Generations of Wyoming Valley residents have posed with the Luzerne County Courthouse deer statue.
Located on the south lawn of the historic Luzerne County Courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, the cast iron statue is the oldest public sculpture in the city, dating back to 1866.
It was moved from Public Square in the city’s downtown to River Street around the time the courthouse opened in June 1909, news accounts say. Robert Wood & Company of Philadelphia, which built an iron fence surrounding the county’s third courthouse on Public Square, had produced the statue as a bonus.
The sculpture was featured in at least two postcards of the county courthouse in the 1940s.
Tony Brooks, a Wilkes-Barre councilman and director/curator of the Wilkes-Barre Preservation Society, started collecting photographs of people posing with the deer years ago to showcase them, saying the statue is a “one-of-a-kind feature” that helps make this area unique and special.
The county used a grant and natural-gas recreation funding to restore the statue in 2021.