Standing Guard at Portage and Main

I was doing a little research for my Downtown Places blog and found some interesting things about the unnamed statue at Portage and Main that is usually referred to as "World War One Soldier" or "Bank of Montreal Memorial".

The artist, James Earle Fraser, was an American and the uniform the soldier is wearing is that of a U.S. soldier, not a Canadian one. It was something first pointed out moments after the unveiling.

Fraser created the soldier right after his most famous work, The End of the Trail, which is still replicated and sold today. He then went on to create dozens of well-known pieces including the Benjamin Franklin Memorial in Philadelphia, the large justice figures at the base of the U.S. Supreme Court steps, and some pieces for Central Park in New York City.

UPDATE: My expanded December 2013 Free Press column about this story.