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Date Posted: 10:57:48 10/21/06 Sat
Author: Kathleen
Subject: Minerva Hits Dick Case Column


Rev. Jim Mason '61 called to let us know that Dick Case had our old girl in his column today. I have been communicating back and forth with Dick about Minerva and he took the opportunity to go to Bobby Shenfeld's studio and see her for himself. He has a folder on her that he has offered to share with me for copying and I will do that when I get some time back in Syracuse. Here is
the column.


MINERVA SLOWLY BACK ON HER FEET

Saturday, October 21, 2006

DICK CASE
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST

There she is, caught in a shaft of sunlight, in an artist's studio on the top floor of the old gear factory on West Fayette Street: Minerva, aka Athena seven feet of grayish plaster and a Syracuse legend.

For likely 70 years, this statue of the Roman or Greek goddess of wisdom stood on a platform in the entrance lobby of Central High School at the south edge of downtown. When the city closed the school in 1976 and sold most of the contents, Minerva, her name at Central, was moved, also. Her first sale was to a local collector of architectural leftovers. Then Minerva went public again: near the front window of Xristou's deli, East Fayette Street, downtown. Owner Paul Christou, who is of Greek descent, renamed Minerva "Athena." The statue followed the Christous to a new deli at 1 Park Place on South State Street, and then to the state fair, where Minerva-Athena was the literal centerpiece of the busy restaurant Paul and his family ran during fair week. She was wired like a figure on the bow of a ship above the front counter of the stand. There she stayed, helmet into the wind, until Super Dirt Week 1998. That was when three patrons tried to swipe the statue. They didn't, but they did drop her.
Minerva-Athena ended up in boxes, damaged and splintered, the head detached, an arm gone. Paul Christou said it would cost him too much to restore the icon.
Meanwhile, a campaign rose up among some alumni of Central. A movement took hold, encouraged by Steve Jones, the city district's superintendent, to reopen the school. It had been closed because educators didn't think combining academics and technical education in one building was a good idea. As they looked at the prospect of reinventing their favorite high school, Central alumni realized Central wouldn't be Central without Minerva. The Christous were closing down in Syracuse and moving to open a new place in Virginia. Paul Christou gave Minerva, still in pieces, to Kathleen Niles, Class of 1961, and other alumni.
That was about three (five) years ago. Kathleen was once vice principal at Corcoran High School back then. One of the school's art teachers, Bob Shenfeld, agreed to have a try at rebuilding Minerva, with some of his students. One of the early discoveries, beyond the obvious damage, was that Minerva wasn't made of marble as her fans thought, but a chalky composite similar to plaster. Now, after months of scoping out the best path to restoration, and lots of delay about the city's school construction program, both Central and Minerva look to be on the way home. Central is set to reopen as a school - called the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central - as early as next fall. The statue's getting a big-time makeover at Bob Shenfeld's studio at 1005 W. Fayette St., once home to the Brown-Lipe-Chapin gear works.

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