Week 12 -- Enrique Alferez - marble chip and granite cast -- Molly Marine

Molly Marine statue at the intersection of Elks Place and Canal Streets, an area in downtown New Orleans. The subcontractor for the Downtown Development District (DDD) provided mulch and new plants for the site, even though the project is not under their contract. The DDD is an economic development agency that handles enhanced services downtown, like landscaping.

The statue here is the first of three statues, that depicts a female Marine, with the inscription “Free A Marine To Fight” engraved on the pedestal where Molly Marine stands. The statue was erected in 1943, and is the only statue dedicated to Marines in New Orleans. The other two replicas are in Quantico, Va., and Parris Island, S.C. Two events in the past year have damaged the statue’s site, Hurricane Katrina and an accident involving a truck that ran off of the street into the statue site and destroyed one of the flagpoles flanking the statue and part of the fence surrounding it.

“Yesterday we picked up 50 bags of trash, and even some suitcases, boxes of clothes, and beds that homeless people were using to sleep on,” said Lt. Col. Krista J. Crosetto, Headquarters Bn. commander. “We will be getting a power washer to wash off the statue itself and we will be coming out once a month for upkeep of the area,” Crosetto said. “The sergeant major planned this project out and worked with the Marine Corps League on it.

The Marine Corps League is helping to get a new fence and many junior Marines also came to the cleanup event.

“We’re making Molly look better, it was really dirty out here at first,” said Lance Cpl. Ivelisse Colon, a Headquarters Bn. administrative clerk. “We are definitely making Canal Street look better and the city in general,” she said.

The sentiment was shared among the junior Marines.

“I like coming out here, I feel like we are doing something good, that we care about our history,” said Pfc. Stephanie B. Jaye, a Headquarters Bn. administrative clerk. ”People see us caring about what is ours,” she said.

The Molly Marine statue is unique because it is made of cement, the only available material in World War II. It is the first statue of a female servicewoman, and the model for the statue, former Marine Judy Mosgrove, is a New Orleans
native.

The Molly Marine statue depicts a female Marine, with the inscription "Free A Marine To Fight." The statue was erected in 1943 and is the only statue dedicated to Marines in New Orleans. Photo by Pfc. Mary A. Staes

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The sentiment was shared among the junior Marines.

There’s no pathway leading to Molly Marine, the statue created by sculptor Enrique Alferez in 1943. She stands bravely on the neutral ground at Canal Street and Elks Place, enclosed by a small iron fence, surrounded by flowering plants and miscellaneous trash.

A Marine recruiting officer persuaded Alferez to sculpt it to help attract women to the Corps. Alferez, a Mexican immigrant who would go on to create innumerable public works of art, agreed to donate his talent in the name of patriotism. A professional model and four female Marines posed for the statue.

Molly, who was cast in marble chip and granite because of the wartime shortage of metal, stands 12 1/2 feet tall and is mounted on an 8-foot base. She wears a Marine uniform with a modest skirt and sensible shoes with low heels.