Turtle Boy, Worcester MA, originally uploaded by Claudia Snell.

I decided that I should have pictures of the back of Turtle Boy too- so now I’ve got some. In fact, I took lots of pictures from every side. I’ll be posting them here for all to enjoy.

Turtle Boy, Worcester MA, originally uploaded by Claudia Snell.

I went out today and took a stupid number of pictures - really.

I’d been promising myself a visit downtown as soon as I had a nice day and today was it.So, here’s one of the photos I took. It’s “Turtle boy, from the back”.

Boy Riding A Turtle, originally uploaded by bunkosquad.

 

This great picture is “Boy Riding A Turtle” by Bunkosquad.

Many thanks to Bunkosquad! There are a lot of other great pictures of downtown Worcester on his Flickr. Go check him out.

 

 

Shocking the Turtle, originally uploaded by hrw worcester.

HRW Worcester Loves Turtle Boy too! What a great picture of our friend on the Common. A big “Thank you!” for letting me post it to the site.

HRW Worcester has some other great pictures on her Flickr profile. The comments are pretty funny too. Go check them out.

Turtle Boy Statue, originally uploaded by Claudia Snell.

Alright all you naughty minded people - and you know who you are…. haha! This is the famed Turtle Boy statue of Worcester, MA.

It seems that a lot of people are into checking this thing out (if my stats and image views are any indication).

For those who are not from Worcester, MA, this is a statue that used to be a fountain. It’s located in downtown Worcester, Salem Square, at the edge of the Common. It’s also a bit of a conversation piece. I think you can see why people would be talking about this thing, and giggling a bit too.

If you’ve stumbled here and are wondering what this thing really is:
It’s real name is the Burnside Fountain - not “Turtle Boy” or “Boy doing it with a Turtle” (although those names certainly are more descriptive)

It was a gift to the city by Harriet Burnside. Poking around I found info stating that she gave the city $5000 in 1905 to have a fountain built.

It’s original purpose was a water trough for dogs and horses but now it’s just a monument, no water. It’s not a big deal since nobody rides horses around in Worcester anymore.

The fountain was designed by Charles Harvey and Sherry Fry and was completed around 1912.

I know - boring stuff compared to what people usually say about the statue - it doesn’t take much of an imagination to guess what sorts of comments are made so I don’t need to go there. I’m sure Harriet Burnside and the designers didn’t have anything naughty in mind when they first created this.

Anyway - it’s a great landmark. If you are in Worcester, make sure you visit Turtle Boy

More information about the statue is available on the Worcester DPW site and also on Art Inventories Catalog site. There’s also a good piece here.

---

Here’s some more stuff around Worcester
Bancroft Tower - This is a monument that also has some naughty things said about it.Hurstwic - Viking Age Living History Society - Not at all naughty but very interesting folks.Higgins Armory Museum & the Higgins Armory Sword Guild - also not naughty, sorry.. but they do have cool swords.My HUGE flickr.com collection of Worcester, MA pictures. It’s got all sorts of places, festivals and other stuff.
Find more photos like this on I’m from Worcester

Note added to this post 1/13/08

This post was picked up by Worcester Magazine’s Blog Log. Check it out, see what the Worcester Blogosphere is talking about @ Worcester Magazine. The “Blog Log” is under “Opinion”.

Everyone knows about Turtle Boy but did you know about Dolphin Boy?
Wormtown Taxi has pictures and a great post. If you haven’t seen him, he’s a statue of a nude boy swimming with a dolphin located in a courtyard behind One Chestnut Place. Actually, he looks a bit like he’s flying not swimming. It’s not as snicker-worthy as Turtle Boy, but it is a bit odd due to where it is and how it is positioned.

I remember the “Dolphin Boy” statue from my Paul Revere Insurance days. We used to have lunch at the Chestnut Cafe at One Chestnut Place. From inside the cafe you get a clear view of the back end of this very large, anatomically correct, naked boy. One of my friends used to threaten to sneak in at night and put shorts on him so we could eat lunch without that view.

Anyway - head over to Wormtown Taxi and have a look.

Previous Turtle Boy Posts

• Everybody loves Turtle Boy
• Mystery of the Turtle Boy picture