City hall statues to get makeovers
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on December 27, 2005 1:51 PM
By the end of 2006, Liberty and Justice will no longer keep watch over downtown -- at least not until they are restored.
The two statues currently perched atop City Hall need some repair work, and so the city plans to remove them before the building is renovated and have them cleaned, restored and remounted.
And that won't be an easy task, City Manager Joe Huffman said.
News-Argus/Mitch Loeber
City Hall's Liberty statue.
"I've been up there to look at them," he said. "They're a lot bigger than people think they are."
Grimsley Hobbs of Hobbs Architects PA said the statues are an essential part of the current City Hall.
"These statues are a very important feature on that building," he said. "The roof is really the building's main identity."
With those sentiments in mind, Hobbs said there are no plans to relocate the statues. However, by September of next year, he hopes to have a plan for their restoration.
"I hope we can repair them," he said. "There must be someone in the country who can do the job."
Hobbs said he has never seen a building quite like Goldsboro's City Hall. Two reasons why are Liberty and Justice.
"I've never seen another building with statues like them on the roof," he said. "They're sort of amazing."
They might move in the wind, stand more than 10 feet tall and need serious restoration and repair, but Hobbs said they are well worth the trouble.
"There's really nothing like them," he said.