AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS BIRTHPLACE

With the opening of the new Clayton Hotel Charlemont comes two exciting new dining options, Gaudens Restaurant and Lockside Bar/Social, both of which are set to be fantasticadditions to Dublin's culinary scene.

Gaudens Restaurant, named after the famed sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was born in number 35 Charlemont Street [one of three 18th-Century Georgian buildings], offersguests and visitors a stylish restaurant option with spectacular views of the iconic Grand Canal. The menu and design at Gaudens Restaurant include nods to Saint- Gaudensthroughout.

This artists impression shows the three 18th-Century Georgian buildings with new developments behind.

Back in the Spring of 2017 I was contacted by our good friend Henry Duffy, Museum Curator, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire, USA, who had heard thatthe Saint-Gaudens birthplace (35 Charlemont Street, Dublin) was to become a hotel and he wondered if it was true. After some enquiries I learned that there were no plans todemolish the birthplace and that the developers of the new hotel were amenable to suggestions as to how specific suites or conference rooms might be named after well known peoplewho have an important attachment to the area.

And so it was that I suggested that Augustus Saint-Gaudens might be considered and in June 2017, I was invited to a time capsule laying ceremony at the hotel construction site.Derek Kerins and I attended, and the hotel management were delighted to accept the small New Hampshire State Medal with the portrait of Saint- Gaudens on the obverse and includeit in the time capsule for opening 100 years from now.

Meanwhile, it is a fine tribute that this great sculptor and coin designer is remembered on his own doorstep in Dublin.

The Clayton Charlemont website lists a number of interesting tourist attractions that are within easy reach of the hotel and it includes the Shaw Birthplace. Perhaps in the notto distant future the hotel will proudly boast that it includes the Saint-Gaudens Birthplace within its own complex.

Ronan adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

HETTIE ANDERSON, MODEL FOR SAINT-GAUDENS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n02a20.html)