Veteran's Monument Dating
VETERAN’S MONUMENT DATING
[The below appeared in The Express issue of October 22, 2007.]
To The Editor:
October 19, 2007
The recent discovery that Mechanicville’s Veterans Monument occupies a “no man’s land” has raised many questions about its history in the public’s mind. A brief sketch regarding its origins may shed some light on the current state of confusion over its status. On April 3, 1957, a delegation of veterans organizations asked the Mechanicville Board of Education to erect a monument on school property “on the plot of land to the north of the high school and south of Tenendehowa Creek,” according to School Board minutes. The Board’s unanimous approval of this request then enabled the veterans to approach the City Council to request $3500 to erect a monument “in memory of the deceased veterans of World War[s] I and II and the Korean War.” However, those same minutes also contained the caveat that “the arrangements are subject to the approval of the School Board Attorney.”
Whether due to the legal complications of erecting a City-owned monument on School District property or because of other issues, five years would pass before the City Council was asked to approve Commissioner Anthony Luciano’s proposal to erect a “War memorial…on the High School Lawn.” Endorsing this proposal unanimously, the Council adopted a resolution appropriating a sum not to exceed $4000 for that purpose on June 27, 1962. When a local veteran objected to this expenditure, Mayor John Connors reassured him that the appropriation would require voter approval in a public referendum. Five months later, City voters approved the measure.
On September 11, 1963, the City Council unanimously accepted the low bid of James Hyde of Saratoga to provide a tri-paneled monument to the City at the cost of $2,823. Within two months, the Barre granite memorial was erected on School District property atop a base laid by the City’s Department of Public Works, with the understanding that it would be maintained by Mechanicville’s three veterans organizations.
The dedication ceremony was conducted on Sunday, November 17, 1963, with the honor of unveiling the monument shared by Julius Piroli of the ITAM Peters Purcell Post, John Gallagher of Lt. Fred Clark Post, American Legion, and Daniel Wassil of the Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth Post, V.F.W. Later that day, three wreaths were laid at the stone’s base by veterans’ auxiliary presidents Mrs. Viola Gooley of the American Legion, Mrs. Mary Luciano of the Italian American Veterans, and Mrs. Odelia Cimino of the VFW.
In 1977 and 1978, World War II veteran and then-School Board Member, Guy Coreno, proposed that the plot on which the memorial stands be separated from the School District with the intent of conveying its title to the City, or to the local Veterans Council. Fellow Board Members readily agreed to Coreno’s suggestion, and they directed school authorities to investigate whatever legalities might be involved in executing the property’s transfer. For reasons that still remain unclear today, this process was never completed.
When the School District sold the old High School on North Main Street a few years ago to its current owner(s), it conveyed title to all of its abandoned property on North Main St., including the plot on which the monument stands. In view of this, it is worth recalling the words with which Board of Education President George Pickett opened the dedicatory ceremonies unveiling the memorial on November 17, 1963, “This monument will remind future generations to come that our war dead have not died in vain and that we must keep the faith.” Today, we as a community are called upon to see that George Pickett’s words were not uttered in vain.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Loatman, Jr.- Mechanicville City Historian
Key documents regarding the Monument’s history were provided to me by veterans Chris Sgambati and James Peluso. A fuller investigation into the history outlined here will be posted on the City’s history webpage when further research is completed.