Giraffe Statues Could Part with New Benson Park Historical Display

The Benson Park Committee met on Aug. 22 with one of the discussions being brought up being a possible donation of giraffe statues by Committee member, Gary Williams. The Friends of Benson Park debated the viability of that donation.
“Would it be possible if a couple of us came over to see them in person?” asked Natalie Newell from the Friends organization.
Having already sent photos of the giraffes; Williams agreed to show off the statues whenever the Friends wanted.
“It’s going to be a bit different seeing them in person than in the picture,” he said. “We had an accident with one of them, I backed into one of them with a lawnmower. There’s about a 12-inch split down its butt. It’s fixable, but I’m not sure if I should be fixing it. We should get someone to look at these who knows what they’re doing.”
Chair, Jack Madden, suggested displaying the giraffes near Benson Park’s old train station with a picture of live giraffes from the early days of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm and context for the giraffe statue. Unlike a recently donated set of lion statues, the giraffes did not originate from Hudson’s former zoo/theme park and were originally used in unrelated advertising for the Glenmorangie brand.
“We could find a spot where we could display the giraffes, understanding that these physical giraffes were never here. However, they are illustrative to the fact that Benson’s Wild Animal Farm did have giraffes, and did ship them out.”
Specifically, he wanted to place the giraffe statue next to a picture of live giraffes being shipped from Hudson to the Detroit Zoo in the late 1920s.
“We could even put on a short piece of track a Lionel boxcar showing a picture of the giraffe and the freight car,” said Madden. “That’s not definitive, but it’s a suggestion.”
This would tie the giraffe statues into the overall effort by the Friends of Benson Park and the Benson Park Committee to refurbish many of the area’s historical assets, including a recent renovation of Old Woman in the Shoe, abatement of the Hudson Train Station, and a conversation of the Elephant Barn structure to a museum. The giraffe display would include a metal plaque for visitors.
“I’m able to get a plaque from the people who used this as advertisement, but it’s a liquor company. Do you want a liquor company involved with this park?” asked Williams. “Saying this is why the statues were made, because the height of them was the height of the still this liquor was made in. Do you want a background of that?”
The Committee agreed that using the existing plaque from Glenmorangie probably was not the best idea for the display they had in mind. Nonetheless, Madden asked for a photo of the plaque to see the exact wording.
The next meeting of the Benson Park Committee is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. in the HCTV Meeting Room.

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