Once-proud sculptures seek escape from turtle jail

ALBANY — Walk along the 100 block of North Washington Street in downtown Albany, and you’ll notice seemingly out-of-place bursts of color in the fenced-off area of the dark, dank parking garage adjacent to the Dougherty School Board building.

Listen hard enough, and you might hear the weakened cries of a part of Albany’s recent history calling out to any who will listen: “Let us out … let us out.”

In an area that’s been designated “turtle jail” by downtown regulars, eight or nine of the original fiberglass mud turtle sculptures that were all the rage a decade ago, when downtown redevelopment was more than just wishful thinking, stand as lonely sentinels, gathering dust and fading from the collective memory of the community that once adored them.

Oh, some of their brethren have escaped the indignity of this lot’s incarceration and, while mostly a little worse for wear, still serve as daily reminders of a Junior League of Albany project that made them celebrities in their heyday. But the turtles standing watch on the northern and southern corners of West Broad Avenue, the slanderously whitewashed pair banished to the Pine Avenue Art Park and the gleaming yellow terrapin waving to commuters from the lawn of the WFXL television studios are among the last of the “active-duty” turtles that created such a stir when they debuted in February of 2003.

“There’s been talk recently of a few different groups taking on the project of refurbishing the turtles, and that would be nice,” said Deidra Langstaff, who was president of the Junior League in 2002 when a provisional class of members dreamed up the project that was known then as “Turtle Stew.” “They’re still a part of Albany, and I’d love to see them come back.

“But whoever decides to take on this project will have to have a plan in place. I guess the biggest question is how is anyone going to pay for refurbishing these 6-foot sculptures.”

A recent Leadership Albany class discussed taking on that task, as did the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority. The idea was, simply enough, to have businesses sponsor turtles for a certain period of time by paying a fee that would be used to give individual sculptures new life.

But, so far, nothing specific has been done.

“(Albany attorney) Phil Cannon loaded three or four of the turtles and took them to Albany Technical College, and they repainted them,” Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Rashelle Beasley said. “I think one of them’s at Fox 31, one’s on Rawson Circle and … I’m not really sure where the others are.

“It would be great to get some organization to pick up the project and move forward. The thing is, to do it right you’ve got to be willing to put some work and some money into it. You can’t just slap on or spray on a coat of paint.”

The mud turtle sculptures, based on the likeness of creatures indigenous to south Georgia and the Flint River, were the brainchild of the provisional Junior League class of 2002-2003. Based on similar displays in other parts of the country — Chicago’s cows, Panama City’s dolphins, Seattle’s pigs — the would-be Junior Leaguers took on a signature project designed, according to Langstaff, to “get the entire community involved in something that would connect all of Albany to downtown.”

Debbie Daughtry and Sandra Smith were the driving force behind the project, and Brandi Singleton helped line up a group of area artists to design and decorate the turtles, whose fiberglass likeness was created by Americus artist Hoyle Floyd. Among those whose talents were utilized were Steve Hinton, Mitch Mercer, Ella Campbell, Evelyn Wilcox and Christine Rice.

“The Junior League wanted to work with Albany Tomorrow on the Turtle Grove park, so we recruited other organizations — Women in Construction, the Exchange Club, some of the sororities at Albany State University — to help us with what would be a signature project,” Langstaff said. “It was funny, this provisional class was told to come up with a project, and they decided on the turtles. We told them to go for it, and they did it.

“It was an unbelievable undertaking.”

The turtles were a hit when they were introduced in 2003, and by mid-2004, there were some 24 of the sculptures at different businesses in the community.

“We paraded them around downtown and people loved them,” Langstaff said. “Then they went to the businesses that sponsored them. The problem was, some of the benefactors considered the turtles theirs. After a while, it was probably time to retire or refurbish them, so we went to Albany Tomorrow and told them we couldn’t be responsible for them any longer. It was too much of a financial drain.

“When the paint started peeling and a lot of the companies didn’t want them on their property in that condition, there was a discussion of possibly selling the turtles. But, eventually they ended up in turtle jail.”

The Leadership Albany discussion of taking on the resurrection of the turtles flamed out, and ADICA’s plan to take over the project has also gained little traction.

“It was originally planned to be an ADICA project, but there hasn’t been time to do anything with the sculptures yet,” Thronateeska Heritage Center Executive Director/Flint RiverQuarium Chief Operations Officer Tommy Gregors said. “There’s talk of using the turtles as a fundraiser that would raise money to pay for refurbishing them and their eventual upkeep. If that’s the case, I’d like to see it be more sustainable, maybe have benefactors make a three- or five-year commitment.

“I hope we can help bring this back to life. We could do fun stuff with the sculptures, maybe print maps with locations of the turtles that can be displayed in the CVB. We could come up with a plan to support local education programs.”

Until then, though, the majority of the turtles that once stood so proudly in and around Albany sit forlornly in turtle jail, longing for an opportunity to stand tall once again in support of their community. Listen closely enough, and you just might hear their plaintive cries: “Let us out … let us out.”