Christopher Columbus Statue Removed In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, CT — The statue of Christopher Columbus was removed from Harbor Park in Middletown over the weekend. Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said that the statue had already been slated for a temporary move, but officials decided to do it sooner than later as statues of Christopher Columbus have been vandalized across the country.

The statue of Christopher Columbus in Middletown was donated by several groups of local, mostly Italian-American families in the mid-1990s and erected at Harbor Park, according to Florsheim.

Florsheim said there have been strong opinions on both sides of what to do with the statue. He took to social media on Sunday to explain why the statue was removed.

“First, it has been slated for a temporary move for a while,” Florsheim wrote in a post on Facebook. “Maintenance work at Harbor Park, scheduled to start in early July, requires the removal and storage of the statue. The plan was approved at the last meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“Second, I have received a large number of calls, emails, and texts in recent days from residents pointing out that statues of Columbus are being taken down in other places across the state and country, either temporarily or permanently, and that they would like to see Middletown do the same. Many of the other statues were removed after being vandalized, which has not happened in Middletown in recent weeks, but has happened several times in the last few years.

“Of course, there are many in Middletown who want it to stay up, too. To the hundreds of people who were involved in the creation and placement of the statue, it has less to do with the historical figure of Columbus and more to do with their own families’ history in Middletown. I spoke to a number of people on both sides of the issue yesterday.

“Ultimately, the city decided that as long as we have to move the statue anyway, we would do so a couple of weeks early, rather than wait for something to happen to it. In speaking with some of the statue’s original sponsors yesterday, there was some interest in having the statue relocated to a privately-owned site with heritage significant to the Italian-American community. Those are initial conversations that will continue in the coming days. Making decisions collaboratively is important to me, and this is an issue on which the broader community deserves to be heard.

“The fraught debate over Christopher Columbus’s legacy is one that’s important to have in Middletown (and everywhere). Like the decision about naming the new middle school, or the acknowledgement of Middletown’s historical role in the slave trade, it is something that will be contentious and will sometimes lead to irreconcilable disagreement. But I am convinced (as always) that in Middletown there is no issue that we cannot resolve peacefully as a community.”