Veterans and service members and people paying respects to those who died in wartime will gather again this Memorial Day where the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Wall has stood since 1995 as the largest memorial of its kind outside Washington, D.C.
The area around the monument has changed dramatically over three decades. The old Veterans Memorial Coliseum was demolished. The Daily’s Place amphitheater opened near it and the football stadium is undergoing massive renovation.
Plans to turn the close-by Lot J parking lot into an entertainment district ended a few years ago but could come back.
City Council member Nick Howland — a Navy veteran himself — generated debate in the veteran community when he said last summer it might be better to move the 65-foot black granite wall onto a less busy riverfront site. He raised that possibility when Mayor Donna Deegan proposed $2 million in this year’s budget for a permanent shade structure at the monument.
Howland convened a meeting last August that showed mixed opinions among veterans about whether the city should double down on the current site by building a permanent shade structure.
But as the Memorial Day ceremony approaches on May 25, Howland said after talking with riggers that specialize in moving such structures, the risk of cracking the monument would be unacceptable.
“All three have told me they could move it but they’re likely to break it, and to me, that’s a non-starter,” he said. “Not with how solemn the wall is for the families that have names there.”
Mayor Deegan wants memorial wall to stay where it is
Deegan has always favored keeping the wall at its current location and going forward with a year-round shade structure.
“I know that the veteran community largely wants the wall to stay where it is,” she said. “They’re concerned something might happen to if it got moved. It’s important to this community so that wall is going to stay as far as I’m concerned.”
The Haskell Company previously estimated the cost of building a shade structure with programmable lighting for nighttime displays would be $6.8 million and if it just had LED lighting, the cost would be $5.7 million. The programmable lighting displays might not make the cut for what the city’s budget would cover.
For the rest of the project, the city would find ways to close any funding gap by securing additional city dollars or private fundraising, said Harrison Conyers, director of the city’s Military Affairs and Veterans Department.
“We will not lower the quality and the standards of that structure based on what the bill is,” he said.
He said a permanent structure would enable events year-round, such as Navy band concerts, and the structure would have built-in fans for circulating air instead of relying on portable fans.
Howland said he didn’t want the city to pay for a permanent structure if it were going to move the wall in the future, but if it’s going to stay where it is, he plans to have a meeting about how to preserve the solemnity of the venue as the sports complex and entertainment complex develops.
“The important thing for the Gold Star families is being able to visit at any time and see their family’s names on the wall,” he said.
The monument bears names of more than 1,700 Jacksonville-area service members dating back to World War I. The wall recognizes all seven branches of the military: Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.
Robert Hernandez, who served as a Navy corpsman with the Marines, said most fellow veterans he’s spoken to favor keeping the wall where it is.
“That’s solemn ground,” he said.
If the area around monument expands with new entertainment venues, Hernandez said increased foot traffic will expose more people to the wall and bring them up close to it.
“So just the fact that there’s going to be more people there, that’s good for raising awareness of the sacrifices there,” he said.
When is Memorial Day service at Veterans Memorial Wall?
The annual Memorial Day service at Veterans Memorial Wall traditionally serves as an opening event for observances thoughout the day.
This year, a pre-ceremony program will begin at 8 a.m. May 25 followed by the official ceremony at 8:30 a.m.
The wall is located at 1145 E. Adams St. and parking will be in Lot P. The event is free an open to the public.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Veterans Memorial Wall staying where it is, will get year-round shade
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
