A nine-foot-tall bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln will be installed at the 5th District Appellate Courthouse in Mt. Vernon in time for celebration of its 150th anniversary on Sept. 18.

The sculptor, Alan Cottrill of Zanesville, Ohio, visited the courthouse and met with the commissioning committee twice. A work by Cottrill in Joliet came to the attention of ISBA Third Vice President Mark D. Hassakis, whose office is in Mt. Vernon.

After contacting the sculptor, Hassakis joined the city’s Lincoln Bicentennial Committee in creating an Abraham Lincoln Sculpture Project and starting to raise funds to cover the estimated cost of $90,000.

Cottrill’s rendering, based on photographs by Matthew Brady and others, will be of Lincoln during the period in which he appeared at the Mt. Vernon courthouse, around 1857.

The sculptor said he hoped to portray Lincoln with “a complex expression” of “emotive content” that viewers will recognize.

Hassakis said several Mt. Vernon civic organizations are involved in planning details of the Sept. 18 events, along with Chief Justice Thomas M. Welch and Justice Bruce D. Stewart of the 5th District.

Members of the Illinois Supreme Court have been invited to attend and possibly to sit in session to hear a case.

For more information about the event or the sculpture project, call (618) 242-3151.