"Perched on what was then one of Wilmington’s tallest structures in one of the city’s highest points, the beloved king toasted the thirsty workers in ship and rail yards along the Christina River and beckoned them to partake when the workday ended." -- Delaware beer historian John Medkeff Jr.

Beer is king in Delaware, especially over the past two decades as the craft beer boom has spread like wildfire.

But did you know that Delaware had its own beer king?

For more than 80 years, an 11-foot statue of beer legend King Gambrinus, popularized in the mid-19th century Europe, stood on an ornate alcove atop the Diamond State Brewery in Wilmington. He was removed in the early '60s when I-95 came through.

In the years since, the statue has found other homes before it was dropped in 1978, shattering into dozens of pieces.

Now, nearly 40 years later, a $100,000 campaign is underway to rebuild the zinc Gambrinus statue from its original pieces, and display him at the Delaware Historical Society.

"For me, it's the perfect symbol for the rebirth of the brewing industry in Delaware, which was shattered by Prohibition," says John Medkeff Jr., who owns the statue and is leading the campaign. "It was an icon for 80 years and it's the most significant item that remains from Delaware's golden age of brewing."

So how did a leading Delaware beer historian come in possession of the statue? And why restore the king all these years later?

Medkeff, author of 2015's "Brewing in Delaware" ($21.99, Arcadia Publishing), has owned the statue since 2014 and now houses it in a safe space as fundraising for statue surgery begins.

It's been a long journey for Delaware's king of beers, which has been battered over the years, even spending some time in a junkyard on Airport Road near New Castle. A 1978 News Journal file photo shows two men posing with the stately statue at the salvage yard.

In the years since, Gabrinus' pieces have languished in a storehouse before Medkeff acquired it from the estate of Wilmington resident Robert Howard, a curator of technology at Hagley Museum and Library who died in 2012.

It was a scene right out of a movie.

Medkeff had contacted the Howard estate after hearing about the statue's location, looking to take photos of it for his book.

"The attorney asked me, 'Do you know anyone who would want this?'," remembers Medkeff, who just happened to be perhaps the most perfect person in the state to ask. "They wanted to clear out the house. It was headed to the scrap yard. So I dumped it in my truck and got it home."

Now, Medkeff is Gabrinus' Geppetto. But while Medkeff won't be the one doing the Gambrinus repairs, he's the main force behind the king's resurrection.

With only a handful of small fundraisers held already -- Wilmington's recent Brew-Fest and the "Delaware: A Brew Story" series at Blue Ball barn in Rockland -- about $5,000 has been raised. The campaign, expected to take three to five years, will begin formal fundraising soon. Donations can be made at restoretheking.com.

Delaware's King Gambrinus was born in the early 1880s when Wilmington-based Joseph Stoeckle Brewing Co. purchased it from Brooklyn's M. Gebelt & Brothers Co.

As Medkeff notes, the statue stood high above the corner of Fifth and Adams streets in Wilmington until the brewery went bankrupt in 1955. The statue came down in 1962 when the brewery was demolished to make way for I-95.

Cohen Brothers Furniture purchased the brewery complex, including the statue. And for a short time, it was placed in the window of the furniture store a couple of blocks away from the brewery at 511 Madison St.

By the next year, King Gabrinus was sold to restaurateur Francis Corridori and found a new home: in front of the old King's Inn on Naamans Road in Brandywine Hundred, where Harry's Savoy Grill now stands. Not surprisingly, local teens enjoyed drinking beers near the statue.

When the business closed in 1972, Gabrinus was moved to storage and remained until Medkeff acquired it.

In a neat twist, local musician Daniel Corridori, son of the late Francis Corridori, performed at the recent Brew-Fest, which partially benefited the Restore the King campaign.

Corridori worked at his father's restaurant doing everything from parking cars to doing dishes as a teenager while Gambrinus stood guard out front. If restored, Corridori says he would recognize a familiar face.

"Absolutely. We always had fun with The King while he was there. It was a landmark," he says. "It'll be fantastic to see him again. I'd love to see that. It's a good memory and a good time for my family back then."

Once the statue is restored, it will have a new overseer: Delaware Historical Society Executive Director Scott Loehr and his team at the Market Street Museum.

It's not every day that the society welcomes an 11-foot man with a frothy beer in hand, but Gambrinus didn't catch them by surprise. Medkeff is regularly there doing research on his Delaware beer projects.

"We've long known about John's dream and vision of restoring the Gambrinus statue for some time," Loehr says.

An exact display location within the museum, which underwent a $7 million renovation last year, has not been decided, he added.

When the Cohens first purchased the statue in 1962, the original plan was to have it restored to its original condition since its arm holding the goblet of beer had broke off a few years earlier.

Fifty-five years later, Medkeff is dedicated to finishing the job.

"Unlike the recent controversies going on with some of the Civil War statues, I doubt many people, except maybe prohibitionists, would have a problem with ol' Grambrinus," he says.

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

INFORMATION

For more information on the Restore the King campaign, go to restoretheking.com.