Name/Title
Eastport Civil War Monument | 33 Washington Street, Eastport, Maine | I7-0B3-07 | District #117Entry/Object ID
117Description
Located on City of Eastport property between House #116 and House #118. Granite monument erected in 1938 with bronze plaque which reads: 1861 1865/Erected/In Memory Of/The Men Who Served/The Union On/Land And Sea/By/The Citizens Of Eastport/Under The Auspices Of/The Sons Of Union Veterans/Of The Civil War.” The original stone walkway that was installed as part of the monument was unearthed a few years ago.
From The Quoddy Tides, May 22, 2009, p. 8:
Monument Honors Civil War Veterans
by Susan Esposito
Seventy years ago, in honor of Eastport's Civil War dead, the Sons of Veterans erected a monument on a vacant lot between Washington and Sullivan streets. Approximately 800 Eastporters had served on land and sea during the War of the Rebellion.
When the Red Beach granite memorial was set up at the end of 1938, The Eastport Sentinel described it as "standing six feet in height and of a rough finish, [standing] in the center of what was once a grass tennis court, reached from both streets by a flagstone pathway."
The inscription on the Washington Street side reads, ”1861 GAR 1865 / Erected In Memory of the Men Who Served The Union On Land and Sea By The Citizens of Eastport Under the Auspices of The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.”
The monument had been approved a year before that when Commander Howard Savage of Meade Camp, Sons of Veterans, announced that the members had voted to buy the lot of land connecting the Kane property on Washington Street and erect a suitable memorial to the soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic. The December 15, 1937, issue of The Eastport Sentinel reported of the original plan, “The plans are being worked out so that the lawn, sidewalk and stone will be parts of a harmonious design adapted particularly to that location, with a view not only to beautifying that section of Washington and Sullivan Streets but of rendering more accessible attractive grounds surrounding the high school and the beautiful terraced steps leading up to them.”
Commander Savage said, “The members of the camp felt that they have completed the work for which their organization was established, and that further memorial observance may well be sponsored by younger service groups. Meade Camp will accordingly disband after it has arranged for this memorial fund, for which money amounting to about a thousand dollars is in the camp treasury.”
Added the Sentinel, “Eastport has never had a soldiers monument, partly because no suitable site has been available previously. Funds have several times been started for the purpose, however. The Sons of Veterans believe that the memorial they are planning will serve the purpose of remembrance and honor just as truly as a monument, and with more both of dignity and utility, an opinion that will be held by the great majority of people here.”
• Eastport Sentinel, December 15, 1937, p.1: "Sons of Veterans Plan Memorial. To Buy Kane Lot on Washington Street, Build Cement Walk to Sullivan Street Place Memorial Tablet.
Commander Howard Savage of Meade Camp, Sons of Veterans announced Saturday that at a meeting of that organization held Friday evening it had been voted to buy the lot of land connected with the Kane property on Washington Street, and to have erected there a suitable memorial to the soldiers of the Grand Army. This will not take the form of a monument, but will be something perhaps quite as attractive, and certainly more useful,—a cement sidewalk running from Washington Street to Sullivan Street near the foot of the steps leading to the High School grounds, thru a lawn in which will be set, on a suitable base, a boulder of native granite, bearing a bronze tablet appropriately inscribed. The plans are being carefully worked out so that the lawn, sidewalk and stone will be parts of a harmonious design adapted particularly to that location, with a view not only to beautifying that section of Washington and Sullivan Streets but of rendering more accessible attractive grounds surrounding the High School and the beautiful terraced steps leading to them.
The transfer of the Kane lot will be made immediately, but work on the sidewalk and the stone may not be started until spring, altho it is probable that the entire undertaking will be completed by next Memorial Day, when it would be fitting that a dedication program be conducted in connection with the usual Memorial services.
Commander Savage said the members of the Camp felt that they have completed the work for which their organization was established, and that further Memorial observance may well be sponsored by younger groups. Meade Camp will accordingly disband after it has arranged for this memorial fund for which money amounting to about a thousand dollars is in the Camp treasury.
Eastport has never had a soldiers monument, partly because no suitable site has been available previously. Funds have several times been started for the purpose however. The Sons of Veterans believe the memorial they are planning will serve the purpose of remembrance and honor just as truly as a monument, and with more both of dignity and utility an opinion that will be held by the great majority of people here."
• Eastport Sentinel, May 25, 1938, p. 1: "Memorial Day Plans Completed. Parade in Afternoon; No Oration this Year; Kane Lot Purchased. .... Of interest in connection with Memorial Day is the fact that the deed of the Kane lot on Washington Street passed yesterday, and work will soon be started for the erection of a Soldiers Memorial there. The plans include the building of a walk leading from Washington to Sullivan Street as an approach to the foot of the High School steps; the setting up of a natural boulder bearing a memorial tablet of bronze, and the creation of a small park where seats will be available for visitors or others who may wish to pause there for a moment's rest while walking about town. When the general plan was decided on last summer it was hoped that the project could be completed for dedication this year, but that proved inpracticable, and the work will be done, it is expected, during the coming season."
• Eastport Sentinel, November 16, 1938, p. 1: "Sons of Veterans Honor War Dead. Erect Monument on Former Kane Lot in Memory of Men Who Served the Union on Land and Sea. In fitting tribute to the "Boys in Blue" who left Eastport in 1861-65 to fight for the Union on land and sea, the Sons of Veterans of Meade Post, G.A.R., have erected a splendid Civil War memorial on the former Kane lot between Washington and Sullivan Streets. Expenses were taken care of by the local patriotic order while the labor was done by WPA.
Hewn out of native Red Beach granite, standing six feet in height and of a rough finish, the monument stands in the center of what was once a grass tennis court, reached from both streets by a flagstone pathway. The inscription on the side facing Washington Street reads as follows:
1861 GAR 1865
Erected
In Memory of
The Men Who Served
The Union On
Land and Sea
By
The Citizens of Eastport
Under the Auspices of
the Sons of Union Veterans
of The Civil War
Plans are now under discussion by the Sons of Veterans regarding its dedication, which probably will be solemnized on Memorial Day, 1939."
• Eastport Sentinel, May 31, 1939, p. 1: "Memorial Day Fittingly Observed." No mention of any dedication of the Civil War monument.
