Park Places to Pay Respect this Memorial Day Weekend

Today marks the start of Memorial Day weekend, a time sometimes associated with the start of the summer season. A weekend to celebrate and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us and the United States of America.

Lou Sand, Regional Manager of Riverfront Parks and Special Events has a suggestion on how you should celebrate your Memorial Day weekend:
Memorial Day is a sacred holiday where we honor the ultimate sacrifice made by some of our Veterans. Come out to some of the wonderful Veterans Memorials in Cincinnati Parks, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Eden Park. Visit these Memorials and reflect on the sacrifices made and honor those sacrifices.

We at Cincinnati Parks hope you have a safe and memorable Memorial Day weekend. Below you’ll find a list of events in parks and some of our Memorials in various parks. Please do take a trip to pay respect and reflect on our fallen heroes, their sacrifice was for you.

Cincinnati Parks Memorials

Ault Park
3600 Observatory Ave., 45208

WWI Memorial Bench: Created in 1920, the bench’s inscription says, “In memory of the citizens of Hamilton County who gave their lives in the country’s service 1917-1918.”

Eden Park
950 Eden Park Dr., 45202

Frederick W. Galbraith Memorial: Installed in 1923, the memorial is a white granite, semicircular bench with a large central pilaster bearing a bronze bas-relief that honors Colonel Galbraith, a commanding officer of the Ohio National Guard during World War I. Designed by local sculptor Clement Barnhorn, the relief depicts figures from that war: soldiers, a sailor and a nurse, as well as two angels, all grouped on either side of Galbraith, who served as the first National Commander of the newly formed American Legion in 1921.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Two soldiers, one white and one African American, are captured in a pose suggesting their grief and exhaustion – the perils and anguish of war all soldiers face. The bronze figures are atop a pink granite base inscribed with a map of Vietnam.

World War I Memorial Bench: A monument in memory of the service of the Battery F. 136th Field Artillery by the Mothers of those who served 1918 – 1919

Lytle Park
501 East 4th St., 45202

Abraham Lincoln: Lytle Park’s heroic bronze portrayal of Abraham Lincoln stands 11 feet in height. Artist George Grey Barnard (1863-1938) was commissioned by the Charles P. Taft family to create the work, which took him five years to complete. The statue was dedicated in 1917 by former U.S. President William Howard Taft, younger half- brother of Charles.

United States Marine Corps Memorial: In honor of the United States Marine Corps and the Marines of Hamilton County who made the supreme sacrifice in the World War.

Memorial Pioneer Cemetery
333 Wilmer Ave., 45226

Memorial Pioneer Cemetery, the oldest in Hamilton County, marks the only restored remnant of the pioneer settlement of Columbia. Dating from 1790, when the Columbia Baptist Church was established on this site, it’s the resting place of Revolutionary and Civil War veterans. In 1937, the cemetery was conveyed to the city by the Cincinnati Baptist Union. The tall Corinthian column came in 1888 from Cincinnati’s old 1856 Post Office building (designed by James Keys Wilson) which was razed. In 1967, Frederick L. Payne began a four year restoration of the cemetery. When Payne retired as Director of Parks in 1987, a Colonial-style garden was created to commemorate his efforts.

Piatt Park
100 Garfield Pl., 45202

William Henry Harrison Monument: Piatt was Cincinnati’s first park (see Parks History), and this bronze sculpture honors an early Cincinnati hero: William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), ninth U.S. president and Ohio’s first. Harrison achieved fame in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 and as a War of 1812 military commander. Following his marriage to the daughter of John Cleves Symmes, he settled just west of Cincinnati in North Bend. Harrison was elected U.S. president in 1840; a few days after delivering the longest inaugural address in history (an hour and 45 minutes), he died of pneumonia. Created by Art academy instructor Louis T. Rebisso (1837-1899) and his student Clement Barnhorn, this sculpture is Cincinnati’s only equestrian statue.

James Abrams Garfield Monument: At Piatt’s east end is this 1885 bronze-cast monument to the 20th U.S. president, one of six born in Ohio, who was assassinated in 1881. It’s the creation of Cincinnati sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus.

Smale Riverfront Park
West Mehring Way, 45202

Black Brigade Memorial: A memorial to the hundreds of African American volunteers who, in 1862, erected barricades in Northern Kentucky to protect the city during the Civil War.

Stanbery Park
2221 Oxford Ave., 45230

World War I Memorial: Known as “The Boy and the Book,” this life-size bronze sculpture shows a young man sitting on a tree stump with an open book on his lap. The piece was created by Arturo Ivone and dedicated in 1938 as a World War I memorial.

Valley Park
3220 Colerain Ave., 45225

World War I Memorial: Designed by Chicago artist John Paulding, this war memorial was installed in 1920. An infantry soldier, or doughboy, is depicted in bronze atop a tall granite pedestal as a memorial to the men in Camp Washington community who fought and died in World War I. Doughboy Statue

Washington Park
1230 Elm St., 45202

Robert L. McCook Monument: This monument-bust by artist Leopold Fettweis honors a local Civil War hero whose white marble bust is set on a tall granite pedestal. The Irish McCook led the 9th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, nicknamed “Die Neuner” because its ranks were primarily German.