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?