Thomas R. Proctor

The Thomas R. Proctor Statue (1921)

Although Proctor specifically asked during his lifetime that no statue should be erected of him, he died in 1920, and in 1921 the people of Utica erected this very good likeness.

This is one of two statues on the Parkway that was created by George Brewster, the second being the statue of James Schoolcraft Sherman.  Brewster also created a statue of Alexander Hamilton, located in front of the Hamilton College Chapel, which Proctor donated to the college.

The statue’s base says that it was created to “perpetuate the memory of Thomas Redfield Proctor, who gave to the city he loved its magnificent system of public parks.” Originally located on Master Garden Road, just off the Parkway (to the east of the current site), it was moved to its present location on the Parkway near the Swan Memorial Fountain in the 1990s.