What is the origin of the Grant statue on Grant Avenue?
In 1889, shortly after what would have been U. S. Grant’s 75th birthday, post commander Colonel Nelson A. Miles organized a committee to raise a monument at Fort Leavenworth to the former president and general. The group commissioned the American sculptor Lorado Taft. Taft was an instructor at the Chicago Institute of Art and had just won an international award for his work at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893. He created a striking 9-foot statue atop a granite pedestal of similar height. Nearly $5,000 for the commission was raised from the soldiers and civilians on post, as well as from leading citizens of Kansas and Missouri. Senator R.S. Ingalls of Kansas was the principal speaker at the dedication. The site is near the original front entrance to the fort. Sources: 1964 Post History p106, Hunt and Lorence p279, Lorado Taft website, Grant bio website Kelvin D.
