Vandals destroy historic Byerly Baby sculpture in Hartsville

HARTSVILLE — The Hartsville Building Commission is offering a $250 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for destroying the Byerly Baby statue in the Hartsville Museum’s Sculpture Courtyard, Den Latham, building manager for the commission, said.

Vandals broke the marble sculpture into pieces in the late evening hours of Oct. 16 or the early morning hours of Oct. 17, said Kathy Dunlap, executive director of the Hartsville Museum.

“When we left here at 5 o’clock on the 16th, it was fine,” Dunlap said.

The next morning, pieces of the statue were discovered on the ground around the pedestal.

One foot remains on the pedestal. The other foot is missing, Dunlap said.

Dunlap said an orange sandbag, the type used to barricade doors at the neighboring Center Theater against flooding during heavy rains, was found at the base of the sculpture. She said she thinks the vandals used the bag to break the statue or knock it from its pedestal.

A representative of a company that makes memorials looked at what was left of the statue Wednesday and photographed it. Dunlap will send the photos to experts in Italy, where the statue was created, to determine if there is any possibility that it can be reassembled.

Given the extent of the destruction, however, it is unlikely that the statue can be restored, she said.

The Hartsville Museum Commission will consider possible options that could include preserving a portion of the statue, such as the head, and moving it inside the museum, or possibly having a new sculpture created, Dunlap said.

“Of course, we were just very saddened when we found pieces of the statue,” she said. “We found the head, and some smaller parts. One foot was gone. We searched the area for it but didn’t find it.”
“We obviously feel very bad about this,” Latham said.

Hartsville police are investigating the incident, Chief Tim Kemp said. He said the incident appears to be a random act.

The 3-foot statue depicted a little boy, about 5, nude with his hands folded behind his back, his right foot kicked up a bit in a forward step.

The sculpture originally stood in the Dr. William L. Byerly Sr. Memorial Rose Garden of the former Byerly Hospital where it was placed as a tribute to the late Dr. Byerly, who brought some 12,000 babies into the world during his 60-year medical career, which spanned from 1915 to 1975 — all in Hartsville.

The sculpture was carved from Carrarra marble, which derives its name from Carrarra, Italy, the town in which it is mined. It is said to be the finest marble in the world for carving, Dunlap said.
“It’s the same marble that Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo carved their greatest works,” she said.

The sculpture was moved to the Sculpture Courtyard in 2000, Dunlap said. Byerly Hospital, which stood on East Carolina Avenue, was sold and the building eventually torn down after a new hospital, Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center, was built on BoBo Newsome Highway.

Dr. Byerly was reared in Baltimore and received his training at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He began his practice in Hartsville in 1915 and continued to serve the people of Hartsville until his death May 24, 1975.

— The (Hartsville) Messenger’s Jim Faile can be reached at (843) 332-6545.