Golden Tiger

Gainesville, Georgia, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Lucile is a 2,200-pound bronze golden tiger, Brenau University's mascot, in Gainesville, Georgia. Georgia sculptor Gregory Johnson made it, and it was installed in 2013 in a small plaza near Academy and Green Streets as a gift of philanthropist Irwin 'Ike' Belk.

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Golden Tiger

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Approximate location · 34.300° N, 83.832° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Brenau University's golden tiger is a 2,200-pound bronze, and its name carries a piece of the campus's history. Brenau's own news office calls Lucile the largest bronze statue of a golden tiger in the world, a claim its sculptor was more careful about when the piece arrived.

The statue was installed in May 2013 in a small park-like plaza near the corner of Academy and Green Streets in Gainesville, Georgia, with Brenau planning to turn the spot into a new front entrance for the main campus. Brenau Window reported that it weighs 2,200 pounds, stands 7 feet 6 inches tall and is 14 feet long, and was cast by Eagle Bronze of Lander, Wyoming. It was designed by Georgia sculptor Gregory Johnson, of Cumming, and was a gift of North Carolina philanthropist Irwin 'Ike' Belk.

Belk gave similar pieces to more than 40 colleges and universities, among them the Air Force Academy's flying falcon and Campbell University's fighting camel. His only stipulation, the Window said, was that each be the largest of its kind in the world. Johnson, who has made about 20 sculptures on Belk's commissions, told the magazine he was fairly certain the tiger is the largest of its kind in the United States, with some confidence it would stand worldwide.

Students named the tiger Lucile for Lucile Townsend Pearce, wife of longtime Brenau president H.J. Pearce. In September 2023 Brenau's news office said the sculpture would be sandblasted and refinished that fall, and described it as one of three symbols along Green Street, with the flame sculpture Luminary 830 and new large letters spelling BRENAU.

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A statue on the Brenau University campus. Whether visitors may walk onto the campus, and when, is not documented in the sources reviewed; check with the university before visiting.

ACCESS

Brenau's 2023 news item places it along Green Street; the 2013 installation report places it in a small plaza near Academy Street and Green Street, in Gainesville, Georgia (university address 500 Washington St. SE).

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Chicken Monument Poultry Park

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Animals and creatures

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1.2 km away

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