The completion of Centennial Plaza is the culmination of Five Points’ Centennial Year in 2015 and includes the third water feature added to the district: a 6-foot rotating granite kugel over water weighing over 30,000 pounds, making it the largest in South Carolina.
Tribute to Col. Jack Van Loan Statue
Additionally, a statue of Col. Jack Van Loan, “the unofficial father of Five Points,” is located at Centennial Plaza, an art project commemorating the nearly six years he spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after being shot down during his 74th combat mission as a pilot.
Van Loan was released in 1973 and later stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, and later retired from the Air Force and moved to Columbia, where he started a water business which he moved into Five Points in 1992. He went on to serve as president and economic development director of the Five Points Association and chairman of the St. Pat’s Festival. Under his leadership, the Five Points fountain was built and funding was secured for a streetscaping project credited with helping revitalize the district.
Maria J. Kirby-Smith, the sculptor, made a vocational change after a year in her master’s program for Chinese Art History when she visited a cousin’s sculpture collection. Her studies refocused to include hands on art at that point. Her first public commission to sculpt Senator Strom Thurmond for Edgefield, SC, brought her back to the south. She was then commissioned in Camden, SC to sculpt three generations of Jack Russell’s. Her roots in the south were cemented when a home and studio were built and dedicated to creating sculptures for the public and private sector. Other works by Maria include O’Henry, Federal Judge Matthew J. Perry Jr., Reverend Richard Furman, Larry Doby, Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates, Catawba Chief-King Hagler, Dr. George C. Simkins Jr., WWII Memorial Bristol, VA, Police Memorial Richmond, VA, American Revolution General Thomas Sumter, WWII Sailor, and WWI Corporal Freddie Stowers Medal of Honor.
Artist: Maria J. Kirby-Smith
Type: Sculpture
Unveiled 2016
Source: One Columbia
