Honest Abe was no match for the heat wave that spread through Washington, DC, last week. The 6-foot-tall statue of America’s 16th president, by artist Sandy Williams IV, was installed in February on the campus of Garrison Elementary School in Northwest Washington. The noble rendering, meant to draw attention to the Civil War era and its aftermath, was placed under towering trees to provide ample shade in the summer months. That was the thinking, anyway. Instead, 3 consecutive days of temperatures exceeding the mid-90s laid waste to wax Lincoln. Photos of the melting president with his head tilting far backward soon began going viral. At one point Lincoln’s head perched so precariously that staffers at CulturalDC, the nonprofit organization that commissioned the work, attempted to straighten it so that it would stay in place, but it was a lost cause. Early Monday, they took Lincoln’s head away for safekeeping with plans to reattach it on Tuesday. A wire spoke that kept the former president’s head in place was all that remained. Surprisingly — or perhaps not surprisingly at all — this is the second time the Lincoln statue has melted. The 3,000-pound Lincoln candle that had 100 wicks that were meant to be lighted was installed at the same location in September. Days before it was set to be officially unveiled, someone lit more than half of the wicks and then left the piece unattended. Flame 1, wax Lincoln 0. Abe was reduced to a ghastly corpse, and what was left of the gloppy statue was carted away. For now, its remains in place, and there is nothing in the city quite like it. As Cait Lowry, who owns the Coffee Bar a half-block away from wax Lincoln, said: “It was just so cool……..just not quite cool enough."
