Christopher Columbus statue heads back indoors to a new museum in Chicago’s Little Italy

Little Italy is preparing for a new museum that could reopen one of Chicago’s most debated monuments. The Florence Scala Italian American Museum, at 1501 W. Taylor St., is targeting a Monday, Oct. 12 opening and plans to feature the Christopher Columbus statue once removed from Arrigo Park, according to TimeOut.

The statue was taken down in 2020 along with two other Columbus monuments, TimeOut reported, after protests and vandalism tied to Columbus’ history of violence and enslavement. After years of legal and political conflict, the Chicago Park District reached a 2025 agreement that lets the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans keep the statue on loan for indoor display, the report confirmed.

Ron Onesti, president of the committee, told Block Club Chicago, “This is something very special to us,” and said the statue has become “an icon of faith and hope for our ethnic group.”

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A museum built around Italian American history

The new museum is being created to highlight Italian immigrants and their contributions to Chicago. According to Block Club Chicago, its exhibits will trace Italian presence in the city from the 1600s, when Henri de Tonti traveled through the area with the French military, through the major wave of immigration from 1880 to 1970.

Onesti told Block Club Chicago the museum will place the 4,500-pound Columbus statue on a concrete platform built into the floor. He added that the statue is being cleaned in a Park District warehouse and will be lowered into the building by crane through a hole in the roof.

The museum is named for Florence Scala, who fought development and policing pressures on the Near West Side and was the target of a 1962 bombing attack, Block Club Chicago reported. Onesti first began talks on the museum in 2024 and initially hoped to open in August, but renovations ran longer than expected.

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Neighborhood legacy and renewed debate

The building’s white brick exterior and red-and-green signage were nearing completion ahead of the Taylor Street Festival, and Onesti said most remaining work is cosmetic. He expects the museum to be finished in about four weeks, per Block Club Chicago.

According to the reporting, the museum will bring the Columbus statue back into Little Italy, but indoors rather than to a public park. The move comes as debates over statues and public symbols continue to reflect larger arguments about history, identity and who gets to define them.