A statue of George Washington is on display at the Florida State Capitol to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. The statue is on loan from Mount Vernon Estate in George Washington and will be staying in Tallahassee next year.
A statue of George Washington was on display at Florida Capitol on Thursday as part of the state’s 250th anniversary celebration to be held next year.
The 6½-foot bronze statue is on loan from Mount Vernon Estate in George Washington and will be sitting at the Capitol next year. It was sculpted by Robert Shure in 1996 and is based on a statue by Jean Antwein Hoodun, a French sculptor of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Secretary of State Code Bird were on hand for the announcement. “We are grateful for providing our home to this important symbol of the Republic. The statues are just for early interest and for the celebration of the Semi-Centennial next year. We’ll come under our stewardship in time,” Byrd said.
DeSantis established the Semi-Centennial Advisory Committee on July 4, 1776 to develop a plan to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A series of celebrations will be held across the country up to next year’s anniversary.
As part of these celebrations in Florida, statues of other founding fathers will be shown in counties named after Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe counties. Florida is commissioning another Washington statue to be located in Washington County.
DeSantis praises Washington’s brief history and his decision to reject vast power after defeating Britain, and to flee two terms as president, and to his country’s independence and establishment gave the importance of.
“We also saw Washington surrender his sword to the Continental Congress at the end of the Revolutionary War,” DeSantis said. “If he wanted to do it, he might have been the king of the United States. But instead he appears, and he surrenders his committee, surrenders his sword, and retires to Mount Vernon. I went back for it.”
Gray Rohrer is a reporter for the USA Today Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be contacted at grohrer@gannett.com. X: Follow him on @grayrohrer.
