Naftzger Memorial Park along Douglas Avenue in downtown Wichita. Thirty one bronze sculptures by Puget Sound, Washington artist Georgia Gerber were placed along streetscape of Wichita, Kansas along East Douglas Avenue in the late 1990s. The whimsical sculptures are incorporated into Lewis Reflection Square Park and the nearby sidewalks, some times incorporating small fountains. The largest sculpture is a recreation of a dime store counter, placed in Lewis Reflection Square Park, which was once the site of a F. W. Woolworth store. Coincidentally, an event in the integration of the Wichita area happened at the nearby Dockum Drug Store in 1958. This sculpture was not built to specifically memorialize that incident, but the Georgia Gerber says that "the black man and his grandson were placed at the counter as an intentional acknowledgment of the Dockum Drug Store sit-ins and the peaceful integration it brought about."
copyright 2007-2023 by Keith Stokes |
