Monument to Mayor Leonard Moore

I meant to post this a few days ago – right after my Lakeview Park fountain item – but I'm just now getting around to it. Sorry about that.

It's a small article that appeared on the front page of the Lorain Sunday News on May 18, 1947 and it shines the spotlight on a little-known monument in Lakeview Park that was dedicated on September 17, 1939. It honors Lorain Mayor Leonard Moore, who had the foresight to convince Lorain City Council to acquire the lakefront property that would become Lakeview Park.

What's interesting about the monument is that it was dedicated by the youth of Lorain, with the Boy Scouts playing a primary role.

In the Sept. 18, 1939 Lorain Journal coverage, it was noted that "Lakeview park today had a monument dedicated to Leonard M. Moore, the late mayor under whose administration the city obtained Lorain's No. 1 beauty spot. Youth turned out 200 strong and adults in the same number to pay tribute to the former city executive at the "unveiling" ceremonies yesterday afternoon. Asst. County Prosecutor William Wickens praised Moore's accomplishments in the principal address of the dedication program."

Here is the tablet (below). The inscription was originally planned to be longer than the final version. The Lorain Journal reported that it read, "Memorial to Leonard M. Moore during whose term as mayor of Lorain, 1916-17, this property was purchased for public park purporses. Dedicated by the youth of Lorain, Sept. 17, 1939."

The article also stated, "Nineteen Boy Scouts troops, including one from Elyria and one from Grafton, approximately 20 Girl Scouts and the Girls band of the Lorain Moose lodge took part in a parade from Washington Park to Lakeview preceding the dedication. Mrs. Leonard Moore, wife of the late mayor, and her two daughters, Misses Ruth and Helen Moore, were introduced by Scout Commissioner William Knerim, chairman of the program. Richard Pazder, eagle scout, led the oath of allegiance, and the band played "America," as the program concluded."

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The Moore monument originally occupied a prominent position near the Rose Garden and facing West Erie Avenue (below). 

Unfortunately, an arbitrary decision was made to relocate several monuments located in the park – including the Moore monument – to a new location adjacent to the Lakeview Park War Memorial. 

Thus, the 1939 Moore monument, the replacement 1922 Quincy A. Gillmore tablet, and a small marker inscribed with the City of Lorain's founding date are clustered together – completely out of historical context – and with no regard for the citizens and civic groups that made the effort to erect and dedicate the monuments in the first place.

The relocated monuments