The original Jacques was at 118 Lexington Ave. The 35 foot statue was built in Indiana and shipped to Mansfield. Norman Palsa was the owner. The statue was custom built and cost $10,000 to build. Contrary to popular belief, the hands and tray holding sandwiches did not stick out into Lexington Ave and impede trucks or traffic. It did stick out over the sidewalk though and this was cause for concern since the statue weighed over 5,000 pounds and stood at an angle meaning it would have fallen forward if anything had gone wrong putting pedestrians at risk. The restaurant closed in 1972 and the property was purchased by the owners of the Arthur Treacher Fish and Chips restaurant on Park Avenue West who wanted to expand their business to the south side. They remodeled the restaurant but the giant statue had to go. In July of 1972, the job of removing the statue fell to Michael Bryne Manufacturing Co. He acquired the statue as an investment and hoped to sell it. Those plans evidently did not work out because the remains of the statue and the hamburgers it once held are still lying in the area around the Bryne property. A similar statue is standing near Marblehead that came from Marion Ohio after the Jacques restaurant there caught on fire and never reopened. A muffler place used it for advertising and the hands were used to hold a muffler sign and emblem. That building was demolished and now the statue stands close by to a gas station but it is not used to advertise the station. It is just a tourist attraction now. The locals do not call it Jacque. They refer to it as Big Pierre. Click on the photos for more detail
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 03:03:29 +0000
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