Fifty more memorials in US cities commemorating America’s dead of the Great War have been officially designated, and awarded grants, as national ‘WW1 Centennial Memorials’.
The final awards in the 100 Cities/100 Memorials campaign were announced on April 5, eve of the 101st anniversary of the US declaration of war against Germany in 1917.
Spread across 37 states, spanning the US from Hawaii to the East Coast, each project will receive a $2,000 matching grant towards restoration, conservation and maintenance.
The campaign was launched by the US World War I Centennial Commission and the Chicago-based Pritzker Military Museum & Library in 2016 to help raise awareness of WW1 memorials across the United States. Many have deteriorated after years of exposure to the elements, or neglect.
They include national landmarks, as well as many smaller, local projects. Among them are:
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, commissioned in 1921 and used as the host stadium for the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games.
Washington DC’s National World War I Memorial at Pershing Park. See ‘A Soldier’s Journey Explored’ – US memorial sculptor Sabin Howard talks to CN’s Patrick Gregory.
Soil from the Argonne battlefields was used at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new National World War I Memorial in November 2017. Looking on at Pershing Park is architect Joe Weishaar, the project’s designer. (Photo: US WW1 Centennial Commission)
Soldier Field football stadium, Chicago.
Waikiki Natatorium ocean swimming pool, dedicated to Hawaiians who served in the Great War.
Monument to WWI US Airmen, at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio.
San Francisco’s Chinese American Memorial, commemorating Americans of Chinese origin, who served in both world wars.
Emile Ladnier Memorial in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, honouring local soldier Emile Ladnier who was killed four days before the Armistice in November 1918.
Sgt Alvin C. York’s gravesite in Pall Mall, Tennessee. Alvin York was drafted despite registering as a conscientious objector. He became one of the most decorated US soldiers of the Great War, awarded the Medal of Honor and the French Croix de Guerre for his actions in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in October 1918.
Dan Dayton, Executive Director of the US Centennial Commission, said: “By focusing on restoring these community treasures, local cities, veterans groups, historical society and citizens have come together to remember the community’s heritage – and that was really a key goal of the program.”
The full list of 100 memorials can be found on the US World War 1 Centennial Commission website.
More than 116,000 US soldiers were killed in the First World War, and 200,000 were wounded. This inscription is above the chapel entrance at Somme American Cemetery, France (Photo Centenary News)
Commemorations will be held at US memorials in France and Belgium in 2018 to mark the centenaries of the notable American actions at Cantigny and Belleau Wood, in the St Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensives, and in Flanders. See American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) for details.
Source: United States World War I Centennial Commission
Posted by: CN Editorial Team
Images courtesy of US Centennial Commission (Pershing Park ceremony) Centenary News (General Pershing statue & Somme American Cemetery)