Billy Penn, looking good at 124, to get checkup plus wash 'n' wax

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William Penn is due for a physical.

Not to mention a waxing and a buffing.

The City of Philadelphia plans to restore Penn's bronze statue atop City Hall in late August. The work will take three to four weeks, during which time the observation deck will be closed.

Penn's statue was last restored in 2007 with funds from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and the city. This time, a different mix is involved: $125,000 in private funds, a $25,000 National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) grant, and $100,000 of city money, said Margot Berg, the city's public art director.

"We think of this sculpture as sort of the iconic piece in the city," Berg said. "It's very symbolic for Philadelphia, and it's important for us to maintain so visitors and residents for generations to come are able to enjoy seeing the piece and visiting the observation deck and looking up at him."

The statue was created in 1892 by the sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and who spent nearly 20 years creating about 250 figures for City Hall.

Berg said the 124-year-old statue needs restoration about once a decade. The city didn't learn that lesson until the 1980s, when Penn - green from corrosion and acid rain - was first treated. He was treated again in 1996 and then in 2007, all three times by Moorland Studios of Stockton, N.J.

The conservators said environmental exposure had compromised the protective coating on his back and shoulders when they last examined him, in 2007. Corrosion had begun to make its way into his hat's brim and crown, as well as the tree stump sculpted at his side.

"It is impressive proof of 1892 craftsmanship that the 37-foot Penn statue, fitted together in 47 sections with 1,402 bolts, has withstood numerous direct lightning strikes, hurricane-force winds, and all the man-made chemistry of an urban environment," the conservators, Constance K. Bassett and David Cann, said in an email.

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