Located next to Parker’s Lighthouse Restaurant which is part of the Shoreline Village Shopping Center is a boulder with a plaque monumented in front that reads:
I did some research on the history behind this tablet and discovered that there is a cannon that is located west of this monument at the shoreline next to Parker's Lighthouse Restaurant. It is painted white and points toward The Queen Mary across the bay. I was able to locate an article online that highlights the history behind the cannon. I'm assuming this tablet accompanied the cannon when first dedicated. The article reads:
Civil War Monument
As a veteran, I find it egregious that part of a monument established by local veterans ended up next to a restaurant. Veterans deserve better!
Restore the monument to Abraham Lincoln and the Union Veterans of the Civil War by moving the Civil War cannon from Shoreline Village back to Lincoln Park – where the cannon would again honor those who risked life and limb to save the union. Back in the park the cannon would be fully visible and accessible to the public once again.
The Long Beach Parks and Recreation Commission is on record in support. Needed now is a statement of support from the Long Beach City Council.
The 10-foot-long cannon weighs 8,595 pounds and dates from 1839. In 1915, pursuant to an act of congress, the U.S. War Department donated it to area veterans of the Civil War, G.A.R. Post 181. For decades it rested peacefully in front of the Lincoln statue where it was a popular feature and a dramatic reminder of our history.
Sometime around 1974, the cannon was removed from the park. In 1983, it was loaned to the original owner of Shoreline Village – with the condition that the city reserved the right to demand the return of the property at any time upon giving the village 90 days written notice.
Pointed at the Queen Mary, the cannon is behind Parker’s Lighthouse Restaurant. While kept nicely painted, it is incorrectly displayed with the muzzle skyward. Back in the park it would be again tipped slightly downward to allow rainwater to drain away from the wood muzzle plug, protecting the plug from rot and the inside of this rare and highly valuable Civil War relic from corrosion.
Jeff Fullerton, a principle with the firm developing a proposal for a new civic center, told me there is room for the cannon in the park, but before they put it in the landscape plan, the city council had to agree to move the cannon.
City Council: a simple, short statement in support of moving the cannon would start the process of restoring our cannon to its rightful place in Lincoln Park.
David P. Denevan