Roosevelt Park, Edison, NJ

I lived in Edison, NJ from 1974 to 1994.  In the town of Edison there is a wonderful place called Roosevelt Park, where I spent a lot of time over the years with my children.  I use to take the kids to the lake to feed the ducks or we'd go to one of the playgrounds.   

When Diane was in Girl Scouts we had a day camp located in the park and we used Kiddie Keep Well Camp for big activities.  I also use to attend "Plays in the Park" during the summers.  Actually, I drove through the park on my way to work for several years.  

All those years and I never went to the fountain in the corner of the park. Never had any idea what the fountain looked like.  Last week, for some unknown reason, I decided to take a ride to the park.  I brought along my camera which is not at all unusual.  What I saw amazed and excited me!  The fountain is called, “Light Dispelling Darkness.”   Well, I took lots of pictures which you’ll see in the blog.  I also took some liberties and have inserted information from the web on the artist.  Let me know what you think!!!!

"Light Dispelling Darkness" is a unique sculpture and fountain in Roosevelt Park. The sculpture depicts a unified world where Science, Industry and Education dispel War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, Greed and Materialism.  Originally created as a WPA project in 1937, the art Deco terra cotta is by sculptor Waylande Gregory. It was recently renovated. [Tom Beattie, 11/12/2007]

Waylande Desantis Gregory (1905 Baxter Springs, Kansas – 1971, New Jersey) was one of the most innovative and prolific American art-deco ceramics sculptors of the early twentieth century. His groundbreaking techniques enabled him to create monumental ceramic sculpture, such as the Fountain of the Atoms and Light Dispelling Darkness, which had hitherto not been possible. He was also an early seminal figure in the studio glass movement. ^[1]

In 1933, he and his wife Yolanda had moved to Perth Amboy where he had set up a workshop in the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. This is where he developed his technique for the creation of monumental ceramic works utilizing an internal honeycomb-like structure, building the statue from the inside outward.  As director of the New Jersey WPA, he began work on the monumental Light Dispelling Darkness which still stands in Roosevelt Park in Edison, New Jersey.  

Light Dispelling Darkness laid much of the technical groundwork for The Fountain of the Atom. It exhibits a heroic theme of combating evil through knowledge. It is a terracotta globe surrounding a shaft of relief figures of a scientist, artist, engineer, and muscular, un-shirted men apparently representing industrial workers or working-class people. On the outside are six figures representing conquest, war, famine, death, greed and materialism fleeing the forces of science and knowledge, an appropriate theme for Edison, NJ. Out of the six figures, 4 of them contain the horses of the Apocalypse.