Washington Heights WWI Monument Restored For Veteran's Day

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A World War I memorial in Washington Heights was refurbished and rededicated this year for the 100th anniversary of the war's end, according to the city Parks Department.

The Washington Heights-Inwood War Memorial — located in Mitchel Square at the intersection of Broadway, St. Nicholas Avenue and West 168 Street — was fully cleaned and restored with a new bronze coat and renewed masonry, city officials said. A bronze bayonet that had gone missing from the monument, which depicts three life-sized soldiers, was also replaced, city officials said.

Congressman Adriano Espaillat rededicated the monument during a ceremony on the Thursday prior to Veteran's Day. The Washington Heights monument was one of several World War I monuments in the city restored for the 100th anniversary of the 1918 armistice that ended the war.

Columbia University professor Rudolph Leibel, who can see the monument from his office window in the Columbia University Medical Center, reached out to Espaillat and the city Parks Department two years ago to request repairs to the monument when he noticed the bronze bayonet had gone missing. The professor and his colleagues contributed money to replace the bayonet, according to a Columbia University news release.

"I walk by the statue twice a day. I come close enough to touch it. It’s personal," Leibel said in the university news release.

"Neither side appreciated the enormity of destruction that would follow the declarations of war. The bayonet exemplifies the violence of this conflict."

The Washington Heights-Inwood War Memorial was first dedicated on May 30, 1923 and was sculpted by the artists Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney on a design by architects Delano and Aldrich, according to the city Parks Department. The monument was funded by a donation from the Washington Heights & Inwood Memorial Association.

Photo courtesy NYC Parks Department