1963
The renowned sculptor Marshall Fredericks was commissioned to create numerous sculptures, reliefs, and memorials throughout metro Detroit, the United States, and the world. However, locally, he is best known for creating the iconic bronze statue “The Spirit of Detroit” depicting a human figure holding a family and golden orb in its hands. Dedicated in 1958 for the new City-County Building (later named the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center) at the foot of Woodward Avenue, the sculpture soon became the symbol of the city.
Fredericks studied under the famous Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills for nine years, and earned his first commission in 1936 when he won the competition to create the Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle.
The artist is pictured here in 1963 surrounded by models of his “Spirit of Detroit” figure, the “Boy and Bear” sculpture that was installed at the Northland Center shopping mall and is now in the lobby of the Southfield Public Library, and the “Christ on the Cross” sculpture, a 28-foot-tall bronze statue mounted on a 55-foot-tall redwood cross at the Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine of Indian River.
His sculpture “Freedom of the Human Spirit” — a male and a female nude with arms outstretched and surrounded by three swans — was created for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City and stood in what was known as the Court of States in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. It was moved in 1996 to the main entrance of the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which is also in the park. In 1983, Fredericks donated a casting of the work to his adopted home of Birmingham for the city’s 50th anniversary; it is located in the center of Shain Park.
From 1945 until his death in 1998 at age 90, Fredericks worked at his Royal Oak studio located at the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Normandy Road. (It has since been demolished.)
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum at Saginaw Valley State University houses more than 200 of Fredericks’s plaster and bronze models and molds in addition to an archive for scholarly use of his tools, equipment, architectural site models, sculptures, and personal papers.
This story originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on Sept. 6. Plus, find even more The Way It Was articles at hourdetroit.com.
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