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1992 · bronze · City Hall
The second City Hall bronze: Five years after the Princess, the City Hall ground received a second bronze: Christopher Columbus, by David M. Layman, dated 1992, recorded by the same 1993 Smithsonian survey, owned by the City of Mishawaka. The date is the quincentenary year — 1992, five hundred years after the first voyage — and the commission belongs to that national season of Columbus monuments, though the Mishawaka record reached does not name its sponsor or subscribers, and none is invented here. Layman is the ledger's recurring local hand: the same Mishawaka sculptor whose bronzes anchor Marvin's Garden in 2023, thirty-one years later, in the riverfront entry below.
The fate question, stated plainly: Columbus statues across the United States were removed, relocated or contested in and after 2020, and Mishawaka's City Hall itself has since moved to a new building. No source reached records what became of the 1992 Columbus — whether it stands at the new seat, remains at the old, or rests in storage. The statue's documented record ends with the 1993 survey, and this section prints the ending rather than a guess; the city's facilities and parks records are the named settling sources in this section's notes.
Sources:
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Inventories Catalog (SIRIS) — "Christopher Columbus, (sculpture)," Save Outdoor Sculpture, Indiana Survey (1993): David M. Layman, sculptor; 1992; bronze; City Hall; owner City of Mishawaka.