Oak Park in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial

1898 - 1902

Photographed by Sean Flynn, March 3, 2024

1. Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial

Inscription. In memory of those who served in the
Spanish American War
Phillipine Insurrection
Boxer Uprising in China

Erected 1928 by Oak Park Camp No. 80, United Spanish War Veterans.

Topics. This memorial is listed in this topic list: War, Spanish-American.

Location. 41° 53.299′ N, 87° 47.182′ W. Memorial is in Oak Park, Illinois, in Cook County. It is on Lake Street east of Ridgeland Avenue, on the left when traveling west. The marker is to the right of the driveway into the Ridgeland Common complex parking lot, next to the playing fields and across the street from where Elmwood Avenue meets Lake Street. Touch for map. Memorial is at or near this postal address: 415 Lake Street, Oak Park IL 60302, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this memorial is in Greater Chicago.

It is also in the American Midwest.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the Great Lakes,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France,

the territory of the Mississippian

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Culture,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Ernest Hemingway Remembrance Garden (approx. 0.2 miles away); Oak Park and River Forest High School World War I Memorial (approx. 0.2 miles away); Dan Stratis (approx. 0.2 miles away); Ridgeland School (approx. ¼ mile away); Maria Sklodowska-Curie (approx. ¼ mile away); Oak Park's First Pickleball Court (approx. 0.3 miles away); OPRF Museum (approx. 0.3 miles away); Hello (approx. 0.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Oak Park.

More about this memorial. The boulder that later became this war memorial was brought to Oak Park in the 1880s by Walter Bentley. Having spotted the rock while on vacation at Devil's Lake, Wisconsin, Bentley then had it shipped to his home at 155 N. Scoville, a half-block from where Ridgeland Common park would be established in the early 1900s. According to the Oak Park River Forest Museum, the rock is a 1.7 billion-year-old piece of baraboo quartzite.

Bentley died in 1910. In 1924, when his property was acquired by Oak Park River Forest High School for

Photographed by Sean Flynn

2. Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial

The war memorial is on a 1.7 billion-year-old piece of baraboo quartzite that was brought from Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin, to Oak Park in the 1880s by a local resident. Donated to the park district in 1924, it was rededicated as a Spanish-American War memorial in 1928.

a building expansion, Bentley's widow donated the boulder to Oak Park's park board, which moved it down the street to Ridgeland Common. In 1928, the boulder was repurposed as a monument to three turn-of-the-century military conflicts, some of whose veterans felt overshadowed by Oak Park's Peace Triumphant memorial to World War I, which was dedicated to much fanfare in 1925 in Scoville Park, about ½ a mile west of here on Lake Street. This memorial boulder was dedicated on November 11, 1928 — the 10th anniversary of the end of World War I.

The monument has remained in Ridgeland Common for the entire century since. In 2014, it was moved a short distance west to its current location when the Park District of Oak Park expanded the parking lot for the recently renovated hockey arena and swimming pool.

Regarding Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial. The State of Illinois's database of veterans of the Spanish-American War lists 35 men whose hometown is identified as Oak Park. All of them were members of Company D of the 1st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which participated in the siege of Santiago, Cuba. The unit made the press in September

Photographed by Sean Flynn

3. Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial

of 1898 when President McKinley went to visit recovering soldiers at Camp Wikoff on Long Island, New York, where they were faced squalid conditions, and spoke with a sergeant from the 1st Illinois who was severely ill.

Also see . . . Mr. Bentley's Boulder. A history of the boulder that eventually came to be Oak Park's Spanish-American War monument. (Submitted on November 30, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)

Photographed by Sean Flynn, December 18, 2023

4. Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial

The memorial is on the right side of this photo, near the entrance to the playing fields at Ridgeland Common, its resting place since the park's hockey rink (its entrance visible on the far left) and swimming pool were renovated in the mid-2010s.

Credits. This page was last revised on September 3, 2026. It was originally submitted on June 2, 2022, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 778 times since then and 21 times this year. Last updated on November 30, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. Photos: 1. submitted on March 3, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 2. submitted on June 2, 2022, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 3. submitted on June 14, 2022, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 4. submitted on December 18, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.