WASHINGTON – The District doesn’t want to share a newly-restored monument on the National Mall with other veterans who served in the war it commemorates, but Congress could overturn those plans.
The District of Columbia War Memorial will be the subject of a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday to help determine if the monument should be opened up to honoring all veterans of World War I, not just residents of the nation’s capital.
“Many states established memorials for World War I. This is our memorial,” says city resident Nelson Rimensnyder, a former member of the Historical Society of Washington and D.C. shadow representative candidate, who will testify at the hearing. “We raised the money for it, and it honors our men and women who served and died in that war.”
The Doric temple-style marble dome supported by a ring of columns was recently restored by the National Park Service after falling into a state of disrepair. Some believe those nationally-funded efforts have earned all Great War veterans the right to be recognized there.
“All we’re proposing to do is add another feature to that site so that people who come visit it can also feel like they’ve paid respect to all America’s veterans of World War I,” says Edwin Fountain of the World War I Memorial Foundation.
Fountain points to the former state of the monument, housed in the wooded area between the World War II and Lincoln memorials, almost directly across Independence Avenue from the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
“Where have they been all these years as the D.C. War Memorial had slowly fallen into decay and disrepair?” he says.
Prior to its year-long restoration beginning in the fall of 2010, the memorial had been placed on the D.C. Presevation League’s “Most Endangered Places” list.
“Though the D.C. World War Memorial continues to stand gracefully in a shady grove of trees, it has been neglected for decades,” according to a 2003 posting on the organization’s website. “It has been thirty years since it major work has been done on the memorial. It is in critical need of a complete structural evaluation.”
The organization pegged blame on the absence of “signage or explanation” at the memorial to draw the attention of visitors. It was also unclear who was responsible for maintaining it, the organization said.
The debate comes at an apt time, leading up to the centennial anniversary of the beginning of World War I in 2014.
Tuesday’s hearing is before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Private Lands.
WTOP’s Dick Uliano and Paul D. Shinkman contributed to this report. Follow Paul and WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
