The Blacksmith Minuteman Statue
In February 1900, a Framingham town committee consisting of representatives from the Town and Framingham Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution commissioned Henry and Theo Alice Kitson to make a bronze minuteman memorial to the Revolutionary War soldiers of Framingham.
Mr. Kitson most well-known work is the Lexington minuteman statue. Mr. Kitson designed the Framingham minuteman, and Mrs. Kitson executed it. Her name is on the sculpture.
George Mayer of Sherborn modeled the body. The Roman Bronze Works of Brooklyn, NY cast it. The statue weighs 10-12 tons with a massive granite base and depicts a smithy deserting his forge for the musket and powderhorn. The DAR dedicated the foundation and time capsule on Memorial Day, Tuesday, May 30th, 1905.
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The Town of Framingham dedicated the statueon Bunker Hill Day, Saturday, June 17th. Businesses closed for the afternoon.
Dignitaries and guests lunched at the Kendall Hotel. A military parade escorted them to the site. Lieutenant Governor Curtis Guild gave the main address. A newspaper account of the event reported that 355 men of Framingham served in the Revolutionary War in 1775 -1776.
In 1941, the Buckminster Square intersection was redesigned to accommodate increased traffic.
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On October 20th, 1941, C.P. Larrabee, a rigging business of brothers from Framingham, moved the statue from the old round traffic island where Main St. meets Union Ave. to the new oval traffic island where it stands today. The DAR moved and added to the time capsule. (Buckminster Square is the site of the old training ground where the Framingham minutemen drilled.)
When the statue was moved, it was turned and placed so as to face the direction that Framingham minuteman took as they marched into battle.
Information courtesy of Martha Groton.
Corrosion be gone! Framingham's Minuteman statue is now restored. Funding for the cleaning and waxing was provided by the Framingham Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ours is the 3rd minuteman statue in Massachusetts. The other two are in Concord and Lexington.
This will make the third Framingham memorial statue cleaned and restored in recent years thanks to the efforts of local residents.
