Douglas Avenue and
Chester I. Lewis Reflection Park
Wichita, Kansas
Installation 2002

In 1998 Dick Devore, a Wichita resident and head of the DeVore Foundation, saw Georgia’s installation of animal sculptures in downtown Portland and was inspired to approach her about an even larger project for his City. At the time, the Wichita City Council was considering a major renovation called “Douglas Streetscape”. To enhance the project, the DeVore foundation commissioned Georgia to create a series of public sculptures along the length of Douglas Avenue - the showcase piece being a life-sized old fashioned soda fountain/lunch counter placed in the park area made possible by the removal of an obsolete F.W. Woolworth Store. The counter would include sculpted figures and common ancillary items such as menus and straw holders. The project won approval and over the next four years a series of sculptures were imagined, created, and finally installed in 2002.

The 20’ lunch counter was designed by Georgia and her husband Randy Hudson, and produced by the Seattle art firm Fabrication Specialties. Georgia created all of the figurative sculpture and she and her crew cast and finished them at her studio/foundry on Whidbey Island.

Besides the Counter, the collection includes: a busker and his dog, a girl holding a balloon over a spouting water feature, a businessman cooling his heels in a small fountain, beef cattle at an intersection, foxes pursuing prairie chickens, a young girl with her pony and dog, a falcon perched on a street sign support, a girl playing hopscotch with a cat watching, a boy pouring water from a large cup into an endlessly overflowing smaller cup which in turn runs over the hands of his companion, a boy pushing a pedal car th at children can sit in and spin the steering wheel, two boys on scooters riding through the park, and a woman pointing skyward with her son. A series of smaller sculptures of local animals placed discreetly in-between the major pieces serve to link the presentation together along the Avenue.


Notes on the History of the
Soda Fountain/Lunch Counter

The legacy of lunch counters of the 1950’s and 60’s is interwoven with the history of civil rights. When researching designs of the era, Randy came across an article by Ronald Walters, a black man who grew up in Wichita and became a professor of African-American Politics at Howard University. Dr. Walters wrote of being humiliated as a youth at Woolworth’s segregated lunch counter, and detailed his later involvement in one of the nation’s first sucessful lunch counter sit-ins, at Dockum Drugs, across the street on Douglas Avenue. That weeks-long protest in 1958 led to the same peaceful integration of other lunch counters across the city.

Randy contacted Dr. Walters to discuss the proposed sculpture and the significance it might hold for some. Dr. Walters’ advice was that the inclusion of any identifiably black adult at the counter would be both appropriate and symbolically important to the community, and “could serve as a bridge from the City’s past to the present”.

The original inspiration for the lunch counter came from the fact that the site was once a Woolworth Store with a similar counter. However, when Georgia became aware of the history of the sit-in, that event also informed the work. The inclusion of the black figures became an intentional gesture meant not only to be inclusive but also to reference and honor the Dockum Drug Store sit-in.

Both the DeVore Foundation and the City’s Mayor at the time endorsed the proposal. Dick DeVore requested that Georgia consider a longtime employee and friend of his as the model for the African American customer. Georgia portrays him at the counter, with the addition of his grandson in the adjacent seat.

As Dr. Walters had suggested, over the years many people have come to view the lunch counter sculpture as a significant reminder of historical events in the City. Others have maintained that there are no ties between the two. In 2018 Georgia was contacted by Elaine Guillory, then the Wichita and Kansas State NAACP Secretary, about plans to mark the 60th anniversary of the sit-in. Ms. Guillory had hopes to include the lunch counter in the planned ceremonies, but some members had expressed doubts about any connection to the historical integration. Randy sent her this narrative, along with a number of contemporary news articles corroborating the history. He ended with the observations below. The sculpture was included as part of the ceremonies.

“Any confusion or disagreement seems to be around the use of the words “Memorial” and “Commemorate”. We have always used softer language such as “acknowledge”, “tribute”, and “reference”. But in their most common meanings, “memorial” and “commemorate” both simply refer to helping preserve a memory. In that sense, if the Lunch Counter Sculpture has taken on the role in the Wichita community of helping to preserve the memory of the Dockum Sit-In then it has in fact become a memorial.

Georgia is very pleased with the Lunch Counter Sculpture on many levels. She has always intended for her public art to be interactive, and is honored that the sculpture is used and enjoyed, and especially that it has moved people and taken on meaning within the community.”