Statue of a young F. Scott Fitzgerald is stolen

ST. PAUL >> CATHEDRAL HILL

Police are asking anyone with information about the theft to come forward

Sculptor Aaron Dysart installs a statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald on Sept. 25, 2006, at the Academy Professional Building in St. Paul, a former site of St. Paul Academy, the private school Fitzgerald attended for three years. The statue was stolen last week. JOE ODEN — PIONEER PRESS

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By Mara H. Gottfried

mgottfried@pioneerpress.com

A familiar Cathedral Hill statue of St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald has been stolen from outside the building where he attended school.

The author was born in St. Paul in 1896 and attended St. Paul Academy, which was then on Dale Street just off Summit Avenue. A statue of a young Fitzgerald, with books on his lap, usually sits on the side of the stairs leading to the front door.

St. Paul police received a report about the theft on Friday, and building owner Ed Conley said they believe it was stolen that day using a cutting torch. Police are investigating and asking anyone with information to come forward.

“It’s a shame because people would come there all the time and take pictures of it. It became part of tours,” Conley said Tuesday. “It became a community thing, which is exactly what I wanted.”

A placard of the statue by artist Aaron Dysart from 2006 says Fitzgerald attended school at the site from 1908 to 1911, published some of his first short stories in the school’s magazine and penned his first plays at that time. Now called the Academy Professional Building, it’s home to a law firm.

Conley bought the building about 20 years ago. “It was trashed when I got it,” he said. “My business is I buy real estate that’s usually problematic and restore it.”

During the restoration, Conley noticed people coming by and taking photos of the building. “I didn’t realize that F. Scott Fitzgerald had gone to school there,” he said. When he researched the history, “I thought it would really be cool to give back to the community a bronze statue.”

Around the corner from the old school and statue is the Fitzgerald home at 599 Summit Ave., where the author wrote “This Side of Paradise.”

Conley commissioned Dysart for the statue. He had a studio in St. Paul’s Lowertown at the time and now is based in Minneapolis.

“He and I worked side-by-side to find out what the school uniform that F. Scott Fitzgerald would have worn looked like,” Conley said. “There was a lot of research on both of our ends.”

He said he paid around $20,000 for the statue and, even in 2006, he worried about someone stealing it. “We really, really anchored it onto the front steps,” Conley said. It weighs a couple of hundred pounds.

“It’s sad because the scrap amount is maybe $500 to $600, but replacing it would probably cost $35,000 or $40,000,” Conley said. “If someone would have called me up and said, ‘I need $500 that bad or I’m going to cut the statue out,’ I would have given it to them. Leave the $40,000 statue there.”

All that remains since the theft are four fingers of one hand from the statue and some bolts that were cut.

Conley said he’s not sure what he’s going to do if the statue isn’t found.

Dysart, whose work is much different now, said he was surprised about the theft and was still processing the news Tuesday.

This year is the 100th anniversary since Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby.”

The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library are hosting a variety of programs, including an event, Great Gatsby: Performance & Talk by Literature to Life, from 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday at the George Latimer Central Library.