The city’s first Goddess of Commerce stood 6 feet, 10 inches and held the world in one hand and an oar in the other. An anchor, a sheaf of wheat and a basket of crops were strewn at her feet atop the cornice of the Downtown Chamber of Commerce Building at South 12th Street and Pacific Avenue.
And then she was gone.
Wednesday, the Goddess of Commerce returned.
Tacoma Fire Department Assistant Chief Faith Mueller, Goddess of Firefighting, climbed out on a ladder truck and hoisted a white tarp to reveal a bronze goddess reincarnated to reflect modern commerce – and the modern women who put her where she is now.
In 2004, Dan Voelpel, who was then The News Tribune’s business columnist, became infatuated with the idea of her predecessor.
Business columnists are notoriously vulnerable to the twin whammy of goddesses and commerce, and Voelpel went on a multi-column search for the original metal maiden.
She reportedly bore a charming resemblance to Sophie Darmer, wife of Prussian architect Augustus Darmer. They arrived in Tacoma in 1884.
By December 1885, the three-story building he designed for the Downtown Chamber was completed. It had a cast-iron facade, and that Goddess standing firm on the cornice.
Those who knew the Darmers saw the image of Sophie in the Goddess.
Through 2004 and into 2005, Voelpel’s quest for the Goddess revealed her history, and the waste of history wrought by changing tastes.
Sprung from Darmer’s imagination, she was made real by Edward Miller of the Miller Cornice and Roofing Company. Miller arrived in Tacoma the same year as the Darmers, and he worked with sheet metal.
From that, Voelpel and Tacoma history expert Michael Sullivan deduced that the Goddess was likely hammered. Miller did not have a foundry, but he did have a workshop where artisans worked sheet metal into decorative shapes. The Goddess, like the Statue of Liberty, was likely pounded into shape over a frame and snipped into her final form.
She reigned nearly 65 years.
In 1950, the expanding National Bank of Washington bought and razed the old Chamber building. David McHugh’s father, Walt, did the demolition and hauled the scrap metal, including the Goddess, to Joseph Simon & Sons metal recyling.
Melted, she was worth a bottle of whiskey, which McHugh bought for his men to share that Friday.
Still, Voelpel could not get her out of his mind. He suggested Tacomans fire up a new goddess.
Tacoma sculptor Marilyn Mahoney, Goddess of Art Education, agreed. She conceived a new Goddess and made a mock-up of a woman with Indian features holding Tacoma landmarks in one hand and a container ship in the other.
Kevin Keating, general manager of The Bronze Works, offered to cast a 7-foot version of her. Local Goddess of Philanthropy and Persistence Babe Lehrer set out to raise the money to make and install her.
Then the Goddess’ luck changed for the worse.
She turned out the lights at Bronze Works, where she was the last major piece cast before the business fell victim to the recession in 2010.
Other pieces from the foundry fared better. Pioneer schoolmistress Chloe Clark was swept to DuPont to ring her bell, and the brawny ox and lumberman were hauled to Enumclaw to commemorate the city’s logging legacy.
But the Goddess got stood up. Once she was poured into her gown, with its back zipper of salmon, she was left without a date.
A spot by the Carlton Center was too close to the Welcome Figure in Tollefson Plaza.
Pierce Transit offered a site on its land near the Theater in the Square.
In 2009, the Tacoma Arts Commission nixed that.
Though Mahoney had taught at Tacoma Community College and served on the arts commission, members said she had “no reputation, exhibition record or market.”
Tacoma’s economic development director, Ryan Petty, called the Goddess “a well-intentioned piece,” which is about as faint as praise can get.
Homeless, GC II hung out on rooftops. At one point, she stood among the tar patches on the roof of the building that houses the Two Koi restaurant near University of Washington-Tacoma.
Out of sight, she wore a Dollar Tree sombrero and held up a cardboard sign reading “Good home needed. Por Favor. Goddess Bless You.”
Enter Seong Shin.
Shin’s condo overlooks the spot where the new Goddess stands at the intersection of Sixth and St. Helens avenues.
“It’s a significant gateway to the Theater District,” said Shin, who boosts the district and helped develop the gateway idea.
“We had some kind of art in mind,” she said for the privately-owned spot. “We heard this piece of art was available.”
Lehrer’s group was delighted to find the Goddess a home overlooking the Port of Tacoma, and donated her. District boosters raised $15,000 for installation. Shin has heard the sculpture cost $80,000. Lehrer declined to give a figure, but said pieces of similar size can run $150,000.
Wednesday, the expense, the controversy and the rocky journey were of no consequence to the crowd that gathered to celebrate the Goddess of Commerce’s return to Tacoma.
That’s all over, Lehrer said, “And here we are for the happy day.”
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman @thenewstribune.com
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