RIDGEWOOD’S 114 HONORED DEAD MEMORIAL

Van Neste Square sits in the heart of Ridgewood. It is what many would refer to as the town-square and is used for a variety of local manifestations, the centerpiece of which is a monument to Ridgewood’s 20th century war casualties – what American Legion Post 53 calls Ridgewood’s 114 Honored Dead. The monument is a classic revival memorial column which was designed by Henry Bacon, architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Made of Georgia marble, it weighs 183 tons and stands 34′ high. The cost to village was $18,000. Despite a cold wind and snow flurries, the memorial was dedicated in the afternoon of Sunday November 9, 1924 in the presence of 5,000 people. After letters to Mayor Garber from President Coolidge and General Pershing were read, the mother of Jesse Douglass, a World War I casualty, unveiled the monument. It is now the backdrop for annual Memorial Day ceremonies honoring Ridgewood’s war dead.

At the dedication in 1924, Oliver Surpless, Chairman of the Memorial Committee, called upon the citizens to “ foster every effort to bring the leading races of the world closer to one another in the arts of peace so that our children will be spared disaster, suffering and a sacrifice, compared to which we have experienced but a pale preliminary.” As these words were spoken, an imprisoned veteran of the defeated Kaiser’s army sat in a cell and penned Mein Kampf. On November 16, 1930 a plaque listing the 14 WWI casualties was placed on the monument. In 1965 the names if Ridgewood’s WWII and Korean casualties were added. Plaques honoring casualties from Vietnam were later added to the monument. Two additional casualties from WWII and two additional casualties from Vietnam were added in 1989. Six additional WWII casualties were added in 1991. In 2018, the Monument was awarded the title of World War One Centennial.

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