"Only in Philly" is actually not the best description for this iconic Center City landmark.

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The LOVE statue has stood at JFK Plaza, now known as Love Park (JFK Boulevard and the Parkway), for nearly half a century. But the person who designed it was not from Philly, and neither was it commissioned for the city.

 

And neither is it the original LOVE statue, or the only LOVE statue - there are literally dozens of them in cities all across the US and the world. In fact, there are even two others right here in Philadelphia - one on the U. Penn campus, and, one (an AMOR statue) half a mile down the Parkway in Sister Cities Park on Logan Square.

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Indeed, LOVE was a poem, a painting, and a Christmas card before it ever became a statue. It later became a very popular US postage stamp as well.

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Robert Indiana was a pop artist from - you guessed it - Indiana. His real name was Robert Clark (not to be confused with Flyers superstar Bob Clarke). He was the poet and the guy who came up with the original LOVE design. New York's Museum of Modern Art liked the design so much they featured it on a 1965 Christmas card.

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Indiana made the original LOVE statue in 1970, and it remains on display today at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He created another version for his NYC art gallery and sent it off to Philadelphia on an extended loan for the 1976 Bicentennial. The statue stood at JFK Plaza.

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Indiana tried unsuccessfully to sell his LOVE statue to Philadelphia. In 1978, a potential buyer appeared in NYC and Indiana had the statue hauled away in a truck back to Manhattan, causing a huge uproar in Philadelphia.

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Enter F. Eugene "Fitz" Dixon - heir to the Widener fortune, sports team owner, and Chair of the Philadelphia Art Commission - who saved the day by purchasing the LOVE statue and donating it to the city, which had it reinstalled at JFK Plaza.

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Our LOVE was here to stay.

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Although there are now LOVE statues in countless cities across 4 continents (and in different languages including Hebrew), the one in Philly may be the most famous - thanks to its prominent location and the fact that Philadelphia is, after all, the City of Brotherly Love.