In the world of noses, there are some that are truly stand out.
Cyrano de Bergerac. Durante. Streisand. Nixon. Ormsby.
Ormsby?
Yep, Al Ormsby. The guy whose nose is memorialized in rebar and concrete at a park tucked into a leafy Covington neighborhood.
Ormsby, 88, still gets a kick out of it.
“Myself!” he responded with a laugh when asked who was the model for the schnoz.
Al Ormsby, a sculptor who lives near Covingtin, in a 2014 file photo. Ormsby created the large nose sculpture in a Covington park in the 1990s. Ormsby said the sculpture was modeled after his own nose. (File photo by David Grunfeld, | The Times-Picayune)
David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Covington resident Elizabeth Moore recently asked about the “Nose Park” at East First Street and Jahncke Avenue. “Who did it, and why?” she wanted to know.
It goes back to the early 1990s. Keith Villere, who had become Covington’s mayor, wanted a way to make the park, which is at the site of the old sewage treatment plant, look nicer.
Art, he thought.
“Al and I talked about First Avenue Park," Villere said. "Why not make it into a sculpture playground?”
The honker was first on the list and , got to work forming it with lightweight concrete and rebar and then coating it with concrete.
This was around 1996 or 1997, Villere said.
The nose is actually just a small part of the playground, which also features swing sets and a wooden walkway overlooking the Tchefuncte River.
But, noses being noses, it tends to get the attention.
Through the years, Villere said, theories have sometimes emerged as to who was really the model for the snout.
But for as much as some have tried to sniff out a conspiracy, there is none, Villere maintains.
“It’s Al’s nose,” Villere said. “Kind of ironic. The old sewer plant stunk.”
Villere, who served three terms as mayor, said the nose was supposed to be just the start.
“We had intentions of a lot more,” he said.
But money was tight and “the council wasn’t real wild about it,” Villere said. “So it never really took off.”
Former Covington Mayor Keith Villere poses with the large nose sculpture at a park in Covington. The park is known to some as "Nose Park." Villere was mayor when the sculpture was commissioned.
BY BOB WARREN | Staff writer
Villere doesn’t recall what the beak cost.
“I don’t even know if we ever paid him,” the former mayor said with a chuckle. “I think maybe it was a demo project.”
Ormsby wishes the city would have commissioned more big pieces.
“I really wanted to do more,” he said. “A foot — a big foot.”
Ormsby, who moved to Covington from the south shore in 1976, said he never figured out how much the nose weighed.
But he remembers when it was being delivered to the park watching a group of kids follow on their bikes.
“Like a parade,” he said.
Over the years, Ormsby said he’s done a little cosmetic surgery on the honker to fix spots that have become worn due to the elements or picking fingers.
“I’ve reworked that nose two or three times,” he said.
Not that he minds.
“Everyone says ‘Don’t touch. Don’t touch.’ But it’s a sculpture — it’s meant to be touched.”
Villere said he still fields the odd question now and then about the nose. At one time, he said, someone planted roses near it.
“A nose garden,” he said. “Hey, you gotta have a little fun.”