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Date: 3/30/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD – Morgan horse enthusiasts around the world are ready to support a monument to the breed in downtown West Springfield, civic booster Roberta Page announced last week.
Page, the director of the nonprofit group It’s West Springfield, said her organization plans to push for a 9-foot-tall bronze statue of Figure, the original Morgan horse, who was sired and lived his first two years in West Springfield before being sold to a Vermont farm in 1792.
A statue of the horse is “a long time coming for West Springfield,” Page said at an It’s West Springfield board meeting on March 22 at bNapoli Italian restaurant on Elm Street. She said Vermont often takes credit for the Morgan breed, but the very first one came from West Springfield.
“It’s really important that West Springfield be known,” she said. “We need to get the word out.”
Figure was born in 1789 at a farm on Birnie Avenue. Page said there is a plaque attached to a rock at that location, and It’s West Springfield board member Linda Parent noted that there is a bronze miniature sculpture of the horse in West Springfield Town Hall. Page said she thinks Figure deserves a more prominent monument somewhere along Elm or Park streets, however, where more people would see it and learn about West Springfield’s role in equine history.
The push for a statue would coincide with the town’s 250th birthday celebration. Page said she wants to be able to unveil the statue in 2024, the year of the anniversary. She said she has already identified a sculptor who is experienced in equine statues and can craft an accurate representation of a two-year-old Morgan horse.
The sculpture, shipping, site preparation and construction of a plinth will cost more than $300,000, Page estimated. She said the pedestal would be granite-faced concrete, with bronze plaques telling Figure’s story and acknowledging donors.
“We’re asking for a lot of money,” said board member Debra Mainolfi, who said she is also on the town’s 250th anniversary committee, and doesn’t want to see It’s West Springfield competing for donors or attention. Board members agreed that they need to work in tandem with the 250th effort.
Page said she expects to raise much of the funds out of town, however. She said she has been in touch with 300 Morgan horse associations around the world, and many are excited about contributing to a monument to the ancestor of all Morgans. She said she’d like to see at least one Morgan club from each state give $10,000 each to the effort.
“They thought that was reasonable,” based on the number of members these clubs have and the amount of money they spend on their horse businesses and hobbies, Page said.
She said donations of a certain size could be recognized with miniature bronze statues by the same sculptor – 18 inches tall, 15 inches long – which would increase the cost of the project, but also raise more funds.
Page said she will also seek grant funding for the project. She plans to speak to the town’s Community Preservation Committee on April 12 and ask for money from that board’s historical fund. She has also requested a National Endowment for the Arts grant of $75,000, the largest possible award.
If “Figure’s Homecoming” raises more funds than needed, Page said, perhaps It’s West Springfield could establish a Morgan horse-related college scholarship fund. The board also has to plan for how it would proceed if fundraising fell below the target, she said.
Morgan horses are named for Justin Morgan, the Vermont farmer who acquired Figure as a debt payment in 1792 and bred several descendants.