Relax with Max: Sculptor Bill Wolfe takes a break and sits with his Max Ehrmann sculpture as its being installed at 7th and Wabash on Wednesday afternoon.
TERRE HAUTE — Grinning, sculptor Bill Wolfe briefly uncovered his latest work — a bronze statue of poet Max Ehrmann.
“Max just got to see Terre Haute for the first time,” Wolfe said.
The exposure lasted only a few minutes Wednesday afternoon, but it revealed a breathtaking piece of art, with the metal likeness of the man who wrote “Desiderata” seated on a park bench, pen and paper in hand, on the northwest corner of the Crossroads of America.
Until then, Max looked like a Mafia victim, wrapped and bound in a black movers’ blanket.
On Wednesday, volunteers, guided by Wolfe, placed the statue and bench at the site. Max had spent Tuesday night in a Sappington & Sons Moving van after being transported from an Indianapolis foundry.
He’ll stay securely covered, now with a blue tarp, until the official unveiling on Aug. 26. In the meantime, the area surrounding the sculpture at Seventh and Wabash will receive a makeover, with a brick walkway, additional park benches and landscaping. Finally, memorable phrases from “Desiderata,” cast in bronze, will be set in the walkway leading up to Max. The full text of that world-famous poem will be visible to visitors who sit down beside him.
“It takes this corner and just transforms it from a parking lot and grass into something beautiful,” said Bev Cristee, a member of the Cultural Trail Coalition. That group formed in late 2007, aiming to create public art pieces honoring internationally known Terre Haute natives, such as Ehrmann, Eugene Debs, Paul Dresser and Theodore Dreiser. The coalition decided to start with Ehrmann, who chose to stay and work in his beloved hometown instead of moving to literary centers such as New York or Chicago.
Max was born here in 1872. He died here in 1945. From here, he wrote classics such as “The Prayer,” “Terre Haute” and “Desiderata.” The latter, with its timeless advice, became popular with young Americans in the turbulent 1960s and ’70s. That 314-word piece of prose poetry, which he finished in 1927, appears in frames and on posters hanging on walls all over the globe. Its fans include actor Johnny Depp, the late singers Johnny Cash and Bing Crosby, and late advice columnist Ann Landers. During the Korean war, some U.S. Army chaplains recited it at religious services.
Now, the world has a place to say thanks to Max.
“I’d call it a destination site,” said Mary Kramer, the voice of the Cultural Trail Coalition and executive director of Wabash Valley Art Spaces.
“I really think people are going to love coming and sitting on the benches,” she added. “It will be fun to see who does use it.”
With the seated statue placed at an angle, facing the intersection, the accompanying benches, plants and pathways will create a downtown greenspace plaza. Its position ideally links the site to both the Seventh Street Arts Corridor and the Historic National Road.
The most impressive aspect of the project is that it came to fruition — right here in River City — in the midst of the harshest economic recession since the Great Depression. People and businesses donated $80,000 in cash. Another $60,000 worth of in-kind contributions — labor, services and materials — flowed in, despite the hard times.
If anybody needs a symbol that anything (within reason) can come true here, the Max Ehrmann corner is it.
“It’s just really amazing how people have given to this project,” said Kramer.
“There’s so much ownership in this project,” she added.
Many times when she, Cristee and other coalition members went to check on prices for materials or labor, the individual or business owner offered to handle it for free. “People are just happy to be a part of it, so that’s been fun,” Kramer said. “People are just so kind and generous. It’s so different from other places I’ve lived.”
Kramer came to Terre Haute in 2001 from West Hartford, Conn. She grew up in New Mexico, and later lived in Massachusetts, Maryland and Vermont.
Elsewhere, an undertaking such as the Ehrmann project could easily stall under a forest of bureaucracy and red tape. Here, she’s encountered people “getting right to the heart of the matter, and everybody saying, ‘Yes.’”
Hauteans who’ve lived here far longer should take her view of this town to heart. Over time, it’s easy to become jaded and assume the city’s flaws and mistakes permanently handicap the place. In reality, most of the 60,000 folks living here like to see good things happen.
Under the hot July sun Wednesday, Cristee watched as a two-man crew from American Stone Fabricators in Brazil positioned the limestone slab, upon which the Max statue and bench rest. Several passersby — pedestrians and Wabash Avenue motorists — peered over at the site and at Max, still smothered in a Sappington & Sons Moving blanket.
“People complain about Terre Haute,” Cristee said, “but I’ll tell you, people really do want to see Terre Haute look beautiful.”
From Max Ehrmann’s view, (as soon as the wraps come off) it does.
