South Philadelphia’s Columbus statue unboxed

Maria Buonadonna clapped as she walked toward the Christopher Columbus statue, uncovered for the first time in more than two years, in South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza.

“They took down the Rizzo (statue),” said Buonadonna, who described herself as a lifelong South Philadelphia resident. “This is the only thing we’ve got left.”

The statue of Frank Rizzo, the city’s controversial former mayor and police commissioner, was removed from its perch across from City Hall in June 2020 following racial justice protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd.

Just days later, after armed Columbus supporters showed up to guard the statue, city crews constructed a plywood box around the Italian explorer’s likeness.

That wooden encasement was removed Sunday night in response to a court decision last week that affirmed an earlier judicial order requiring Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration to expose the monument.

Kevin Lessard, a spokesperson for Kenney’s office, said the administration continues to believe that the statue should be relocated. City officials “will explore adding a plaque or signage to the Christopher Columbus statue that recontextualizes Columbus’ complex history,” Lessard added in a statement.

The square at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue was mostly quiet at around lunchtime Monday, with dog walkers and joggers weaving their way through the barren trees. Every now and then, a driver pulled over or slowed down to snap a picture of the monument.

“I think he’s the greatest,” Sheila Cancelliere, whose husband immigrated from Italy in the 1960s, told Metro. “It’s history. You can’t erase it.”

Another local resident, who declined to provide his name, said Columbus admitted to atrocities against Native Americans in his own diaries and mentioned that Russia has a monument park for statues of Lenin, Stalin and others.

Battles over the Columbus statue commenced in the summer of 2020, when pro-Columbus agitators at Marconi allegedly punched a photographer and assaulted a cameraman from a media outlet.

Tensions soon ebbed, but the wrangling over the statue’s future has continued to play out in hearings before the Art Commission, Historical Commission and in courtrooms.

In October, just before Columbus Day, the Kenney administration painted the plywood box in the colors of the Italian flag, at the request of City Councilmember Mark Squilla.

The marble sculpture, which indicates it was presented to the city “by the Italian Citizens,” was created in Italy with support from Italian American leaders in Philadelphia for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, which was held in Fairmount Park. The memorial was moved to Marconi Plaza in 1976.