UPDATE | Courthouse statues back on roof again

YOUNGSTOWN — Dozens gathered on the sidewalk across from the Mahoning County Courthouse to watch as the newly-restored copper statues were returned to its roof.

The statues, removed in October 2010, have been returned to their perch above the courthouse's main entrance where they had sat since 1909.

The three hollow statues, which were restored by an Oberlin firm, are named “Justice,” on the left, “Strength and Authority” in the center; and “Law” on the right.

The statues arrived in front on the courthouse at 6 a.m. today to the southbound curb lane of Market Street.

Their heads, which had to be removed for highway bridge clearance purposes, were bolted back on shortly after their downtown arrival.

The center statue in the one-ton cluster is 14 feet high; and the cluster is 16 feet, 10 inches wide and 79 inches deep.

“They did a great job, I think. It says a lot about our tax dollars at work,” Doug Martinec, construction superintendent with Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown, said of the statue restoration crew this morning.

The statues were restored at the McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservatory Laboratory Inc. in Oberlin.

Murphy is the building restoration project’s general contractor.

The courthouse restoration project has included replacement of rusted statue pedestal support beams and of the building’s roof and replacement of 730 pieces of the building’s fired clay masonry, known as terra cotta, around the building’s upper perimeter.

The project was delayed by the need to replace unforeseen asbestos roofing discovered in the pedestal.

In January 2017, the commissioners added $853,529 to the $6 million restoration project to cover additional work to be performed this year, including brick repairs and replacement of rotted original wooden window frames in two interior window wells.

The building, which opened March 6, 1911, has a granite exterior and a marble interior and was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.