DIXON – If you’ve ever wondered why the heart of the city showcases a crumbling, graffiti-covered wall, today – Nov. 9 – might be the perfect day to learn.

Twenty years ago today, the gates of the Berlin Wall were opened. After nearly 3 decades of division, Berlin residents could pass freely through the Iron Curtain, between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.

Ronald Reagan, of course, was a key player in the demise of the Berlin Wall. Two years before its fall, he told Mikhail Gorbachev, then-general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to “tear down this wall.”

And that’s how Dixon came into the story.

The same year the wall fell, a Bulgarian immigrant named Nick Tanev donated a marble sculpture – “Wings of Peace and Freedom” – to the city.

John Thompson, president of the Dixon Area Chamber of Commerce, knew Tanev.

“Nick picked Dixon because it was Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home,” Thompson said. “He was a big fan of Reagan and kind of a vehement anti-communist, having experienced it firsthand.”

Tanev had marble chunks shipped from Portugal; an Illinois artist pieced them together. The sculpture sat in a Dixon warehouse for years, though, before a home was found for it.

Maybe you’re familiar with “Wings of Peace and Freedom,” which adorns Galena Avenue and Second Street.

“It was very controversial for a while,” Mayor Jim Burke said. “It was the butt of a lot of jokes.”

Burke was instrumental in building Freedom Park, which now houses the sculpture and the city’s replica of the Berlin Wall.

“The park needed to be finished off,” he said. “The sculpture just stood there stark naked, I guess is the way to put it. I felt that we could take something that was a lemon and make lemonade out of it.”

So the mayor formed a commission, and local companies donated supplies and money. Dixon’s model of the Berlin Wall was constructed, to finish off the park and to complement the sculpture, in 2001. Although merely a replica, a piece of the original wall is embedded in Dixon’s wall.