Published December 31, 2005. Reprinted with permission from LDS Church News published by Deseret Morning News.

Symbolic return to New York
Statue of Joseph Smith unveiled near Wall Street in Manhattan
Shaun D. Stahle, Church News Staff Writer

In a symbolic way, the Prophet Joseph Smith returned to New York City on Dec. 23 when members of the New York New York Stake unveiled a larger-than-life size statue in his honor near an area where he once stayed.

With the East River as backdrop, an estimated 300 members and local officials gathered for an afternoon ceremony to unveil an 8-foot tall bronze statue titled, "The Frontier Prophet."

The statue, depicting the Prophet with an axe in one hand and a Book of Mormon in the other, is positioned in the plaza at Old Slip Park, located two blocks from where the Prophet boarded at 88 Pearl Street when he visited New York in October 1832.

At that time, the port was a major dock for large ships, including the Brooklyn, which set sail in 1846 carrying 200 members of the Church around South America and eventually to present-day San Francisco.

The Prophet was impressed with the city and wrote a letter to his wife, Emma, saying, "the buildings are truly great and wonderful to the astonishing of every beholder."

The port is no longer used, but is remembered in a park for the role it played in the discovery and growth of America. It is situated near the Brooklyn Bridge on the eastern end of Wall Street amid major office buildings in an area of high traffic, roughly halfway between South Street Seaport and boat ramps for the Statue of Liberty. Most double decker tourist buses pass Old Slip along Water Street where the statue stands.

"Other than Times Square or Rockefeller Center, you couldn't ask for a much better location," said President Brent J. Belnap of the New York stake.

The statue, sculpted by famed artist Dee Jay Bawden, is the result of cooperation between stake members who envisioned a statue to commemorate the Prophet's work in New York City on the day of his 200th birth anniversary, and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation that provided funds.

Members presented a proposal to a community board in the lower Manhattan area. "They voted overwhelmingly in the negative," President Belnap said, many of them expressing sentiments that Joseph Smith "was a fraud and this was a false religion."

Attitudes toward the project seemed to change, however, after a local newspaper editorialized on the apparent religious intolerance of the community board. After an eight-month process of political haranguing, permission was granted.

Dedicatory services included comments from Elder A. Kim Smith, Area Authority, and a dedicatory prayer by President Belnap. Particularly impressive to bystanders were the Scouts who stood at attention in short-sleeved shirts without flinching in the frosty evening air.

The statue will be on display until June 2006 as part of a New York arts program. At that time it will be determined if the statue remains permanently. Observers noted that as many as three out of every four people passing the statue in this busy Financial District stopped to study the statue and read the inscription.

"Following the dedication, after the crowd had dispersed, I had a few moments alone in front of the statue to think about this remarkable individual, and to consider the potentially favorable influence of this project," said President Belnap, reflecting on his thoughts following the dedicatory services. "The plaza at Old Slip was remarkably well lit. With the statue facing west, toward Pearl Street, I thought of the Prophet looking toward the future of the Church, a fitting pose for "The Frontier Prophet."

E-mail: shaun@desnews.com