Lanier Monument Celebration and Dedication

The Atlanta Preservation Center in partnership with Piedmont Park Conservancy and Oglethorpe University will complete the restoration of the Sidney Lanier Monument. This monument has been a part of Atlanta’s premier park since 1914 and is meant to serve as a reminder of Georgia’s celebrated poet and musician Sidney Lanier.

Lanier was born in Macon, Georgia in 1842. He graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1860. He served in the Civil War, where he contracted tuberculosis which eventually caused his death at age 39. In addition to his contributions as poet, critic and musician, he taught and practiced law. He is credited by his alma mater for bridging Southern romantic literature and 20th-century realism.

The Sidney Lanier Monument was given to Piedmont Park by Mrs. Livingston Mims in 1914. Mid-century, pinching the bust of Lanier from the monument became a regular prank of the college students of Atlanta. After many adventures the bust was taken to Oglethorpe University for safe keeping.

After two years of work, spearheaded by the Atlanta Preservation Center, a copy of the original bust has been made and will be installed in the monument’s niche, restoring the monument to its original configuration.

Events include: 

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. at Oglethorpe University’s Lupton Hall:  Candice Keach, flautist, and Marty Willet, actor/educator, will present a recital of the music and poetry of Sidney Lanier preceded by commentary of Paul Hudson, historian and Oglethorpe alum. Coinciding with Lanier’s 170th birthday, the recital will take place at Tickets for this recital are $15 and can be purchased at the door or in advance by calling 404-688-3353 ext. 11 or visiting PreserveAtlanta.com.

at 1:30 p.m. at Magnolia Hall in Piedmont Park:  Richard Guy Wilson, noted architectural historian and Commonwealth Professor in Architectural History at the University of Virginia, will discuss the work of Carrère & Hastings (designers of the Lanier Monument), Edward Clark Potter (sculptor of the bust), and Lanier. The lecture will connect these elements, giving a picture of the American Renaissance. Tickets for this lecture are $10 and can be purchased at the door or in advance by calling 404-688-3353 ext. 11 or visiting PreserveAtlanta.com.

at 3:00 p.m. at Piedmont Park:  The public unveiling of the restored monument is free and open to the public. The monument is located on the eastern side of the Active Oval. The unveiling will be officiated by Boyd Coons, Executive Director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, and will include performance of Lanier’s Blackbirds on the flute by Candice Keach, a reading of Lanier’s Song of the Chattahoochee and The Centennial Meditation of Columbia by the Poet Laureate of Georgia, David Bottoms.