The American Legion War Memorial at Clarendon
The American Legion War Memorial was erected on November 11, 1931
The American Legion War Memorial was erected on November 11, 1931 by the American Legion and designed by Adolph Thelander. While it was made for those lives lost during the Great War (WWI), it has since had plaques added to honor other Arlington citizens who lost their lives in the service of the United States of America. The monument sits on raised ground above the surrounding area and is a stone monument topped with an orb with an eagle on top. The pink granite stones used to build this monument were taken from Arlington Cemetery.
The Washington Post covered the event: “While 2,000 persons stood with bared heads as the bugle notes of taps sounded. Katherine Bruce, the 13-year-old daughter of Robert J. Bruce, unveiled Arlington County's memorial to the World War Dead upon the tablet on which her father's name appears.
“Opening the county's most impressive Armistice Day celebration, the Fort Myer Band played "America, the Beautiful." The Rev. Perry L. Mitchell, pastor of Clarendon Baptist Church, delivered the invocation.
"’I have no word to express the veneration and affection we all must feel for those who, by their courage and sacrifice, brought a glorious conclusion to the greatest and costliest of all the mighty conflicts.’ Representative Hoard W. Smith, the dedicatory speaker, said.
“The monument must not only commemorate the dead but must serve to admonish the living, that in peace as well as war the Nation must cherish the fundamentals of democratic government, he said.
“The exercises at the monument were concluded with the playing of "The Star Spangled Banner" by the Band of the Washington and Lee High School.
“In a recess in the granite structure is the tablet upon which the names of those who gave their lives appear. They are
John Lyon
John G. Smallwood
Robert J. Bruce
Harry A. Stone
Irving T.C. Newman
Harry E. Vermillion
Edward J. Smith
Archie W. Williams
Frederick W. Schutt
Frank Dunkin
Oscar L. Housel
Arthur Morgan
Ralph Lowe
“After the dedication, there was a parade, headed by the Fort Myer Band, in which Victory Post, of Washington, Alexandria Post, Washington and Lee Cadets and girls auxiliary, cadet band, and Arlington County Post, American Legion, marched. The memorial was erected by the legionnaires and citizens of the county from granite quarried in Arlington Cemetery.”
Today, we know this memorial is incomplete. Three more men from Arlington were not included, probably because of how the information was collected, by an ad in a newspaper asking people to supply the names of their relatives who had died in the war. Those with no relatives or none in the area could not have responded.
This memorial is located in Clarendon now with the historical context of the monument and the racist separation of the names of two African-American men who were listed on the commemorative memorial: Arthur Morgan and Ralph Lowe.
