GOSHEN — Bob has been washing the big front window at Gaining Grounds since spring. Just about everyone passing by has noticed his reaching arm and happy smile.
“It is still dirty,” laughed Ruth Yankey, a team leader at Gaining Grounds as she looked toward Bob through the window.
Of course, Bob is not a real person. He is the creation of Seward Johnson, a famed sculptor whose collection of statutes depicting people going about everyday tasks and recreation became a tourist attraction in Elkhart County.
The Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau arranged for 57 of Johnson’s bronze sculptures to be displayed in downtowns in the county’s communities. The display was in celebration of the 10th year of the annual quilt gardens tour, which is itself a draw for tourists.
“I think it brought a lot of people to town,” Yankey said of the sculpture display.
Some of the people who stopped to take a look at Bob went on to buy some coffee at Gaining Grounds, she said.
“A lot of pictures were taken with the man,” Yankey said.
In Middlebury, a letter carrier sculpture was placed in front of the post office, which caused passing motorists to do a double-take.
“It is great,” postal clerk Tia Smith said of the many reactions she has seen, including people placing sunglasses on the carrier. “It has brought (in) a lot of people. People stop and see that and stop to talk about that and then they see the mural inside the post office, so it is kind of neat”
The post office’s mural was painted by Ray Redell in 1939, according to Smith. Bob, the letter carrier and 54 of the other sculptures will be packed up around Friday, according to Terry Mark, spokesperson for the ECCVB. He said the quilt garden tours ended Oct. 1 and the next task is for the sculptures to be sent back to Johnson’s foundation.
One exception will be made. The monument-sized “God Bless America” sculpture on display in Elkhart’s Central Park will remain for viewing until February because of the positive response to the sculptures, according to Johnson’s foundation.
“I think this has been an overwhelming success for the county,” Mark said. “It achieved what we hoped it would, in that it was a celebration of the quilt gardens’ 10th anniversary. It was something people got excited about. They gathered together family and friends and made an adventure out of finding many or all of these sculptures. By doing so, they were able to visit all the downtowns in Elkhart County and, by doing so, discover some of the new and exciting things going on there.”
Mark said there is no way to obtain exact numbers on how many tourists and locals viewed the sculptures, but 40,000 guides for the sculptures and quilt tour were picked up by those viewing the attractions.
“It has definitely been a fun summer,” Mark said.