Billings Park was quiet on Veterans Day morning. Temporary construction barriers kept away any pedestrians from South Salina Street. The triangular lawn of the park – traditionally a dash of green near the busy southern boundary of downtown – is being reseeded and remains off-limits after serving as a construction staging area during the restoration of the nearby Syracuse STEAM high school.
The park is home to the Rock of the Marne monument, a World War I memorial of aching emotional resonance. The not-quite-completed repairs to the site made it impossible this year to honor a solemn civic promise made 106 years ago by then-Syracuse Mayor Harry H. Farmer, who stood at Billings in 1920 before a crowd of 25,000 – with many people listening from rooftops – and made this vow:
“We of Syracuse accept this trust. We shall never be forgetful of the honor it confers
upon us. We will cherish it and guard it as we would the graves of the heroic men whose names
make up a magnificent roll of surpassing honor.”
That promise simply has not been kept. There was a burst of attention eight years ago, when the statue was rededicated after a missing plaque was discovered in municipal storage by David Haas, the famed Instagram historian and storyteller. But the idea of the monument as an annual gathering point to recognize American sacrifice in World War I – a tribute to more than 1,000 soldiers who gave their lives in a key moment of the war – was allowed to fade away long ago.
Things are changing, according to Syracuse parks commissioner Syeisha Byrd and Dan Straub, principal of the restored and reopened STEAM school. They anticipate the meaning of that promise will be rekindled for Veterans Day with a community remembrance, a year from now.
It will happen, they said, through the city and its new downtown high school, working together.
Billing Parks is home to both the Rock of the Marne sculpture – designed by renowned sculptor and painter Roland Hinton Perry – and a monument to Spanish-American War veterans designed by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, a pioneering sculptor from an era when the field was all but closed to women.
The Rock of the Marne memorial was envisioned by veterans of the 38th Regiment, young men who trained for the war at the New York State Fairgrounds. They were swiftly thrown into brutal and pivotal combat in July 1918, at the Second Battle of the Marne. The desperate German Army was making one last surge toward Paris in hopes of forcing a negotiated end to World War I.
The 38th Regiment, in the center of the Allied line, “wrote one of the most brilliant pages in the annals of military history,” in the words of American commander John J. Pershing, as recorded on the monument. The regiment held its ground, at a cost of more than 1,000 dead. World War I historian Michael Neiburg told The New York Times it was “the turning point of the war.”
Those soldiers, mourning the friends they lost, decided Syracuse was the best place for a monument, choosing it over even Arlington National Cemetery. Perry – whose career included memorable work at Gettysburg – was selected as the sculptor. The centerpiece is an American soldier, a gas mask around his neck – a haunting statement on the gas warfare that was one of the most terrifying aspects of the trenches.
In July 1920, on dedication day, Farmer told the crowd that Syracuse would never forget the significance of what the monument means, this lasting statement from “the war to end all wars.”
He was wrong. On this Veterans Day, as on most Veterans Day for many years – on the national holiday that annually marks the date of the end of World War I, this conflict of mass carnage in which more than 16 million people died – the Rock of the Marne monument had few visitors.
Straub, principal of the STEAM high school, promises it will not be that way next autumn, once the park is fully reopened. Part of the mission of his school – whose students have brought new life to a city landmark closed since 1975 – is teaching professional skills within the classrooms.
Billings Park provides another opportunity. The city has already added a new circular walkway around the Marne monument, and plans to erect an ornamental fence – with gateways for visitors to come and go – around the entire park, at a high-profile entrance to downtown.
Straub said his staff wants to work closely with the city in allowing the students to play a role in beautifying the park, while the staggering heritage of both monuments provides a natural fit for history and art classes.
Byrd echoed those themes. She said the reopening of the STEAM school – along with the new landscaping at Billings Park – represents a chance for parks officials to work closely with those young students, through Straub and district facilities director Tom Ferrara.
Of the monument – as if in direct response to Farmer’s promise – Byrd said simply:
“We shouldn’t forget.”
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