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
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. Marker is in Oak Park, Illinois, in Cook County. Memorial is on Lake Street, 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. Marker is at or near this postal address: 415 Lake Street, Oak Park IL 60302, United States of America. Touch for directions.
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); Ridgeland School (approx. ¼ mile away); OPRF Museum (approx. 0.3 miles away); Gold Star Men of the World War (approx. 0.4 miles away); Scoville Park is the Heart of Oak Park (approx. 0.4 miles away); Scoville Park's Designer: Jens Jensen
this page online
More about this memorial. The boulder that would become this war memorial was brought to Oak Park in the 1880s by Walter Bentley, who had admired the boulder on vacation at Devil's Lake, Wisconsin, and had it shipped to his home at 155 N. Scoville in Oak Park, not far 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 its expansion, Bentley's widow offered the boulder as a gift 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 in 1925 to much fanfare. 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
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.
Regarding Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial. The state of Illinois's database of Spanish-American War Veterans 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 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 Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
Photographed By Sean Flynn
3. Oak Park Spanish-American War Memorial
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 March 13, 2024. It was originally submitted on June 2, 2022, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 608 times since then and 24 times this year. Last updated on November 30, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. Photos: 1. submitted on March 3, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 2. submitted on June 2, 2022, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 3. submitted on June 14, 2022, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 4. submitted on December 18, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
