DETROIT – The Spirit of Detroit is an iconic piece of the city.
Created to be a representation of hope and the “spirit of man,” the statue has become a nationally recognized landmark.
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Similar to the RenCen, it’s featured in logos, websites, merchandise and more. Unlike the RenCen, the Spirit of Detroit is on the official logo for the city. Detroit is very careful with how the logo is used.
Created by sculptor Marshall Fredericks, The Spirit of Detroit is a 26-foot-tall bronze statue of a seated man holding an orb emanating rays in his left hand and three people in his right hand. The sphere represents God and the people represents humanity.
Fredericks never named the piece, but the public took its name from a Bible verse on the wall behind the sculpture. We’re lucky the internet didn’t exist in 1958 or it would be called Detroit’s Green Boi and his Chonky Orb or Yassified Shrek.
The sculpture, weighing roughly 20,000 pounds, is the largest cast bronze statue since the Renaissance. Sitting at Spirit Plaza, it overlooks Woodward Avenue.
Fredericks began work on the icon in Norway after being commissioned in 1955.
After the cast for the statue was constructed, artists working with Fredericks carefully applied acid to the surface of the bronze cast to oxidize the alloy and turn it green.
The statue was shipped from Norway to Detroit on the Thomas Schulte, a German freighter that was reportedly the only vessel large enough to ship the statue but also fit through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. It was transported face down, wrapped in protective fabric and surrounded by a supportive frame.
After arriving in Detroit, the sculpture was placed on a 60-ton marble base on Sept. 23, 1958.
The wall behind it includes the seals of Wayne County and the City of Detroit, and a bible verse that became the source of the statue’s name.
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”
II Corinthian 3:17
While the artwork features a verse from the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Fredericks met with multiple religious groups to reach a consensus on the design due to its spiritual nature.
Fredericks waived his fee for the sculpture, which cost him money to create because he believed it was a part of his civic responsibility. In doing so, he created one of the most lasting and iconic symbols of the city.
The Spirit of Detroit is on police cars, manhole covers, city stationary -- it’s even the logo for the Detroit City Football Club. It gets dressed in sports jerseys to celebrate when one of our teams reaches the playoffs. It wore a tuxedo in 1999 when the Three Tenors visited the Opera House and it wore a medical scrub at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. During the 2024 NFL Draft, it wore a custom NFL draft jersey. It’s featured in music videos, movies, video games, commercials and more.
As soon as it was installed on Sept. 23, 1958, the community saw it as representing the city and its people.
Fredericks has artwork across the country, with statues in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and more. Within Michigan, he’s responsible for “The Poet, Lord Byron” at Saginaw Valley State University, “Boy and Bear,” which was originally homed at Northland Shopping Center before being moved to the Southfield Public Library, “Night and Day Fountain” in Port Huron, “Flying Pterodactyls” at the Detroit Zoo, the Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle, “Christ on the Cross” in Indian River, and several architectural sculptures across Metro Detroit.
When he died, his estate donated his studio contents to the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum at Saginaw Valley State University. It features hundreds of works from his more than seven-decade career, including The Spirit of Detroit’s original plaster head. Admission is free.
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