Hawthorne Monument

• Erected at Hawthorne Boulevard in 1925, from funds raised by the Nathaniel Hawthorne Memorial Association, the statue was unveiled on Dec. 23rd of that year.
• This granite and bronze statue was made by the sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt, who studied at Yale. The sculpture is approximately 9 ft. high and was completed by Gorham Co. founders. The total cost of the sculpture was $50,000.
• The statue was displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for 12 years before being moved to the Salem location in 1925, the year that Hawthorne Hotel was opened down the street, at 18 Washington Square West.
• The statue was dedicated on Dec. 23, 1925 with a preliminary ceremony at the Second Church on Washington Square (which included an organ prelude, additional music and an address by Judge White.)
• The statue was unveiled by Rosamond Mikkelsen, the great-granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• The statue was restored in 2017. Using funds from Community Preservation Act, the city hired conservators from Skylight Studios to clean the granite base, repair and re-patinate the bronze statue and apply a protective coating.

See Also

• Hawthorne's Haunts in New England by John Hardy Wright, p.123.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne Monument Smithsonian Institute Catalog (photograph of sculpture)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne Monument Smithsonian Institute Catalog

• Dedication of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Memorial 1804-1864, at Salem, Massachusetts, December twenty-third, nineteen hundred and twenty-five Salem, Mass. : Newcomb & Gauss, 1926

• Visitor's Guide to Salem Essex Institute, 1953, p.202

• Hawthorne Statue Restoration Preserving Salem site

• Salem: Statued and Monumental a film by Erik K. Smith

• "Plenty of tall tales surround Salem's most famous monuments" Salem Evening News, Mar. 6, 2002, p. A2