116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: A Tale of Two Bards
Shakespeare bust in Ellis Park was stolen in 1984, found two years later
There are two busts of William Shakespeare in Cedar Rapids. And there’s a story about how that came about.
The idea for a Shakespeare garden originated in the 1920s with Mrs. J.J. Hall, a member of the Wednesday Shakespeare Club, who chaired the group’s garden committee.
“The garden plans, which are designed by a student in landscape architecture at the University of Illinois, have been approved by Park Commissioner J.D. Kennedy, and work will begin on the first day that weather conditions make it possible,” The Gazette reported on April 24, 1927.
The layout of the garden in Ellis Park was similar to English gardens. The garden’s entrance, designed by Grant Wood and Marvin Cone, had a rustic shelter with thatched roof resembling the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife.
Mrs. H.L. Sailor, the club president, broke ground for the garden May 2, 1927.
The flowers planted there were those mentioned in Shakespeare plays.
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”
— “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Act 2, Scene 1
The stream running through the garden was named “Little Avon,” after the River Avon in southwest England, by the club in April 1930.
“There are only a few Shakespeare gardens in the United States, and ours is among the most authentic,” Gazette garden columnist Dorothy Woods Sapp reported in June 1982.
The first bust
The Wednesday Shakespeare Club decided it wanted to add a bust of the Bard in his garden. After five years of effort — and with help from Marvin Cone and Grant Wood in choosing the bust and pedestal — the club bought a bust based on one made by Louis-Francois Roubiliac, a French sculptor working in England in the 1700s.
Final funds for the bust were raised at a benefit sponsored by the Shakespeare Club at the Crystal Room of the Hotel Montrose on March 28, 1931.
Before placing the 150-pound bust in the Shakespeare Garden, Parks Commissioner Ed Steffen in April 1931 ordered four stone benches and an octagonal cement base for the bust pedestal.
The 4-foot, 150-pound pedestal, made of Bedford stone, was a gift from George Wilhelm, owner of Castone Products Co., forerunner of Metal Crafters Inc. Placed inside the pedestal were the names of the Shakespeare Club members, a copy of the club yearbook and a program of the unveiling ceremony.
The bust was placed on the pedestal April 23, 1931, in time for Shakespeare’s birthday. About 75 guests were in the garden for the unveiling. A plate on the pedestal read, “Presented by the Wednesday Shakespeare Club in honor of their leader, Mrs. Henry L. Sailor, April 23, 1931.”
In 1950, when the original entrance to the garden was showing its age, architect Frederick G. Brown designed two square stone pillars, 5 feet, 10 inches high. They were put in place in June, and a matching stone wall was added later.
Bard heist
In the summer of 1983, the bust disappeared from its pedestal but was quickly found in bushes near the garden and put back in place.
Less than a year later, in late February or early March 1984, vandals knocked over the pedestal and swiped the Shakespeare bust, valued at $2,000. City officials thought it might have been thrown into the Cedar River.
An insurance claim was filed. Nonetheless, ads were placed in The Gazette classifieds: “Wanted: Information or return of Ellis Park Shakespeare bust. Reward.”
More than two years later, mushroom hunters, searching south of Westdale Mall in southwest Cedar Rapids, discovered the bust partially buried in the sand in Prairie Creek. Not realizing it was stolen property, they took it home and tried to clean it up.
Once they learned the sculpture’s history, they took the bust to the Noelridge Park Greenhouse to be cleaned up and inspected for damage. Some small dents were fixed, and the bust was stored at the greenhouse for a while.
Parks Commissioner David Kramer said the city probably would not put the statue back in Ellis Park. He said the city would have to pay back the insurance claim, though he declined to say how much that was.
In August, it was decided to place the bust near the curved stairway or in the lobby of the downtown public library on First Street SE.
Concrete copy
Shakespeare Club members still wanted a Shakespeare bust in his Ellis Park garden, so they had a mold made of the bust and a concrete replica created. If that bust was damaged, they figured, a new one could easily be made from the mold to replace it.
A concrete bust has been in the center of the garden since then.
By 1999, the original bust had been given to Theatre Cedar Rapids, where it still is displayed near the Linge Lounge.
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