Navy George M. Robeson. Virginia and Sherman voted to approve Ream's design. However, Robeson refused to accept the result and tried in vain to convince Virginia to change her mind. Two months after the vote, Robeson relented, and Ream's model was officially selected. Ream was awarded $20,000 for the design and worked on the statue for the next few years. She consulted Virginia and incorporated her suggestions, much to the delight of Virginia. In 1879, Ream announced that the model was ready to be cast and that the process would take place at the Washington Navy Yard, which had never before cast such a large statue. She continued to perfect the model while at the Navy Yard, much to the sailors' delight. Although many of the city's statues of military heroes were cast from captured enemy cannon, Farragut's statue was cast from the USS Hartford bronze propellers that were removed and shipped to the Navy Yard. The amount of bronze yielded from the propellers was enough not only for the statue but the four mortars on the corners of the statue base. The site chosen for the statue was Farragut Square, a park renamed in honor of the admiral shortly after his death. The original dedication date, March 4, 1881, was pushed back because the statue base was not ready. The base did not arrive until April 20, five days before the dedication, resulting in Ream's husband, Lieutenant Richard L. Hoxie, working around the clock with a crew of workers to make sure the site was ready. The base was completed, and the statue was erected just hours before the ceremony began. Dedication The statue was dedicated at 1:00 pm on April 25, 1881, becoming the first monument erected in Washington, D.C., in honor of a naval war hero. Government employees were dismissed at noon, the same time a procession began at the base of Capitol Hill. The military contingent, led by Commodore Charles H. Baldwin, moved west on Pennsylvania Avenue, where houses were decorated with bunting, and past the White House, before heading north on Connecticut Avenue. The homes surrounding the square were decorated with streamers and flags. Nearly 4,000 invited guests, including members of the Grand Army of the Republic and fellow sailors who served alongside Farragut, listened to John Philip Sousa conduct the Marine Band as they filled three temporary stands that were built on three sides