Mormon Prophet Returns to the Seaport

By Barry Owens


As controversial religious figures go, Joseph Smith cuts a striking one. A bronze likeness of the founder of Mormonism was installed last month near Wall Street at Old Slip Park, and his wavy hair, face-framing curls, high cheekbones and rugged bearing did not go unnoticed by the faithful.

Joseph Smith statue is put in place by Utahans who who came to New York for the installation. Photo: Carl Glassman

"He was a beautiful man," said church volunteer Claudia Bushman, taking in the newly installed 10-foot-tall statue, titled Frontier Prophet, which depicts Smith with an axe in one hand and a Book of Mormon in the other.

Though Bushman, a historian, suspects that Smith had a slightly more "beaky nose" than the one portrayed in the statue ("I suppose he was a tenor," she said), she was not about to quibble. For Bushman and others among the dozen Mormons on hand for the statue's quiet arrival in Lower Manhattan one Sunday morning last month, Smith was a sight for sore eyes.

The statue was installed in the park at the behest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in commemoration of Smith's 200th birthday on Dec. 23. The site is significant, church members said, as it was the location of the slip from which Smith, a native New Yorker, boarded the ship Brooklyn with his followers and set out for California in 1846. He is also believed to have briefly resided nearby on Pearl Street.

Many Christians at the time considered Smith's teaching to be blasphemy, and his practice of multiple marriages was controversial, to say the least. In October, Community Board 1 advised the Parks Department to reject the church's request to install the statue, even though it is temporary. Some community board members called Smith undeserving of a statue in this city. Others said they had reservations about allowing a statue of a religious figure to be installed in a public place.

But Bushman, who spearheaded the effort for the church and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, pushed forward and the Parks Department gave its approval.

"We have no reason to discriminate simply because the figure was a religious one," said Warner Johnston, a Parks Department spokesman. "There is no prohibition of displaying religious figures in city parks." The statue will stand until June 18, according to the department.

"I really wanted it in this place," Bushman said, as she watched the statue being lifted by hand from a truck and placed near the center of the plaza. "I hope it leads to some conversations."

Jack Branin, who hauled the 1,000-pound statue the 2,200 miles from Utah in the back of his Chevy pickup, said the statue drew many curious glances along the way.

"People were asking if it was for sale," he said. "The further east I got, the higher I raised the price."

Artist Dee Jay Bawdin, the statue's creator, flew in from Utah for the installation and blew a few Mormon hymns on his harmonica after the statue was fixed in place with a seal of construction adhesive around its base. The sculptor has created and donated dozens of likenesses of Smith to the church.
The statue's creator, Dee Jay Bawdin, blows a Mormon hymn on the harmonica. Photo: Carl Glassman

"This is spiritual to me," he said.

Bawdin works from Smith's death mask, a plaster mold of his face made shortly after his murder in 1844, and the artist vouched for the authenticity of the statue's facial features, nose included. Much more difficult to sculpt, he said, is his second most popular commission-Jesus Christ.

"Everyone has a different idea of what he looked like," he said.