The iconic Independent Man statue on the RI State House is coming down for restoration. What we know.

PROVIDENCE - The Independent Man statue, which for more than a century has symbolized Rhode Island political values, is set to come down from its lofty — but now unstable — perch atop the State House for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Gaps have opened in the marble platform holding the 500-pound bronze statue aloft and need to be repaired to protect the Independent Man, the capitol and Providence residents, Gov. Dan McKee announced Friday morning as workers maneuvered a crane around the top of the State House dome.

When the statue touches down, it will be its first time on the ground since 1976 and only second time since 1900.

Exactly when the statue will come down from the dome has not been determined, and how long it will be grounded is unknown, but could be similar to the yearlong removal in the 1970s, state officials said Friday.

"The Independent Man has weathered decades of storms and blizzards and hurricanes and now it will be restored to pristine condition to be enjoyed for generations to come," McKee told reporters.

The condition of the State House's Georgian marble has been a concern for several years and crews discovered problems with the statue platform while preparing to begin the latest phase of a $2.2 million exterior cleaning and restoration project.

Video from a drone inspecting the upper reaches of the State House Tuesday revealed two gaps, like slices removed from a cake, in the domed marble platform that the Independent Man stands on.

State Director of Administration Jonathan Womer said it is not clear how the platform was damaged, but the gaps do not appear to have been caused by normal aging and were not visible eight months ago.

"This really does look like it was an event that happened rather than slow progress," Womer said. "We have drone footage from January when we started the cleaning project and no damage was apparent at that time ... There have been a lot of weather events this summer. Probably something, one of them, contributed. Exactly which we will have to assess."

(Lightning has hit the statue over the decades, with a strike in 1927 causing damage, according to Journal archives.)

No estimate has been made of how much the repairs will likely cost.

What is the Independent Man statue on the Rhode Island State House?

A bronze statue gilded in gold, the Independent Man was was designed by George Brewster, a Massachusetts sculptor who taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, and installed on top of the State House in1899. The statue is 11 feet tall and is 278 feet off the ground.

When the State House was being built in 1895, the Rhode Island Historical Society requested that a statue of Roger Williams sit atop the new capitol building, but architect Charles McKim worried that Williams would not be recognizable, especially when viewed from hundreds of feet below.

Researchers in the 1970s uncovered McKim's architectural drawings for the State House showing at one point a statue of a female figure holding a stalk on top of the building, but it is unclear if this was ever considered.

Instead the board overseeing State House construction commissioned a sculpture symbolizing "freedom" or "sovereignty."

Ronald Onorato, professor emeritus of art history at the University of Rhode Island, said Brewster had already made the statue we now know, of a curly-haired man wearing a loin cloth carrying a spear in one hand and an anchor in the other, when the State House was being built. Brewster had named it "Hope."

"Often that kind of allegorical figure is a female figure," Onorato said. "But it was clear McKim was interested in it being standing with his legs kind of akimbo, so you would see it as far away. A female figure with a flowing dress wouldn't be as visible."

A 1899 Journal story about the statue quotes former Gov. Herbert Ladd, who led the board directing State House construction, suggesting the sculpture "might be called the independent man" and instead of an individual represent "the principle of soul liberty."

The last time the Independent Man was brought down to earth for repairs, lasting about a year from 1975 to 1976, cracks were also discovered in the marble base.

It was during that disco-era makeover that the Independent Man's oxidized bronze was covered in gold leaf, allowing him to sparkle in the sun.

But before workers dropped the statue back on top of the State House — by helicopter — he had a brief public tour, appearing in the State House rotunda and for a while outside the Warwick Mall, where a replica remains.

The state also used the downtime to cast two replicas of the statue's head. One was raffled off to raise money for the State House repairs. The Lavin family of Narragansett won the raffle and in 2000 donated the head to the University of Rhode Island, where it is now on display.

McKee on Friday said that during this upcoming repair period the Independent Man statue will be put on public display somewhere, but it is too early to know where.

The first job of the workers at the State House is to secure the statue to the base and make sure there is no further separation of the marble blocks. After that they will decide how best to remove the statue, when, and what needs to be done to prevent it from getting into trouble in the future.

The drone inspection that revealed damage to the pedestal was not prompted by the threat of Hurricane Lee, but the potential for high winds underlined the importance of securing the structure quickly, Womer said.

During the repair period, the McKee administration is asking Rhode Islanders not to fly drones around the State House dome.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Independent Man statue on RI State House coming down for restoration