THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603200047
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: OBSCURE TOUR
LOCAL LANDMARKS THE TOUR BOOKS NEVER MENTION
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
THE TIRED, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free - all can find spiritual solace on the bank of the Lafayette River in Norfolk, where a miniature, lighted Lady Liberty gazes upon the tempest-tost.
The 9-foot statue overlooks the river from a concrete base in the yard of Jim and Virginia Gray, on Orleans Circle in the Lafayette neighborhood.
It's become familiar to boaters since its erection in 1992, and - bathed in spotlights, a light bulb illuminating its torch - a nighttime landmark.
Jim Gray, a frequent visitor to New York City's waterways, says he situated the statue so that, viewed with nearby bridges over the Lafayette, it would evoke the real Liberty's relationship with bigger spans.
Which it does. Sort of.
The Grays bought the statue from a Norfolk antique store. It drew the ire of city wetlands officials when the couple put it on display to honor a promise to Jim's departed mother.
City Hall eventually relented, however, and today the statue is visible not only from the water but from Orleans Circle, and - if you're armed with binoculars - from Lafayette Park. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Jim and Virginia Gray's miniature Statue of Liberty overlooks the
Lafayette River.
by CNB