Foley is moving ahead with two projects intended to restore and expand the military memorials that anchor its city parks, including a long-planned facelift for a downtown World War II monument and an effort to bring decommissioned artillery pieces to the veterans memorial in Max Griffin Park.
A Memorial That Isn’t What It Seems
The Foley City Council approved spending $12,000 to spruce up the WWII memorial in John Foley Park, a stone setting in the heart of downtown. Research by Paul Leonard of the Foley Public Library, presented to the council in a letter, revealed surprising history: the oldest piece of the memorial is not the stone at all but the live oak planted beside it.
Leonard traced the tree to February 1, 1943, when the Woman’s Club of Foley planted it to honor local residents entering wartime service, an account recorded in the Feb. 4, 1943 edition of The Onlooker. The tree was put in the ground by Henry Lyda and members of the local FFA chapter, whose club wrote at the time of its hope that servicemen and women would return home before the sapling had grown many inches. A press photo from 1949, now held in original form at the library, confirms the memorial predates the 1960s by decades.
Mayor Ralph Hellmich said plans call for upgrading the flagpole, adding a circular sidewalk around the stone setting, and installing new benches and shade structures.
Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Lee described the work as a refresh of one of downtown’s signature features. “It’s gotten a little dated over the years so we want to try to get it back,” Lee said. “It’s one of the key features in that park.”
Guns for Max Griffin Park
The second project aims to relocate two artillery pieces that stand in front of the current National Guard armory to the veterans memorial in Max Griffin Park. The National Guard is preparing to move into the new Super Armory in the Foley Industrial Park on city-owned land, freeing up the old armory building just north of Foley City Hall, which the city expects to acquire and use for office expansion.
Lee is leading the acquisition through applications with state National Guard and U.S. Army officials. He said no timeline is guaranteed under the process, but the city hopes to learn each gun’s service history along the way and install plaques explaining where the pieces came from and what they were used for.