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Burns Statue Boston
Boston, Massachusetts holds the unenviable record of taking the longest time to bring its plans to fruition. A Burns Memorial Association was formed in 1899, necessary for the erection of a suitable memorial to the poet.
Designs were solicited and in the autumn of 1911 the commission was awarded to Henry Hudson Kitson, a native of Yorkshire who had emigrated to America at the turn of the century.
Kitson planned an elaborate memorial consisting of a broad, decorative pylon flanked by low walls surmounted by balustrades and other architectural embellishments. A bronze statue of Burns was to be erected on a pedestal projecting from the base of the pylon.
The figure was unusual in that it showed Burns leaning on a walking stick, with a book and spray of laurel tucked under his left arm. Characteristically, the work was subject to seemingly innumerable delays, compounded by the entry of the United States into the First World War in 1917.
It was not, in fact, until New Year's Day 1920 that the statue was unveiled in the Caledonian Grove, along the Charles River Embankment. Some years ago, however, the statue was relocated in a small park opposite One Winthrop Square Building, at the junction of Franklin and Devonshire Streets.
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