Madonna takes her place in downtown’s future park

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SPRINGFIELD — Four men in hard hats and neon safety vests — one at each corner — shouted whenever the 5-ton Madonna of the Trail statue hovering above its new base Wednesday moved a millimeter off trajectory.

The small crowd clapped when all was well around 3:30 p.m.

The pioneer mother statue is one of 12, one placed in each state the National Road passes through. The first cross-country road stretched from Maryland to California, passing through Springfield, the home of Ohio’s statue.

It was moved Wednesday to the new National Road Commons park downtown from its former location on U.S. 40 next to Snyder Park.

“I like the accessibility of this location,” said Carol Spurlock, one of three representatives of the Daughters of the American Revolution present. At the former location, Spurlock said, “there was really no safe way to get down and see her.”

The Ohio chapter of the DAR owns the statue, and gave permission to the local chamber of commerce to move it to the new wedge-shaped park between Main and Columbia streets downtown.

The park is the center of planners’ vision for the future of downtown Springfield.

David Zak, vice president of economic development at the chamber, hopes the park will spur development surrounding it. The chamber needs just one more tenant to make a proposed 60,000-square-foot building beside the park commercially viable.

“Long term, if Springfield isn’t a place people want to live in, we’re not gonna make it,” Zak said. He thinks Springfield is currently in the beginnings of a renaissance, “and visual indicators get people to notice that,” he said.

Zak said mostly private donations funded the statue-moving, while state grants paid for most of the park.

A dedication party for the park will kick off at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 7. It will include food vendors and an evening concert by Springfield native Griffin House.

Eric Samuelsson, owner of the A.G. Samuelsson construction company that moved the statue, said his grandfather placed the statue in its original location in 1928, and his father moved it to the location on U.S. 40 in 1956. He’s happy to continue the legacy of working with the statue.

“This and the park are among the best things the chamber has done recently,” Samuelsson said. “Now people can come here and say, ‘Hey, this city’s got some class. This county’s got some class.’”