World War 1 Obelisk - Wheaton, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 52.631 W 088° 06.704
16T E 407751 N 4636737
A rebuilt obelisk with plaques commemorating the 500 men (13 of whom died) from the Wheaton area who enlisted from 1917 - 1919.
Waymark Code: WM10XP3
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/07/2019
Views: 1
From the Wheaton Park District site: (
visit link)
"In 1922, a memorial consisting of two bronze plaques with the names of all 500 men was mounted on an obelisk and placed at the Warren L. Wheaton home located at Roosevelt and Naperville Roads. 500 ash trees were planted along Roosevelt Rd. leading up to the obelisk to create Wheaton’s Road of Remembrance. When the road was widened in 1931, the trees were moved to various parks throughout Wheaton and a new obelisk was built at Northside Park five years later. The original bronze plaques were reinstalled and remained unrestored until 2017.
Wheaton Park District hired Restoric, a local restoration specialist, in 2012 to do an assessment of the monument and developed plans for the restoration work. Restoration began earlier in 2017 and was completed in August. Included in the restoration was removal of cement-mortars and repointing of mortar joints, cleaning of masonry surfaces, replacement of damaged limestone masonry, repairing of cracks and conversing the bronze plaques.
On September 27, 2017 the United States World War One Centennial Commission and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library announced the first 50 grant awardees for their “WWI Centennial Memorials” program, and the list included Wheaton’s WWI Obelisk in Northside Park. Wheaton is one of six Illinois organizations that honors community members that served during the war in the form of monuments or memorials. The preservation of the monument was recognized by the Commission with a matching grant of $2,000."
The restored monument was dedicated in a ceremony on Veteran’s Day, Saturday, November 1, 2017. The monument is located in the center of a circular drive, with parking nearby.