(Left) Bronze bust of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable on Michigan Avenue on December 10, 2014. A prankster had recently added the modern eyeglasses. (Click on image to view larger version.)

February 8, 2016 – It was 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly who renamed the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River to DuSable Bridge and you can be sure he noticed when the statue of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable disappeared from the north side of the bridge.

The bust is back, and Reilly shared with constituents on Friday what he thought of the “City Hall bureaucrat who did not properly notice this move [and] has since been advised of the importance of DuSable and the insensitivity of his action.”

DuSable was the first non-native to settle in Chicago and is considered the city’s founder. On October 17, 2009, a bronze sculpture of DuSable, mounted on a granite pedestal and standing six feet tall, was erected near Pioneer Court, where the Haitian-born fur trader’s first trading post was located in 1779.

The new location is across Michigan Avenue near Wrigley Building but Reilly says the bust, along with a plaque noting the site’s historical significance, will be moved back when an Apple retail store near Pioneer Court is completed in May 2017. Reilly says construction of the store “will begin in the upcoming weeks.”