99% Forgotten

Roman Mars:
This is 99% Invisible. I’m Roman Mars.
“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.”

William Littmann:
In Ozymandias-

Roman Mars:
The poem by Percy Shelley.

William Littmann:
The poem is about a historic monument of a figure-

Roman Mars:
A shattered visage lies.

William Littmann:
Who has a wrinkled lip and a sneer of cold command. The statue points to all the works around him and the poem reads “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.”

Roman Mars:
“Look upon my works, ye mighty and despair.”

William Littmann:
And the rest of the poem says that all of the works that the statue is pointing to have disappeared.

Roman Mars:
Nothing beside remains.

William Littmann:
So it’s really a poem about – that the figure remains but everything around it has disappeared. Everything that the figure and the statue was supposed to be proud of.

Roman Mars:
But this is about another former statue. That once stood high above San Francisco.

William Littmann:
This is kind of the inverse. All of the things around it, all of the landscape that the statue was supposed to sort of urge to liberty and philanthropy, that’s all still here. In San Francisco, what the statue was dedicated to improving is there but the statue its self has disappeared.

Roman Mars:
That’s William Littmann.

William Littmann:
I teach architectural history at the California College of Art in Oakland and San Francisco.

Roman Mars:
And we’re walking up to what I think might be the greatest place in all of San Francisco. That few people have ever heard of. What was once considered the geographic center of the city.

William Littmann:
So here we come up, it’s this kind of raised plinth.

Roman Mars:
On top of Mt. Olympus.

William Littmann:
A massive stone pedestal that rises up to nothing.

Roman Mars:
It’s the base of a statue that isn’t there.

William Littmann:
Where once this twelve-foot high bronze statue stood on top of it.

Roman Mars:
On a site that has some of the best views of the entire city.

William Littmann:
And the view is insane! It’s a 360 view of the city.

Roman Mars:
The statue was called “Triumph of Light.”

William Littmann:
It was a statue of this woman who looked a little like the Statue of Liberty. She was holding aloft a giant torch. In the other hand she had a piece of parchment, and below her was a crouched figure sort of reaching up to these two objects as if it was symbolizing mankind, reaching for light and liberty.

Roman Mars:
It was erected in 1887 by then-developer and future mayor Adolf Sutro, as a symbol of liberty and progressivism.

William Littmann:
When Sutro dedicated the statue, in 1887 on Thanksgiving Day, he told the crowd “may the light shine from the torch of the goddess of liberty to inspire our citizens to good and noble deeds for the benefit of mankind.”

Roman Mars:
It was supposed to stand forever, to be a timeless reminder.

William Littmann:
About the importance of liberty and civilization and philanthropy.

Roman Mars:
But it didn’t last.

William Littmann:
In the 1930s, people were referring to it as “The Mystery Monument,” so obviously people have forgotten about Sutro and his goals. And then by the 40s, there’s discussion about removing it

Roman Mars:
After decades of neglect, sometime in the 1950s…

William Littmann:
It just disappears. And people discuss it online, where it may have gone.

Roman Mars:
So no one knows.

William Littmann:
People really do come up to this hill. The same things that drew Sutro here draw dogwalkers and, you know, just urban walkers to come up here. Maybe through these kinds of discussions we can actually have someone maybe decide to build a new statue. I mean, who knows what it would look like, though. Imagine the debates about how would you symbolize liberty and philanthropy.

Roman Mars:
Yeah, I don’t know if I would like to see anything else here. Does that make me weird?

William Littmann:
Okay. Then what we should have here is a little plaque telling people that there was once this beautiful sculpture to light, liberty, and philanthropy, and now it’s gone so that’s what we need to work on. Although a sense of mystery is always good. You know, people look up and think “what could have been up there? What is missing?”

Roman Mars:
99% Invisible is about the stories of human-made objects and maybe, in this case, the absence of the object makes for a better story. A monument to learning and light and liberty that’s missing is almost a more amazing monument that says more about us.

William Littmann:
About just neglect and how a city forgets its past.

Roman Mars:
99% Invisible was produced by me, Roman Mars, with support from Lunar. It’s a project of KALW, the American Institue of Architects San Francisco, and the Center for Architecture and design. Find out more and see pictures at 99percentinvisible.org.