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Hugh McManaway statue in Charlotte

Hugh McManaway statue with link this time on Twitpic
I was in Charlotte yesterday to attend a memorial service for the father of an old friend when I ran into a whimsical statue of another old acquaintance. Hugh McManaway used to direct traffic from the median of Queens Road at Providence Road across from his church, the place where he used to eat (once the Town House Restaurant) and the grand old house where he lived most of his life.

Hugh was special. I’m not sure exactly how this specialness would have been diagnosed, but he was innocent and childlike in many good ways.

I first met Hugh one night as I was walking down the street later at night than I probably should have been out. As I walked passed Myers Park Methodist Church, I was met by a large man wearing a hat, raincoat and carrying some pamplets. He introduced himself and handed me the pamphlet which turned out to be some sort of religious tract. I didn’t get to read it before Hugh started talking telling me that he had a key to the church, I think he meant a chapel there. I was sure, for a second or two at least, that I was meeting some sort of prev and that the chapel invite was something else. But that was only for a second or two, Hugh’s voice, his body language and his eyes peering through what I remember were thick lensed glasses told me otherwise. Hugh was just explaining something that was interesting to him and he thought to me.

I saw him other times eating at the Town House where they delivered his meal to him. No money was exchanged. Hugh wasn’t eating for free. His trust fund paid the Town House as it paid his other bills. Hugh was alone by this time and, I didn’t know it, in his decline.

A few years later he would be placed in a nursing home, his house restored and declared historic home (for its architecture — not for Hugh).

Someone, not sure who (statue is credited to Elsie Shaw), memorialized Hugh with a highly polished statue placed at his station in the median. Soon, he became subject to good natured decoration and signs congratulating newly weds (usually those married at Hugh’s church, Myers Park Methodist) and flowers.

3 Comments

  1. Erica

    Thanks for this! We are new here from Wisconsin and wondered about the statue. Great info!

  2. ben mcdonald

    i remember hugh, when i was a kid we were regulars at the townhouse and hugh was just part of the scene i. my parents owned an art gallery on providence rd. and hugh directing traffic was normal. saw it all the time. i remember when he was put in the rest home and his house (yes it did look haunted) was fixed up and made into a designer home. we all felt that they couldnt wait to get him out of the house and get their hands on that property.

  3. Judy Johnson

    I had just seen a television news story about the re-erection of the statue of Hugh McManaway, and it got my husband and me to thinking, “Who was this Hugh McManaway that he should have a statue erected in his honor?”. Of course, such major life questions must be answered and I went to searching the internet. Lo and behold, thankful I’d pursued it, we learned about the man who was so loved because of his simple goodness. Sad to say, in the world we now live in, the death of such a simple man known for his goodness and kindnesses would hardly make it past the free lines in the Observer’s obit section. I am so glad that he lived surrounded by the loving, protective people of Charlotte, North Carolina. We don’t have enough characters among us, like Hugh, because they are usually hidden away in some far-away “facility”. Just think what we’d have missed had he not been out on his median, day after day, giving directions and handing out large doses of his simple yet profound love. God bless his parents for knowing that their son would be happy nowhere else, and for trusting in the people of Charlotte to wrap their arms around him with love and acceptance just as they did.

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