On Friday leading into Memorial Day weekend, the members of the Byram Veterans Association headed to Greenwich Avenue to place wreaths beside each of the war monuments.
Their first stop for Dave Wold and Don Sylvester was the World War I monument outside the former Post Office.
From there they headed to the World War II monument in front of the Havemeyer building.
“We felt that with nothing having been organized by the veterans organizations, we should start off the Memorial Day weekend by at least honoring those soldiers,” said Mr. Wold as he and Mr. Sylvester carried a wreath of fresh red white and blue carnations across the plaza outside the former post office.
Sylvester said another area with a monument was less well tended. Specifically he said the grass at the Civil War monument at Maple and Putnam Ave is mowed infrequently. “What, do you forget about them? None of these monuments should go unnoticed,” he said.
Wold said Greenwich Town Hall was once located in the area of Maple Ave and Putnam Ave.
“Crocus Hill is where town hall was when Civil War broke out. That’s where kids enlisted,” he said. “They signed up in that building. On that little plateau there was a building that was the town hall. That’s where they signed up all these Meads and Pecks in town.”
“Then around 1890 they put the monument down,” Wold said, adding that it is referred to as the Soldiers and Sailors monument. “Governors and (elected officials) came down. There were more people attending that ceremony than there were residents in town. There were horses and buggies lined up along the entire intersection.”
“There were about 7,000 people,” Sylvester said.
The Dedication Day ceremonies on October 22, 1890, were suitably festive. The many distinguished guests included Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley, who arrived by express train, United States Senators Joseph P. Hawley and Orville H. Platt, and Chief Justice Charles B. Andrews. A parade led by Wheeler & Wilson’s band from Bridgeport and a program of speeches were followed by two collations for participants and guests.
Wold and Sylvester said their wreath effort is an annual one.
“We thought okay, let’s go back to the roots,” Wold said. “Since the Revolution we’ve had veterans.”
A granite monument outside in front of the Havemeyer building on Greenwich Avenue was dedicated in 1956 to honor those lost in World War II and subsequent conflicts.
The monument depicts a WWII solider looking toward the south with a woman and a young girl kneeling at his side. Beneath the image is the dedication “in reverent memory of those from the town of Greenwich who made the supreme sacrifice World War II Korea Vietnam.”
In front of the monument is a large flagpole with an eight-sided granite base that features the names of Greenwich residents lost in World War II and Korea.
