Public comment sought on Whitman statue
By Terry Murry on Monday, January 17th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
WALLA WALLA – The Walla Walla Arts Commission will hold a special meeting this Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. at Walla Walla City Council Chambers to solicit comments relating to a citizen’s request to remove the statue of Marcus Whitman located on East Main Street and Boyer Avenue. The statue is owned by the city but the property it is on belongs to Whitman College.
The special meeting is only to hear comments from the public. No recommendation will be made by the arts commission. Each person speaking being given three minutes. Each member of the public will be allowed to provide comments once. Speakers may provide additional comments only after everyone has had the opportunity to speak.
Limited seating will be available for public attendance. Attendees must wear face masks or shields. A live video and audio stream of the meeting will be available on the city’s website at https://www.wallawallawa.gov/government/city-council/
The meeting will also be available via Zoom. The meeting ID number is 864 7434 2571. Comments will also be taken via Zoom.
“The recommendation on the deaccession request will take place at a future arts commission regular meeting,” Deputy City Manager Elizabeth Chamberlain said. “At such time the arts commission makes a recommendation, that will be forwarded to the city council for their deliberation and action.”
Whitman was an American physician who led a party by wagon to the west in 1836 and founded a mission at present-day Walla Walla.
In 1953, the first casting of Avard Fairbanks’ Marcus Whitman statue was placed in the statuary hall of the U.S. Capitol and a second was placed in the rotunda of the Washington State Capitol that same year. The third one in Walla Walla was dedicated in 2006. The statue placed in Washington, D.C. is being replaced with one of Nisqually tribal leader Billy Frank Jr. Walla Walla County has accepted the Whitman statue from the nation’s capital, but it is not known when it will arrive or where it will be placed.
