Artist Betty Jean Alden, sculptor of the Samuel Gompers statue on Market Street across from the Convention Center is the original owner of the studio house at 718 S. Gevers.
Gompers was founder the American Federation of Labor, which grew into the AFL-CIO. He died on Dec. 13, 1924 in San Antonio at the St. Anthony Hotel. The Texas and local chapters of the AFL-CIO commissioned Alden to create the sculpture to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Labor Day.
The statue was installed on Sept. 6, 1982. The 15-foot-tall monument was criticized for being badly out of proportion. Gompers stands on top of a pedestal, his hands reaching for heaven like an evangelical preacher, while tiny figures representing the working class climb toward him, looking like Lilliputians attacking Big Brother.
Other Alden creations include life-size American Indian figures holding an adobe-style oven, Grecian-style friezes and a rainspout decorated with a boy riding a dolphin. Alden dug a firepit in the living room floor, which she surrounded with fanciful trees inhabited by strange creatures.
Alden's husband, Crosby Brown, built her a three-story studio in the backyard to accommodate construction of the Gompers statue. It features a turnstile, so the artist could twirl her work around. Alden made the Gompers statue out of oyster shellcrete, which costs less than bronze and gets harder with age.
