Woman's research connects boulevard to World War I vets

July 31, 2005|By ANDREW SCHOTZ

(Page 2 of 2)

The city administration, various commissions and boards, and critics of the boulevard plan clashed.

About a dozen property owners sued over attempts to use their land for the boulevard.

Tension was clear in 1925, when the city council reduced the annual salary for Sewerage Commission members from $600 to $1.

"If the Commissioners have the interest of the city at heart to the extent they pretend, they will be glad to serve for nothing," then-Mayor Charles E. Bowman was quoted as saying in a Morning Herald story.

Nine months later, all three commission members resigned, claiming they were forced out after years of quarreling with the mayor.

Magruder said the original, lofty ideas for the boulevard didn't materialize.

For one thing, bickering derailed plans for a monument for veterans, aside from the name.

A few minutes after a new City Council took office in April 1921, a councilman tried to reject a previously approved report on opening Memorial Boulevard.

The mayor and city attorney "bitterly" objected. Complaining that a mere "placard" was not enough for a proper memorial, then-City Attorney Alex R. Hagner said, "What are a few dollars compared to the heartaches caused by the absence and death of those who fought for their country."

One councilman alleged that the American Legion considered the Memorial Boulevard a farce - requiring The Morning Herald to run a separate box with an American Legion official denying the councilman's claim.

Two weeks later, the City Council voted to close the boulevard. "This action sounds the death knell of Memorial Boulevard," The Morning Herald wrote.

Work proceeded over the years, but in a different way than initially imagined.

Two months ago, the City Council unanimously voted to rededicate Memorial Boulevard in honor of war veterans. It's scheduled to happen on Veterans Day in November.

Magruder said her research is another example that history repeats itself. More than 85 years into the issue "and we're still arguing it today," she said.

Prev | 1 | 2

|

|

|