Ramsey County History – Spring 1981: “The Trademarks of Classy Classic Art Deco: A two-page photo essay of Art Deco interior finishing in the City Hall-County Courthouse. God of Peace: Miles’ ‘Finest Creation in Stone’”

The Trademarks of Classy Classic Art Deco: A two-page photo essay of Art Deco interior finishing in the City Hall-County Courthouse
God of Peace: Miles’ ‘Finest Creation in Stone’
Author: Dane Smith

The original interior design of the main hall of the Ramsey County Courthouse left a space for a major imaginative elongated piece of sculpture. The Building Commission suggested a war memorial and interestingly, a sculptor who was a pacifist Swede was hired. He insisted that the work would celebrate peace and not war. Milles’s first three designs—an apostle St. Paul; a Father of Waters; and a naked young soldier returning from war—were rejected. He then submitted a design based on a Ponca Indian ceremony he had seen and the commission approved this design in 1933. The statue was unveiled amid great ceremony in 1936. It was called “God of Peace” but was recently renamed “Vision of Peace” after Native groups said they had no God of Peace. The onyx stone came from Mexico, and the actual cutting was done by a St. Paul stone carver and his crew.
PDF of Art Deco photo essay