Welcome Home, Sybil!
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
By Holly Crocco
A crowd of spectators lined Gleneida Avenue to welcome the return of the Sybil Ludington statue July 3, as a parade escorted the recently refurbished structure from the Kent Elementary School to her permanent resting place in front of Lake Gleneida in the hamlet.
Sybil was lifted from the stone foundation April 27 to undergo her first comprehensive restoration in decades.
Anna Hyatt Huntington sculpted the bronze statue, which was first dedicated in 1961. It depicts the teenager holding a stick and shouting a call to arms while sitting astride her horse Star. Cast in bronze and mounted on a fieldstone pedestal, the statue is one-and-one-third-times life-size.
“We can all trace back our relatives to someone who served or contributed to the American Revolution,” said Chloe Pollack, president of the New York State Chapter of the Children of the American Revolution.
Pollack said she wishes more people knew that Ludington was only 16 years old when she completed her historic ride. “It’s really inspiring to me that she was so young and she was able to do all this,” she said.
Jennifer Pollack agreed.
“I think people get a little nervous about quoting history for young women and children because their stories were not told – they were not kept in history,” she said.
Before Sybil was placed back on her “throne,” Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne – who announced the “Save Sybil” restoration effort more than a year ago – helped the Friends of the Daughters of the American Revolution place a time capsule within the monument.
“So the next time Putnam County needs to step up and restore Sybil, they’re going to see what was documented during ‘America 250’ and our restoration,” he said.
According to County Historian Jennifer Cassidy, the statue will be rededicated in April of next year.