They may be made of a half-ton of concrete, but the pair of iconic lions at 1530 Griffith Avenue have come alive over the last decade with the help of Sharon Weber’s imagination and fun fashion sense. Now, the lions have their own Facebook Page where the community can keep up with the latest outfits — and even pitch a few ideas of their own.
Weber is a retired music teacher and friend of the homeowner, who prefers not to be named.
The lions were installed with a crane in 2010 and were first decorated that Christmas. Ever since, the lions have stayed dressed with themes that tend to follow the seasons — though sometimes it’s just a unique idea that Weber comes up with. She said there is no certain amount of time any costumes stays on.
“It’s just whenever I get the urge to,” she said. “I try to change it seasonally, but sometimes I have an idea and I want to change it. There’s no plan. There’s no rhyme or reason. That’s the fun of it.”
Only once in all that time has an outfit been repeated — a Halloween-themed “Cousin It,” which was made from grass skirts glued onto large pillowcases that slid over the lions.
The lions have become a destination of sorts over the years, with Weber saying she’s heard countless stories of how the statues have entered families’ lives.
Some people take pictures to send to ill family members. Some parents bring their children out for photos. There’s even a group in Florida that keeps up with what the big cats are wearing. And Weber said there’s a local group that has kept a scrapbook with photos of the lions over the years.
“It’s kind of gotten to be a big deal,” she said. “It didn’t start out that way but it has turned into that.”
Weber said the lions are bigger than people realize, so she has to hand-make the outfits. Even then, decorating can be tough.
“I’ve almost become an engineer,” she said. “I have a kit that I carry with me that has zip ties, anchors, rope, wire, just everything in it that I take with me when I go over there. It takes me about an hour and a half to dress them.”
Weber said the newly created Facebook Page is both to let people keep up with what costumes the lions are sporting, and to possibly generate a few new ideas.
“It’s just to have some fun with it,” she said. “I’ve been doing it for so long, and I thought I would just do something different.”
Follow the Griffith Avenue Lions on Facebook here.
