After blogging a few days ago about the old Civil War statue that used to grace the former Washington Park (now known as Veteran's Park), I decided to grab my camera and head over there this weekend to see what it looks like today.
I still remember riding my bike through here in the early 1970's. I don't remember the Civil War statue still being there (I'm sure it was long gone), but I remember that it was a nice, quaint park with Victorian-style light posts. Since the park was Lorain's original town square, it was a nice slice of history in a town robbed of much of it, thanks to urban renewal.
Flash forward to the early 1980's. 'Improvements' were made to the renamed park so as to accommodate various veterans' ceremonies. Unfortunately, the improvements resulted in paving over much of the park with the addition of a huge fountain and pavilion.
Today, the park has lost a lot of its ambiance. It appears that at least one of the trees in front of the Antlers Hotel are the same.
I wish that the whole fountain area was torn up and replaced by green space again, with a brand new Civil War statue in the center. As we progress into the 2000's, I am afraid that much of this nation's history, specifically the Civil War, is going to be forgotten and probably rewritten. (My great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, so this is a subject about which I'm a little sensitive.)
But that's just my opinion. What do you think?
3 comments:
Dan,
I think you are right. I remember playing in that park in the 1960's. My grandmother lived on 9th street and we would go by that park all of the time. I had completely forgotten about it until a read your blog.
And as you point out, the civil war will be something that will be forgotten in terms of actual people and events. Hopefully, it will people like yourself and others who write about this material in the age of the internet that will help us remember not only who, but when where and why things came to be.
Hoy hoy,
Jeff Rash
History as a subject in school is hardly taught any more - seems like if it didn't happen during the Information Age it isn't worth wasting any time on. If they teach history at all it's some re-written piece of garbage that makes America out to be the bad guy in every event since the country was founded. What a shame.
John Kovacs
Looks like I'm a bit off in my memory. The statue was still there in 1965 according to some recent research. Also, the park wasn't revamped with the addition of the fountain, etc. until the mid-1980's (when the 'renovation' started).
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