Visitors to downtown Detroit are aware of several imposing and notable sculpture installations very close by the Woodward/Jefferson Avenue intersection. In front of the Coleman A. Young Building right at the street intersection, sits the Spirit of Detroit ; a Marshall Fredericks Bronze that is 16 feet high and 11 feet in diameter. Cast in Norway in 1955, this statue honors the fellowship of man under the governance of God. Showing that Detroiters are people with a sense of humor and a passion for sports, the Spirit is dressed in an oversized team jersey whenever one of our professional teams makes a run in the post-season. Lately, though, he’s only been able to wear a Red Wings or a Pistons jersey.

Sculptor Isamu Noguchi has contributed two installations in nearby Hart Plaza: The Silver Spike and the otherworldly, Dodge Fountain. The Silver Spike tends to elicit a "hmmm", kind of response from the average visitor; but the Dodge Fountain is a Modernist devise that delights and confounds those strolling the Plaza. The fountain contains 300 nozzles and 300 lights and will spray more than seven hours before repeating a water flow pattern.

Noted American sculptor, Robert Graham was commissioned to create a gift to the city of Detroit to be given by Sports Illustrated Magazine. The result is his The Big Fist, properly called "A Memorial To Joe Louis". Scaled at one inch equaling a foot, this suspended sculpture is more than 26 feet in length! Hundreds of thousands of family photos have been taken at this site since it was placed here in 1986.

But aside from these popular attractions, are hidden monuments and statues placed throughout the city beginning in 1823.

The Scott Fountain on Belle Isle may be the most beautiful fountain in the world, the Fountain of Trevi excepted. Accepted as a gift from the estate of gambler James Scott, and completed in 1923, this imposing Beaux-Arts monument has three levels, with a pool 112 feet in diameter.

Italian residents of the community raised funds to honor Christopher Columbus and brilliant poet Dante Alighieri with statues; Germans placed a memorial to Williem von Schiller; Armenians were moved to honor martyr Gomidas Vartabed, a victim of the Turk occupation of their homeland; Scots joined together to commission a statue in remembrance of Robert Burns; Catholics honor Fathers Gabriel Richard and Clement Kern; families of Civil War combatants commissioned a Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 1861, long before the brutal war had culled most of its victims.

Throughout the city are these and many more sculptures worthy of a visit and a picture or two. If you’re a traveler drawn to public art, and monuments and statues, the web link below, supported by the Detroit Historical Museum, is a great place to identify Detroit’s tribute to history and culture–local and international.

http://www.detroithistorical.org/coll...