T. GERALD
DYAR
America's first documented weathervane maker, Deacon Shem Drowne, created the famous grasshopper vane atop Boston's Faneuil Hall (1742), as well as the banner for Boston's Old North Church (1740). A rooster now found on First Church in Cambridge (1721), and a large copper Indian built for Boston's Province House (1716) were both Drowne creations. The Faneuil Hall vane was made from copper and gold and has a green glass eye. It is balanced so that its head and antennae point into the wind.
A similar grasshopper weathervane sat atop the London Exchange in England in the mid-18th Century. Peter Faneuil had been a member of the London Exchange and ordered a grasshopper vane to decorate his Hall in Boston to symbolize his hopes that Boston would become the financial center of the New World. The vane is the only remaining original portion of Faneuil Hall on the current structure, but its life has not been without mishap. It dismounted its perch during an earthquake in 1755; fell free during the building's destruction by fire in 1761; and survived a "grasshopper napping" in the early 1970s.
NOTE: This information about Faneiul Hall and it's weathervane was excerpted, with permission, from a copyrighted article by Dr. Keith C. Heidorn. The complete article is a delightfully informative history of weathervanes titled POINTING TO THE WIND. Use the "BACK" button on your browser to return to my site from this off site link.
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