Pardon my ignorance, but I've lived here for years and have never been able to figure out what Dickens' connection to this area was. Did he visit the area, or is there some Dickens book I haven't read that talks about Spruce Hill? How did the neighborhood come to have this statue?
Not incredibly helpful, but this was all I could find quickly:
"Originally commissioned by the Washington newspaper publisher Stilson Hutchins.... When the publisher was unable to pay for the completion of the work, [sculptor] Frank Edwin Elwell returned the money and took the work to England in the hope of finding a buyer. Instead, he discovered that Dickens' will prohibited any "monument, memorial, or testimonial, whatever. I rest my claims to remembrance on my published works and to the remembrance of my friends upon their experience of me." Elwell returned to America to exhibit the work at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 [in Chicago], where it was awarded two gold medals. After four years of neglect, the Fairmount Park Art Association purchased the sculpture in 1900 and installed it in Clark Park in 1901. After vandals damaged the sculpture in 1989, the Friends of Clark Park raised funds for its repair."
-- Penny Balkin Bach, *Public Art in Philadelphia*, Temple University Press (Philadelphia: 1992)
I don't know if Dickens ever was in West Philadelphia, but he certainly visited the city several times, and it is mentioned in his writings. He's said (almost certainly incorrectly) to have given Fishtown its name.
I'm bccing a friend who works at the Fairmount Park Art Association in case she knows more about why they bought this particular work and chose this particular location.
Daniel
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