DAR strives to replace monument

Julie Pittman, a regent in the Esther Reed Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, felt ill when a venerable monument to George Washington was vandalized in Manito Park in 2002.

“I was heartsick,” Pittman said last week while visiting the sandstone monument, erected by the chapter in 1932.

“We felt like a little bit of our history was being taken away from us,” she said.

Pittman and other members of the Esther Reed Chapter want to repair the monument, and they are asking for the public’s help in raising an estimated $5,500 needed for the restoration.

Annie Pierce, a southwest Spokane resident and chapter member, is spearheading the drive to restore the monument and to move it to a new, more visible location where it might not be as susceptible to vandalism.

“We’re on our own to raise money,” she said, noting the Parks Department does not have funds for the work.

The monument was installed to commemorate the 200th year of Washington’s birth in 1932 and to honor the state’s namesake. At 8 ½ feet tall, the monument was the first one erected in Spokane to the nation’s first president, according to DAR minutes from 1932. It is accompanied by a drinking fountain, which no longer spouts water. It rests on a base of white stone.

Atop the monument is a circle of 13 stars to signify the original colonies and states and 48 flute shapes for the number of states in the union at the time. The front side had a bronze relief bust of Washington and the rear had a bronze plaque of the emblem of the DAR.

DAR minutes said the monument was dedicated as “an appropriate memorial legend … to the memory of the great patriot whose life is still an inspiration to all true Americans.”

During a wave of vandalism at Manito Park early in this decade, the monument in 2002 succumbed to repeated defacement. Vandals chipped away inset letters. The damage was so severe that it is now difficult to read the script that declares the intent of the monument. Two bronze plaques were pried off and stolen. It was the second time that the Washington bust had been taken. The DAR chapter replaced the bust after an earlier theft.

The monument is found along a paved foot path running on the east side of the park between the lower Manito parking lot and East Manito Place. Its secluded location may be part of the reason the vandalism occurred. In 1932, the site was chosen because it was on a triangular piece of ground known as Washington Place.

Pierce said restoration will include the likelihood of moving the monument to a more visible location near the Park Bench Café. The stone face of the monument would be ground down and the letters restored. A laser etching of Washington would replace the stolen plaque, she said.

She said that the city has already lost a statue to Chief Garry in Garry Park because of vandalism, and she doesn’t want to see the city lose a second monument. Preserving history, she said, is important for a city as young as Spokane.

“It is a patriotic symbol,” Pierce said.