As the centennial for World War I approaches, a group of District residents is making a push to keep the city’s war memorial on the National Mall from being co-opted as the official national memorial to the war.
The Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia says Pershing Park on Pennsylvania Avenue is much better suited to be the new national memorial site and is asking for a pending bill in Congress to be amended.
“The D.C. War Memorial was built with local money,” said William Brown, president of the association. “We thought [that] was an inappropriate renaming. It’s already [been] done for the District of Columbia residents.”
| Tour the alternative |
| The Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of D.C. is offering a tour of Pershing Park to share their vision of a WWI National Memorial |
| Where: Wednesday; northwest corner of park at 15th Street & Pa. Ave. |
| When: |
| 10 a.m. |
Meanwhile, a WWI designation would “elevate” the plaza near the U.S. Treasury building that’s dedicated to Gen. John Pershing, said Brown. The site has a statue of the general who commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in France and quotes from his speeches. Brown’s group proposes a design competition to add more WWI elements like a sculpture commemorating the Army, Navy and Nurse Corps.
Proponents of using the D.C. War Memorial say that because of a moratorium on building on the National Mall, the option is the last shot to have a WWI memorial on the coveted stage.
The D.C. Council and Mayor Vincent Gray have voiced support for Brown’s association and issued a resolution in calling for the Pershing Park alternative.
<br/><a href=”http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=Pershing+Park,+Washington,+DC&aq=1&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.701751,86.572266&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&hq=Pershing+Park,+Washington,+DC&t=m&ll=38.895976,-77.033043&spn=0.01336,0.017166&z=14&iwloc=A”>View Larger Map</a></div> <p><span class=”BodyCopy”>The fight about where to build a WWI memorial in the nation’s capital has been brewing for several years as it is the only 20th century U.S. conflict that doesn’t have a memorial in Washington, and the centennial anniversary of the start of that war — July 28, 2014 — nears.</span></p> <p><span class=”BodyCopy”>In 2009, people argued about whether the <a href=”http://www.wwimemorial.org/memorial/memorial-history.html”>DC War Memorial</a> or the 217-foot Liberty Memorial in Kansas City should be designated as the nation’s WWI monument. The issue died in Congress until this past March after Frank Buckles, the last WWI veteran, died in West Virginia.</span></p> <p><span class=”BodyCopy”>Now a <a href=”http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:1:./temp/%7Ebdu5gv::%7C/home/LegislativeData.php%7C”>federal bill</a> establishes the World War I Centennial Commission and seeks to designate the D.C. memorial as a national WWI memorial. It also names the Kansas City site as a national “museum and memorial.”</span></p> <p><span class=”BodyCopy”>Brown is asking that the bill is changed to swap Pershing Park for the D.C. memorial.</span></p> <p><span class=”EndEmailTag” style=”font-style:italic;”><i><a href=”%20mailto:[email protected]%20″>[email protected]</a></i></span></p>
