Stop #16 | Address: 93 Delaware St., Put-in-Bay
Originally conceived as a memorial chapel in a surrounding park skirting the Put-in-Bay harbor containing eight memorial windows, one each to represent the seven other Lake States and one by Ohio, the final design for Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial was much different. It took three years to build with various cost estimates between $600,000 and $1 million. Intended to commemorate the September 1813 victory of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie over the British, a key point in the War of 1812, the Memorial has come to represent the aspirations of all nations for the peace of the world.
To decide on the final design, a competition of American architects was held with the newly formed National Commission of Fine Arts serving as judge. From over 147 architects, J. H. Freedlander and A. D. Seymour, Jr. of New York were selected. Its winning focal point was the Doric column “rising above the isthmus of the Put-in-Bay Harbor as if from the sea.” Reaching 352 feet skyward, the Doric column is made of pink Milford granite from Massachusetts. It is the only international peace memorial in the U.S. National Park System and stands 47 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. The upper deck platform is 12 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty’s torch.
The cornerstone dedication ceremonies were held July 4, 1913 with over 5,000 masons attending. The “peace idea” as part of the memorial was intended in the original planned centennial celebration and was followed through to the finished design. But the solemnity of the centennial celebration was the transfer of the remains of three American and three British officers killed in the Battle of Lake Erie to beneath the rotunda of the mighty column. Although some said the British would not attend the centennial celebration, come they did to help celebrate a century of peace and assist in the dedication of the memorial as an expression for world peace. The memorial stands five miles from the longest undefended border in the world.
About “Tracking the Troops, Tippecanoe & Perry, Too!” This driving tour is a five-county collaborative project with Wyandot, Seneca, Sandusky, Wood and Ottawa counties that takes you on a self-guided driving tour following the military trail of General William Henry Harrison during the War of 1812. Harrison would later become the ninth president of the United States and has the shortest presidency, dying from pneumonia one month after having taken the oath of office.
