Yale honors students and alumni killed in World War I with a cenotaph dedicated in 1927.
The World War Memorial stands in the Hewitt Quadrangle, an area also known as Beinecke Plaza. A dedication on the monument’s southwest face reads, “In memory of the men of Yale who, true to her traditions, gave their lives that freedom might not perish from the earth.”
The front corners of the sandstone monument’s base feature carved eagles, and the monument also has decorative elements including a tank, a large cannon and a variety of other military equipment.
The names of several World War I battles are inscribed on the Commons dining hall building behind the cenotaph.
The World War memorial was designed by architect Thomas Hastings, who was also responsible for the Commons, Woolsey Hall and the New York Public Library, and Everett V. Meeks, dean of Yale’s School of the Fine Arts.
The names of 225 Yale students and alumni who died during their World War I service are inscribed on panels, dedicated in 1920, along with other memorials in the lobby of Woolsey Hall, including Yale’s Civil War memorial.
In front of the cenotaph, a memorial flagstaff honors Lieutenant Augustus Canfield Ledyard, a Yale alum who was killed in 1899 during the Philippine-American war.
The Ledyard Flagstaff, dedicated in 1908, was moved to its location near the cenotaph as part of a 2004 renovation of the plaza.
Washington honors veterans of the 20th century’s major wars with two monuments near its Town Hall.
World War I veterans are honored with a large bronze plaque mounted on a boulder. The plaque bears a dedication reading, “In honor of the Citizens of Washington who served in the World War and in memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice.”
The plaque lists five residents who died during the war, and lists the names of 106 other residents who served.
The plaque also contains a brief excerpt from the Ralph Waldo Emerson poem “Voluntaries“:
“So nigh is grandeur to our dust/So near is good to man/When duty whispers low ‘thou must’/The youth replies ‘I can’.”
The poem was written in 1863 to honor young people enlisting in the Civil War, and has been used on a number of war memorials.
Washington’s veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam are honored with a nearby monument. The monument bears a dedication reading, “The citizens of Washington have not forgotten. In honor and memory of the veterans of the community who served in the armed services of the United States for the cause of liberty.”
The plaque honoring World War II veterans lists 276 names. The Korean War plaque honors 56 veterans, and the Vietnam plaque lists 94 residents who served.
The plaques, near the intersection of Calhoun Street (Route 109) and Bee Brook Road (Route 47), stand in front of Washington’s Bryan Memorial Town Hall. The building was a posthumous donation by Gregory Seeley Bryan. Bryan was a Washington native who owned the Weed Chain Company in Bridgeport, which manufactured tire chains, car jacks and other products.
Bryan died in 1929, and left money for the construction of a municipal building to honor his parents.
Eight Hartford Distributors Inc. workers killed in a 2010 shooting attack are honored with a memorial on the company’s grounds.
The eight HDI workers were killed by a co-worker on August 3, 2010, and were honored in 2011 with a memorial dedicated on the one-year anniversary of the incident.
Eight stainless steel blocks stand in a small grove of trees outside the company’s warehouse on Chapel Road in Manchester. Each block bears the name of a fallen HDI employee, along with brief messages written by the victim’s family. The blocks, connected across the top by a steel ribbon, also contain personal mementos.
A blank granite tablet near the entrance to the memorial garden reads, in part, “If tears could build a stairway, and memories were a lane, we would walk all the way to heaven, to bring you back again.”
In addition to contributions from HDI, funds for the memorial were raised by the Manchester Rotary Club.
Near the memorial, a piece of sculpture by Mort Fishman titled “Ecology” stands near the HDI entrance.
Roxbury native and American Revolution hero Seth Warner is honored with a monument at his burial site on the town green.
The monument, an obelisk dedicated in 1859, marks the final resting place of Warner, who participated in a number of military victories against British forces in New York and Vermont.
An inscription on the monument’s northeast face reads, “Col. Seth Warner of the Army of the Revolution. Born in Roxbury, CT, May 17, 1743. A resident of Bennington, VT from 1765 to 1784. Died in his native parish Dec. 25, 1784.”
The monument’s northwest face reads, “Captor of Crown Point. Commander of the Green Mountain Bouys in the repulse of Carlton at Longueil and in the Battle of Hubbardton and the associate of Stark in the victory at Bennington.”
The southwest face reads, “His remains are desposited under this monument. Erected by order of the General Assembly of Connecticut AD 1859.”
The southeast face reads, “Distinguished as a successful defender of the New Hampshire Grants and for bravery, sagacity, energy and humanity as a partisan officer in the War of the Revolution.”
The northeast face also bears a small plaque commemorating Warner’s appointment in 1975 as an honorary major general in the state militia.
The monument was rededicated in October of 2010.
After his death in 1784, Warner was buried in a local cemetery before his remains were moved to the town green in 1859.
Warner is also honored with a statue on the grounds of the Bennington Battle Monument in Vermont.
Coventry honors veterans of several wars with monuments on the town’s historic green.
Veterans Memorial Green, along Lake, High and Cross streets, is a former militia ground used for training during the American Revolution, War of 1812 and the Civil War.
Today, the green features six monuments, and ground has been broken for a statue of Nathan Hale that is scheduled for dedication later this year.
Coventry’s World War II veterans are honored with a four-foot granite slab near the green’s northern end. The monument features a large Honor Roll plaque with a dedication reading, “In honor of the men and women of Coventry who served our country in World War II. This memorial was made possible by the citizens of the Town of Coventry.”
The memorial lists the names of 321 residents who served in World War II and highlights 15 who died during their service.
Coventry’s Korean War monument is a gray granite obelisk that lists the dates of the conflict and includes a dedication “to all who answered our country’s call to duty and those who gave their last full measure of devotion.”
The monument lists one resident who was killed while serving in Korea.
The town’s Vietnam War monument is a blank granite obelisk with a dedication reading, “Coventry remembers the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of its Vietnam veterans.”
The monument lists two residents who were killed in action, and two others who died while serving in Vietnam.
Veterans of earlier conflicts are honored with a large memorial boulder that was dedicated in 1928. The boulder bears a plaque that reads, “In grateful memory of those men of Coventry who gave themselves unreservedly in the hour of their country’s need. Among them was Nathan Hale. All might have echoed his immortal words, ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.’
“On this historic military training ground, men assembled in the Colonial Wars, War of the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War.
“This memorial is dedicated by patriotic citizens and friends of Coventry, aided by the societies of the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution and Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution.
“The cannon was presented by the government of the United States [in] 1928 during the administration of Calvin Coolidge, AD 1930.”
The cannon referenced on the Memorial Boulder was built in 1896 by the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, which today manufactures military tools and combat equipment.
The Coventry Green also features a 1998 memorial to French soldiers who fought for American independence. The monument provides a short summary of the decisive support the French military provided to the Continental Army, and highlights seven French soldiers who died of smallpox and were buried in Coventry in 1781.
The southern end of Veterans Memorial Green hosts Connecticut’s Vietnam Memorial.
The Valley Community Foundation announced yesterday it would match up to $6,000 in donations to replace memorial plaques stolen in Derby, Ansonia and Shelton. Details at the Valley Independent Sentinel.
Well done.
The Connecticut Vietnam Memorial, on Coventry’s Veterans’ Memorial Green, was dedicated in May of 2008 to honor the 612 state residents who died during the Vietnam War.
The memorial, near the intersection of Lake and Cross streets, features four black granite panels, with the center two panels listing the names of the state’s Vietnam heroes.
The center panels also bear a dedication reading, “All gave some, some gave all.”
The memorial’s base bears bronze service emblems from the various military branches.
Efforts to build the monument began in 2001, when students at Coventry’s Nathan Hale Middle School began a project to compile biographical information about Connecticut veterans who died in the war.
The middle school project inspired local efforts to build a permanent memorial to the war heroes, and the town of Coventry agreed to provide land on the Memorial Green.
Students at Coventry High School are collecting photographs of the state’s Vietnam heroes as part of the “Call for Photos” campaign being coordinated by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
The photos will be part of an interactive display in an education center planned for Washington, D.C.
Tags: Coventry
Naugatuck honors its Civil War veterans with a monument on the town green.
The monument, which we first visited in 2009, was dedicated in 1885. Its east face bears a dedication from the people of Naugatuck “In honor of her sons who fought to maintain the Union 1861-1865.”
The monument in the right background of the top image was dedicated in 1921 to honor Naugatuck’s World War I veterans.
The creche displayed in front of the monument plays Christmas carols.
Oxford honors veterans and heroes of the two World Wars with monuments on Route 67.
Oxford’s undated World War I monument stands near the intersection of Seymour-Southbury Road (Route 67) and Academy Road (Route 42).
The boulder monument includes a bronze plaque listing 39 residents who served in the war and honoring two who died during their service.
The plaque includes a dedication reading, “Erected to honor those from Oxford who served their country in the World War 1917-1919.”
A short distance from the World War I monument, Oxford’s World War II heroes are honored with a monument in Victory Memorial Park.
As with the World War I memorial, Oxford’s World War II monument is a simple boulder with a bronze plaque. A dedication on the plaque’s west face reads, “Our hero dead, World War II.”
The plaque lists the names and ranks of 10 residents who died during their World War II service.
The plaque also includes a short prayer reading, “Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”
The park (and presumably the monument) was dedicated in 1947.
Tags: Oxford
War veterans from the Stony Creek section of Branford are honored with monuments on a small green.
The green, at the intersections of Halls Point, Sachem and Thimble Islands roads, features three monuments made from the pink granite for which Stony Creek is well known.
The central monument features three Honor Roll plaques on its north face. The oldes of the plaques lists the names of 36 World War I veterans and bears a dedication reading, “A tribute to the valor of the men of Stony Creek who entered the service of their country to fight in the great war for world-wide liberty 1917-1919.”
The World War I memorial is flanked by a plaque listing 26 American Revolution veterans and four veterans of the War of 1812, as well as a plaque listing 10 Civil War veterans and six veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
An undated pink granite Honor Roll monument to the east of the World War I memorial lists two columns of names of local World War II veterans.
A pink granite monument to the west of the World War I monument, dedicated in 1976, honors veterans of Korea and Vietnam.
Isaac Lewis Fountain
A short distance from the war monuments, a memorial fountain honors industrialist and part-time Stony Creek resident Isaac C. Lewis.
The fountain, at the three-way intersection of Indian Point, Thimble Islands and Three Elms roads, features a dedication on its east face reading, “In loving memory of Isaac C. Lewis of Meriden, Conn. The gift of his daughter, Kate A.L. Chapin.”
Isaac Lewis founded a Meriden company that manufactured plated tableware, represented Meriden in the state legislature and served as the city’s mayor.
His Stony Creek house, which stands today, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Tags: Branford, Stony Creek