Famous people's places / Detroit – Downtown
Hazen S. Pingree Statue, Grand Circus Park
Bronze statue of reform mayor and governor Hazen S. Pingree in downtown Detroit's Grand Circus Park, paid for by thousands of small public donations and unveiled in 1904.
01 / The story of this place
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Hazen S. Pingree served as Detroit's mayor from 1890 to 1897, championing streetcar and utility reform and famously turning vacant city lots into "potato patches" so unemployed families could grow their own food during the depression of 1893. He left city hall only because Michigan voters elected him governor, a post he held until 1901. After his death in 1901, more than five thousand ordinary Detroiters, most giving a quarter or a dollar, funded a bronze memorial by sculptor Rudolph Schwarz, seated and larger than life, unveiled in Grand Circus Park on May 30, 1904. Its granite base carries the inscription "The Idol of the People," the nickname Detroiters had already given him. The statue still faces Woodward Avenue in the park today, one of downtown's oldest public monuments.
- Hazen S. Pingree was Detroit's reform mayor from 1890 to 1897, then Michigan's governor
- Started the "potato patch" relief gardens during the depression of 1893
- Statue funded by more than five thousand small public donations
- Sculpted by Rudolph Schwarz, unveiled May 30, 1904, in Grand Circus Park
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Hazen S. Pingree 1840–1901 · shoe manufacturer, mayor of Detroit, governor of Michigan
Memorial
Bronze seated statue funded by public subscription, inscribed 'The Idol of the People.'
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Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
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03 / Events
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