For a few magical months following its completion in April of 1987, this was the largest horizontal sundial in the world. The face is 40 feet square and the gnomon is 21 1/2 feet long. The previous recordholder's face was 35 feet across. As of this writing, the largest is the Kentucky Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Frankfurt.
This sundial was built to honor Arkansas' 150th year as a State, and ironically enough, it was built entirely without state funds. Audrey Burtrum-Stanley (described by local civil servants as an "activist," though she says she prefers "crusader") solicited contributions of land, materials and labor to have this sundial erected.
Of special interest are the materials, solicited by Ms. Burtrum-Stanley and donated by people and governments worldwide. Around the periphery of the face are stationed stones from various significant places, Anne Frank's house, the Library of Athens, a piece of rubble from Soweto, the Tower of London, a couple of parlaiment buildings, the pyramids of Mexico, the Vatican and so on and so on. The list is impressive, apparently too impressive. In a phone conversation with her, Audrey declined to mention which stones were which because of what she termed the "midnight rock shop."
The park has suffered dearly at the hands of vandals. Metals have been stolen and sold as scrap, people have tried to pry up many of the stones. Temporary exhibits (recently memorials to Princess Di and Mother Teresa) have also been vandalized. Even the shrubbery in the park has been stolen, some plantings many times over. It's a shame, too, because this little park is interesting on so many levels, astronomical, geological, political, social, historical and artistic.
You can visit this sundial, if I haven't frightened you away, at the foot of the Broadway Bridge in North Little Rock.
In the neighborhood: THE Little Rock | General MacArthur Birthplace
Another Arkansas national treasure bites the dust. In early May of 2002 a judge upheld a decision in favor of the new leadership of National Bank of Arkansas (The Little Bank With the Big Heart). The new leaders wanted to expand the existing branch building on that land and sell some of the surrounding property to commercial developers, so they asked Audrey Burtrum-Stanley and her Volunteers for Improvement and Preservation to remove the sundial. And just to prove there were no hard feelings, they sued her for twelve thousand dollars for loss of use of the land. They said they had been asking her to remove the sundial since 1997 and the delay prompted the suit.
Audrey said the bank had donated the land, but the new head office said no, the bank was just letting her civic group use the land temporarily. They said they had continued to pay taxes on it, they still held the deed on it, and now that they had plans for it, the civic group would have to get their sundial out of progress' way.
The bank dropped the suit when the sundial was removed, but Audrey got personally stuck with the tab for demolition and haulage. She declined to tell me what the price tag was.
So it's gone and Ms. Burtrum-Stanley hopes to find it a new home. The bad news is that sundials are made to very narrow specifications to fit specific geographical locations. The farther the sundial gets from North Little Rock, the less accurate it will be.
The sundial was originally to be built on the west side of Broadway, but at the last minute it was discovered that the people who donated that streetcorner didn't own it. The National Bank of Arkansas owned the empty corner opposite the intended site and offered to let the VIP's and the Beautification Commission build there, and there it stood for fifteen years.
Throughout those fifteen years the sundial served as a memorial park that hosted vigils and memorials for famous people and recently served that function after the Kennedy tragedy in 1999.
I'll leave this story up for a month or two, but as soon as development begins and the last vestiges of the Sesquicentennial Sundial are removed, I'm retiring the story to the boneyard. In the meantime, if you want to give the sundial a new home, you can reach the appropriate parties at Mr. Stanley's law office in North Little Rock.
Sources:
Arkansas Democrat/Gazette, 3Apr02 D1; 24Aug01 B1; 20Dec01 B2; 19Dec01 B1; 24Jun99 B2.
Correspondence: Audrey Burtrum-Stanley
It never rains but it pours. The disassembled components of the sundial, including rocks and bricks from the Vatican and the Great Wall of China became the subject of complaints by neighbors. They were being stored on the Stanleys' property, and the city sent a notice that building materials couldn't be stored on residential property.
Source:
Arkansas Democrat/Gazette: 9Jun02 6E
RTJ--6/15/02