Pioneer Monument

The Pioneer Monument is a massive, eight-hundred-ton granite and bronze structure that stands in the open public space between the Main Library and the Asian Art Museum. Dedicated in eighteen ninety-four, the monument was commissioned by the wealthy real estate investor James Lick, who left one hundred thousand dollars in his will to celebrate California's history. Sculptor Frank Happersberger designed the piece with a tall central column topped by a bronze figure of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and war, meant to represent the state motto, Eureka.