The Patrick Taylor statue is located in the Lower Garden District. (courtesy of Kingsley House)
Kingsley House has unveiled a new sculpture, “Pointing the Way to a Better Future,” in commemoration of the late New Orleans philanthropist, Patrick F. Taylor.
Taylor pushed for the Lower Garden District agency’s expansion before his death in 2004, and whose foundation was a significant donor to its newest facility. The dedication ceremony on Friday included remarks from Phyllis Taylor, widow of Patrick F. Taylor, representatives from the Mayor’s Office and City Council, before the statue was unveiled by Kingsley House children.
Kingsley House, headquartered at 1600 Constance Street, has facilities throughout the metro area. The statue is at its Lower Garden District location at 901 Richard Street.
(l-r) Bill Hammack, immediate past president of the Kingsley House Board of Directors; Camille Alexander, deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Youth & Families; District D Councilman Jared Brossett; Phyllis Taylor, chairman and president of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; Karent Hansell, Kingsley House PreSchool teacher; Keith Liederman, Kingsley House CEO; and Richard Roth III, president elect for Kingsley House Board of Directors pose with Kingsley House school children. (courtesy of Kingsley House)
The 9-foot-tall bronze was designed and sculpted by Patrick Dane Miller and depicts Taylor standing alongside two children as he points toward the historic Kingsley House campus. The project was made possible through the generous support of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.
“Today, as we unveiled the statue of Patrick F. Taylor, we all had an opportunity to honor an extraordinary man and his dedication to serve our city’s most vulnerable and at-risk children and families,” said Keith Liederman, chief executive officer of Kingsley House. “Through the Taylors’ generous donation and tireless efforts, we were able to expand to the Taylor Campus and increase capacity for our high-quality early childhood development and senior care programs.”
Patrick and Phyllis Taylor began their involvement with Kingsley House over two decades ago and helped conceptualize a purpose-built campus with capacity to serve the community’s most vulnerable children and seniors. In 2015, the Taylor Foundation’s $1 million donation, among other sources of funding, helped make the new campus development a reality. Today, the Patrick F. Taylor Campus is a 24,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility which provides specialized programs for more than 200 children and adults.
“Dedicating time, effort and funds in the area of education soon made me aware, along with all of the trustees of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, of the importance of engaging children as early as possible to give them the advantage of realizing their full potential,” said Phyllis Taylor. “The Patrick F. Taylor Foundation quickly recognized that Kingsley House was a model for the entire state and a leader in this field. We are proud of having partnered with Kingsley House to help them realize their dream of expansion. It is an organization that not only emphasizes early learning for our youth but, also provides quality adult day care, another critical need within our community. There can be no more appropriate spot for a statute of Patrick than at the entrance of this Kingsley House facility.”
For over 100 years, Kingsley House has been at the forefront of high-quality early childhood development and education in Louisiana. An abundance of research shows that early learning experiences help provide the foundation for the brain’s organizational development and functioning throughout life. The Taylor Campus houses eight new classrooms each accommodating up to twelve infants and toddlers with a low teacher/student ratio of 1:4. Additionally, as the city’s aging population continues to grow, so does the need for more community-based, comprehensive, long-term care supports like the Kingsley Adult Day Care program.
KADC is the state’s largest licensed adult day care, which enables Kingsley House to help more medically fragile adults, seniors and veterans remain healthy and active in their own homes, and in their own neighborhoods, for as long as possible. Both programs are housed at the Patrick F. Taylor Intergenerational campus.
For more information about Kingsley House visit www.kingsleyhouse.org.
