These were made in 1930 by the G. Mattei Plaster Relief Ornamental Company to promote the Polar Bear Frozen Custard Shops. They had a couple of stands in Nashville, and each stand had two snowball throwing polar bears. The Ice cream stands disappeared but the polar bear statues stayed behind. One of the statues made its way to Germantown, one I don't know what happened to, but the other two ended up in front of someone's house in the Edgehill neighborhood in the 1940's.
These 600-pound, five-and-a-half foot bears were purchased by Zema Hill in the 1940s, who placed them in front of a residence at 1408 Edgehill where they remained for more than 50 years. New owners of the house decided to sell them around 2006. Perhaps they didn't like the stares they'd get from unaware passerbys or perhaps they got annoyed when people would try to steal them, not realizing how heavy they were and only being able to knock them over.
Area residents were afraid they would lose their local treasure and urged the city to purchase the two bears. In May of 2007, Polar Bear Plaza was unveiled at the corner of Edgehill and 12th Avenue in front of a retirement home. Apparently, they get decorated at Christmastime.
by the way, the historical marker on the left is for Grand Ole Opry member Deford Bailey.
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