"Oh, It's You, Welcome!"

Erected in the year 2000, this eye-catching statue pays homage to local police officer James S. McAuliffe, Sr., whose career in spanned 42 years, including 16 years as Chief in Montgomery County, Maryland. McAuliffe was a long-time resident of Friendship Heights where the statue is located. He was one of the first police chiefs to require members of the force to take college courses.  His final hire before he retired was Carol A. Merhling, who was appointed Chief in 1995, the first woman to hold that position in Montgomery County. McAuliffe passed away in 1996 at the age of 89.

The bronze trompe-l’oeil rendering is one of many works by famed sculptor J. Seward Johnson, Jr., who is a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I, the co-founder of Johnson & Johnson.

There is a small marker in front of the statue with the title and name of the artist and an inscription that reads SITED BY SCULPTURE PLACEMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., and a lager plaque on the ground behind the statue that also bears the title and artist’s name, along with the following inscription:

The name McAuliffe on the officer’s badge honors a prominent former resident of the Village, Colonel James S. McAuliffe, Sr., who served as Montgomery County Chief of Police for 16 years and was a police officer for 42 years. Col. McAuliffe was a Village resident for more than 55 years, and his family lived on High Street (now South Park Avenue) near the present site of the North Willoughby. He also served on the Friendship Heights Citizens Committee from 1961 to 1965. Two of Col. McAuliffe’s brothers were police officers, and both of his sons became Montgomery County judges.

The sculpture was shipped to the sculptor’s studio in 2016 for maintenance and returned to its corner where it still stands, keeping watch over pedestrians in Friendship Heights.