3/9/2021 With planned Blackstone statue, Pawtucket has a moment of reckoning Installation of this monument of William Blackstone, by artist Peruko Coppacadi, has been put on hold as planners solicit feedback on the man being recognized in the statue. PAWTUCKET – As debates about the future of existing statues continue to swirl, Pawtucket is now grappling with its own questions about a monument that has yet to be installed. After historian Richard Kazarian researched the history behind the William Blackstone Monument at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Exchange Street, the project has subsequently been delayed. As Kazarian sees it, a planned brief reference to the fate of indigenous peoples at the base of a 14-foot tall Blackstone statue in a small park at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Exchange Street was totally inappropriate and needed to be rethought.