynne would miss today's highlights, as she was taking an all-day seminar too be certified to fill out health certificates...
After she was dropped off at the Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine, I made my way around campus. In front of the Animal Science building, at 2029 Fyffe Road, was the so-called "disturbing scrap metal horse." It does look ready to attack with gnashing gears, I mean, teeth.

Scrap metal horse sculpture

Scrap metal horse sculpture closeup

Next in the Phenology Research Garden at the end of Fyffe Court (phenology is the study of recurring biological phenomena and their relationship to weather) was Annabelle, the 15' tall Praying Mantis (2009), by Pat Belisle and Chris Saylor.

Annabelle, the Praying Mantis

For the next attraction, I couldn't just pull over and take a photo; I had to park and there was a security officer working the lot. I paid $1.75 for an hour at a machine, and walked over to the Garden of Constants in front of Dreese Lab of the College of Engineering. It was created in 1994 and is by Barbara Grygutis.

Garden of Constants numbers

Garden of Constants formula, one of 50
used primarily in electrical engineering and computer science

Ohio Stadium (1922),
home of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team;
listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974

Went to park behind Orton Hall at 155 S Oval Mall, hoping my parking permit was still valid! Opened in 1893, Orton Hall is one of the oldest building remaining on campus, and home of the Geology department. It is constructed with 40 different types of Ohio stone, laid as they would be in the bedrock.

Orton Hall

Inside Orton Hall is a small museum where we were to see Jeff, the giant ground sloth found on an Ohio farm, and a 20-foot carnivorous fish.

"Jeff" (Megaloynx jeffersoni/Jefferson's Ground Sloth),
the 7' fossilized skeleton, installed in 1896

Glyptodon (a prehistoric relative of the armadillo), a replica

Dunkleosteus terrelli/20-foot carnivorous fish skull,
also a replica (so you don't see a 20' fish!)

The Dunkleosteus terrelli existed during the Late Devonian period when Ohio was located 20 degrees south of the equator and covered by a tropical ocean.

Fluorescent mineral display

Orton Hall atrium

I left campus and took OH-315 to Henderson Rd and turned north on Kenny Road to #4589, the office for Dr Robert Garrison Dentistry, to see the Sword in the Stone.

Sword in the Stone

Back to Henderson, and turned north on N High Street to another dentist office, Bourgeois Family Dental Center, at #5400. They have "Dragonbrush" (2005), and they, at least, offer some explanation:
"The statue of the dragon protecting his toothbrush on our front lawn is an example of an art form known as a Mash-up. The name Dragonbrush is a play on the special paintbrushes used to paint dragons known as dragon brushes. The dragon is a landmark for our dental office and was chosen by mysterious forces beyond our understanding. In addition we have a green dragon mascot Melvin that visits school children during dental health month."

Dragonbrush

Farther north, at the Thomas Worthington High School, 300 W Dublin-Granville Road, in Worthington, OH, is a Shoe Tree.

Shoes in a tree

I hopped on I-71 to head to downtown Columbus. Once upon a time, people went to the Columbus Art Museum to see the ART sculpture, at 483 E Gay Street, lined up with a parking lot light stanchions to look like the letter "F." Unfortunately, the lights have been replaced, so I had to photoshop the earlier result. Trying to line up the light posts, made the 'F' too far away.

F-A-R-T

On the corner of E Broad Street and S 5th Street is Discovery Park, the first park developed to specifically honor the public educators of Ohio. The Monument to Ohio Teachers (2000?) was sponsored by the State Teachers Retirement System.

Monument to Ohio Teachers

The former Ohio School for the Deaf at 480 E Town Street is now the Cristo Rey Columbus High School (1899, designed by Columbus architects Richards, McCarty and Bulford in French Chauteauesque style; used by the School for the Deaf until 1953). The building has two main entrances that are notable for the strange faces along the arch.

Former School for the Deaf

Former School for the Deaf entrance

Strange heads on the arch

The grounds of the former School for the Deaf were developed into a landscaped park, which included an iron fence taken from the Statehouse grounds, in 1873. By the 1980s, the park was left barren with rubble strewn throughout. James T. Mason, a local sculptor who worked for the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, had the idea to create a living sculptural interpretation of Georges Seurat’s Post-Impressionist painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grand Jatte.
Starting in 1988, James designed and built the bronze frames and planted the shrubs, while his wife, Elaine, was the principal topiarist. The pond was installed in 1989, and the garden includes 54 human figures, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey and a cat, each made of yew and the tallest standing at 12 feet. Although some of the shrubbery is missing, the frames remain to complete the picture. It is an amazing sight!

A bronze relief of the Georges Seurat painting with the topiary

Boats on the "Seine River"

A topiary couple

405 E Town Street (1852)

I had been putting quarters in parking meters for 20 minutes of time, and on Front Street, I had 29 minutes. The Ohio Judicial Center at 65 S Front Street, built in 1933 as the Ohio Departments Building and renovated in 2001-2004, is flanked by two courtyards, each with a reflecting pool. The south courtyard is the location of the "world's largest gavel," a stainless steel sculpture (2008) by Andrew F Scott.

Gavel

Judicial Center detail

North courtyard reflecting pool with words
(Wisdom, Integrity, Peace, Truth, Justice,
Honor, Reason, Equity, Compassion, Reason)
as a reminder of the fundamental principles of justice

"Quest" (2003) by Stephen Canneto

Columbus City Hall (1934)

LeVeque Tower, built in 1924 as the
American Insurance Union Citadel;
listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1975

At the NW corner of Capitol Square, sits the Unknown Boy Scout Plaque, to the anonymous British scout who inspired William D Boyce to start the Boy Scout movement in the US in 1910. I am not sure if the plaque was placed in 1985, or if the second plaque was added in 1985 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

The Unknown Boy Scout Plaque

On the west side of Capitol Square stands the McKinley Memorial (1906, by Hermon Atkins MacNeil), a grouping of statues to honor the nation's 25th President, William McKinley, who was a native of Ohio, having served as both US Senator and Governor. The statue is called "McKinley Loves Ida" because it faces the site of the Neil House Hotel where McKinley and his wife, Ida, lived when they were in Columbus. Ida was frail, and from this spot McKinley would wave to her as she looked out of the second story window. The female statue represents Peace and the male Prosperity, while the boy and girl represent the future of the state.

McKinley Memorial

The Ohio Statehouse (1839-1861 in Greek Revival style) was surrounded by several commemorative statues.

Ohio World War Memorial
(1930, by Arthur Ivone)

These are My Jewels,
designed by Levi Tucker Schofield of Cincinnati
for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition;
installed here in 1894 and features seven Ohioans:
Ulysses S Grant, Philip Sheridan,
William T Sherman, James A Garfield,
Rutherford B Hayes, Edwin M Stanton,
and Salmon P Chase

Ohio Senate Building, built in 1901 as the Judicial Annex

Returned to the car to drive up N High Street to the Convention Center at #400 to see the statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Olympia. The statue was originally located at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium where Arnold was crowned Mr World in 1970, but the auditorium was razed in 2014.