Let The Monument Stand

Proud And Alone

To the Editor:

I was so pleased to read the recent editorial regarding the new fence that is being built around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. I pass the triangular green at the head of Hanover Road every day as I drive back and forth to work and it was with great dismay that I saw the granite posts being put into the ground. I greatly applauded the renovation and development of the little memorial park as a garden, but the posts made the little park claustrophobic.

As town historian I was recently given the blueprints for the monument by the descendants of the monument’s creator. It is very clear that the monument was meant to stand high and alone, a clear sentinel to Liberty and Peace. (In fact, that was the original name of the monument; Liberty and Peace Monument.) To close this in with tall granite posts, especially with the wooden cross pieces, is to diminish the monument’s effectiveness.

Please, now that the state has forced the granite posts to be removed pending their replacement farther back from the state road, leave the granite out of the ground. Please do not close in this most precious testament to our veterans. Let it stand as it was meant to stand; proud and alone.

Dan Cruson - Town Historian

Hanover Road, Newtown                                          December 1, 2004