Frederick Douglass Statue
SW Corner, South Ave. and Robinson Dr., Rochester, New York | Officially Marked Monument
This imposing statue of abolitionist, orator, and journalist Frederick Douglass was sculpted by Sidney W. Edwards. Originally it was sited before the Rochester train station at Central Avenue and St. Paul Street, where it was dedicated in 1899. It was moved to a location overlooking the Highland Park Bowl and rededicated on September 4, 1941.
In 2018 sculptor Olivia Kim produced thirteen replicas of the statue at a reduced size. They were installed at various locations around Rochester significant to the life of Douglass in that city.
In 2019 the original statue was moved several hundred feet north-by-northeast to a more conspicuous location. The statue anchors a new Frederick Douglass Memorial Square on the southwest corner of South Avenue and Robinson Drive. The relocation makes the statue immediately visible to motorists, as well as Highland Park visitors, year-round. In addition, for the first time the statue has been illuminated to be better seen at night.
Douglass statue
Sidney Edwards's statue of Frederick Douglass as seen from below.
Statue Nameplate
Nameplate on the plinth supporting the Sidney Edwards statue of Frederick Douglass.
The Statue's New Home
In late 2019 the statue and its plinth were relocated to the southwest corner of South Avenue and Robinson Drive.
Douglass Square Sign
The statue's new site on an attractively landscaped corner is more a plaza than a true square, but Frederick Douglass Memorial Square it is!
Companion Art Installation
The relocated statue is accompanied by black tubular sculptural objects (far right). They include holes patterned to recall stars in the night sky. Escaping slaves often traveled northward by night, navigating by the stars.
Closer View of the "Star Tubes"
Each tube depicts the stars around and including the Big and Little Dippers. By extending an imaginary line from the two rightmost stars of the Big Dipper to the Little Dipper, one can positively locate Polaris, the North Star that points the way north from anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Escaping slaves used this method to make their way north; The North Star was also the name of Douglass's best-known abolition newspaper, edited in a downtown Rochester building that survives today.
"Sky Tube" Detail
Closer view of the Dipper graphic on one of the tubular sculptures.
