Student leads effort to revitalize WWI monument
Interest in history leads to current-day initiative
is a small town, but it is not lacking on volunteers.
From the Dracut Scholarship Foundation to Old Home Day, the people of Dracut always come together for a good cause. Recently, I learned of a new volunteer project underway in town and it is being organized by
Dracut High School student Richard Silvio. Silvio is founder and president of the World War I Rededication Committee.
Dracut’s World War I memorial is located in the heart of Hovey Square, named for the old Hovey house and tavern which once stood where Hannaford Supermarket now is located. While the square had long been a busy thoroughfare for travelers, in 1925 it was the site of a dedication ceremony to honor the Dracut men who served in the Great War.
A group of volunteers led by Warren Fox organized a committee to commission a memorial to honor the 160 men from Dracut who served from 1917-1919. The massive granite monument was unveiled on Saturday, May 30, 1925 — Memorial Day — at a ceremony the Lowell Sun described as, “inspiring and impresdracut sive.” Those in attendance and seated near the speakers’ platform included Gold Star mothers, veterans from the Spanishamerican War, World War I, and Boy and Girl
Scouts.
With the passage of time, that generation of volunteers has passed and the memorial they unveiled has stood silently in the middle of the bustle of Hovey Square. Today the bronze plaque is weathered and the granite needs to be washed down to bring it back to its former grandeur. That is where Silvio and the World War I Rededication Committee comes in. Their goal is to