West Side Story
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Honoring Our Veterans

West Side Story, also, Honoring Our Veterans. Prairie Pathways - An Interpretive Journey. , West Side Story, The West Side , The Waterloo skyline in 1967 reflected the different development patterns between the two sides of the river. On the West Side the Waterloo Savings Bank, Russell Lamson Hotel, Black Hawk Building, YMCA, Syndicate Building, and the Federal Building and Post Office all brought people downtown to work in offices or to utilize services. The West Side retail area was primarily the Penney's Building., (Much of the rest of the text on that marker's side was unreadable, due to vandalism), Honoring Our Veterans, In Memory. Veterans Memorial Hall was constructed in 1915 to recognize the service of soldiers who fought in the Civil War. The effort was led by the Grand Army of the Republic, made up of veterans from the war. Designed by architect J.G. Ralston and built by H.A. Maine Construction, the building was dedicated in January, 1916. The audience was full of graying Civil War veterans and their families, whose memories reached back fifty years to remember the cost of war. In two years they would send another generation off to war. , The hall is used for meetings and public events, and hosts the solemn "decorating the waters" ceremony on Memorial Day. The beauty of the hall, however, was marred in the past by a ravine and millrace (channel to direct water to the mills) that flowed into the river next to the building. In1928, the depressions were filled. The Sons of the Union Veterans raised the funds to build the fountain in the new area called Soldiers and Sailors Park. In 1950, the Boy Scouts of America donated a replica of the Statue of Liberty, and, in 2000, a veterans memorial brick walk was established. , The tradition of honoring Iowans who have served the nation continued in 1988 with the renaming of Waterloo's convention center as the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center. The Waterloo brothers perished in World War II when their ship was destroyed in the Pacific. In 1986, a monument honoring Black Hawk County individuals who served in the Vietnam War was dedicated in Paramount Park. In 2008, the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum opened its doors to recognize all Iowans who served the nation in the military and on the home front from the Civil War to the present.