Nicole Kappatos, Newsroom Researcher and Archivist
This article was originally posted on Richmond.com in July 2015.
Standing at the end of Boulevard [now Arthur Ashe Boulevard], next to the tennis courts at Byrd Park, is the first statue of Christopher Columbus erected in the South. In the early 1920s, Richmond’s Italian-American community – about 1,000 strong – wanted to gift a statue of their kinsman to their adopted home. The residents hoped city officials would add a Columbus statue to Monument Avenue, but their request was quickly rejected by a city committee. It claimed that Columbus was not only foreign but Catholic - and thus could not possibly stand among some of the Confederacy’s most revered figures.
The Italian-Americans didn’t give up, and the statue issue returned in June 1925. This time, the city moved forward with a resolution that would put the statue on a Richmond street – but not Monument Avenue. The decision was controversial: The Patriotic Welfare Committee, which was made up of several groups including the Sons and Daughters of Liberty and the Patriotic Order of America, unsuccessfully sought to upend it.
By February 1926, the Italian-American community started fundraising for the statue, with a goal of $25,000. Local Italian sculptor Ferruccio Legnaioli was selected to be its creator, and in June 1927, ground was broken on the Boulevard.
The statue was dedicated in December 1927. The ceremony was attended by Gov. Harry F. Byrd and the U.S. Italian envoy Giacomo de Martino.