It’s gone for good (Image: CHS)
In a victory for those who have been calling for its removal for years, the toppled United Confederate Veterans Memorial sitting in Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery won’t be restored as the structure is past repair, a cemetery representative tells CHS.
The controversial memorial to Confederate soldiers of the Civil War was vandalized and pulled down over the Fourth of July weekend. With the rubble now removed, all that remains of its nearly century-long existence are a series of orange cones and red tape.
“There’s no process to restore it. It’s gone,” the representative said. “The vandals came in and they just ruined it but we were in the process of getting rid of it anyway.”
Over the Independence Day weekend, the huge Stone Mountain granite monument hewed from the Georgia mountain birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan was toppled and dragged until it collapsed. Yellow pull straps were left behind at the scene.
The presence of a Confederate monument in Seattle shows that sympathies for the South rose even in the distant Pacific Northwest. The Lake View monument, erected in 1926, was owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a national organization representing a collection of local associations dedicated to marking the contributions made by Southern women during the war, and collecting and preserving “the material necessary for a truthful history of the War Between the States.”
Over the years as people called fo the memorial’s removal, Lake View management said the monument was managed by the national United Daughters of the Confederacy organization and tried to stay clear of the controversy.
This week, the employee of the cemetery nonprofit did not provide additional details of what the plans had been to remove the structure and referred CHS to cemetery management for further comment. The manager hung up when we tried to call.
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I hope it was ground up, and then lost.
At some point in the recent past a white supremacist organization outside of Portland had wanted it.
I took a dump on it
I am not sure I ‘d call taking it down ‘ruining it’…but it’s gone and that is what counts. My appreciation goes to the activists who had the guts to do it.
I don’t understand why cemetery management has been so cagey about the issue. Seems like an opportunity to be on the right side of history for them.
I’m tempted to turn the ground where it used to be into an impromptu memorial for folks who’ve been killed in BLM protests. The community needs a place for collective grief, and seems like a good use of that patch of dirt.
Back in the 80s, we used to skate in the cemetery. That statue always made a good place to take a piss.
Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery, a city park and gravesite just north of Lake Vier, is resting place for about 500 Union Army vets and their families. While its well-tended by volunteers and Parks staff, it should be a place to gather when we rememberl those who fought slavery and racism.
some point in the recent past a white supremacist organization outside of Portland had wanted it.