Time capsule discovered underneath the Mayo brothers' statue
(THE MED CITY BEAT) - A bronze statue of the Mayo brothers standing side by side in their surgical gowns has been temporarily placed into storage.
The statue was transported Wednesday from its home outside the Mayo Civic Center, where it had stood for decades, to the Public Works Transit and Operations Center. The move was necessary because of the civic center's upcoming expansion project.
Crews discovered a wooden box that appears to be a time capsule under the statue. It's unclear how old the box is or what's inside. KAAL-TV notes a timetable for opening the box has not been set. It will remain in storage until Mayor Ardell Brede decides the next move.
Time capsule discovered outside @MayoCivicCenter - Story at 6:03pm on ABC 6 News. #rochmn http://t.co/BlVlpbsrhp pic.twitter.com/fl9Piggk1D
— KAAL TV (@ABC6NEWS) April 8, 2015
Though the future site of the sculpture has not yet been determined, a push to move it back to its original location in Mayo Park is gaining momentum.
Kristin Cheronis, the Minneapolis-based art conservator in charge of cleaning and preserving the statue, recently issued a recommendation that it be placed in the park, notes a report by the Post-Bulletin.
The mayor said last month that he supports the idea of placing the statue in the park's amphitheater.
"The amphitheater without the statues is kind of meaningless," Brede told KROC-AM. "People wonder 'who are those quotes;' they don't mean anything."
Brede said there was also a proposal floating around to put the statue inside the civic center's lobby. However, an expert concluded that the sculpture was too large for the space.
The statue was first placed in the Mayo Park amphitheater in 1952, about 13 after the deaths of Dr. Charles Mayo and Dr. William Mayo.
Its sculptor, Winona-native James Earle Fraser, also completed notable projects such as the two figures of "Law and Justice" in front of Supreme Court building and an equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt at the American Museum of Natural History.
Fraser's sculpture of Charles and William Mayo was depicted in a 1964 stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.
A second bronze statue of the Mayo brothers was installed in front of the Gonda Building in downtown Rochester in 2002.
Click here to learn more about the history of the Mayo Clinic.
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(Cover photo: 2014 / jpellgen / Creative Commons)
