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Crumbling WWI memorial to get repairs

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published March 22, 2006

TAMPA - The last traces of James Adams and R.O. Berry are fading, green and corroded.

And those of Napoleon B. Wilson and Leo F. Wiggins have toppled on their sides.

These men were among 106 Hillsborough County residents (105 men and one woman) commemorated in 1921 after they died in World War I. Their names, etched in brass plaques, were bolted to mile markers and also carved into granite and marble monuments erected at the beginning and end of Memorial Highway when it was built.

Today, part of the memorial, which has been fractured and moved over the years to accommodate traffic changes and highway reconstruction, is hardly noticeable in the high-paced flow of traffic at W Kennedy Boulevard and Memorial Highway.

It stands in a noisy crescent of green space overshadowed by Saks Fifth Avenue and J.C. Penney.

It is inconspicuous before 5100 W Kennedy Center, where Ron Noel, 51, an Air Force veteran, has stopped to work twice a week for the past two years but never thought to ask what it signified.

"Here it is, something right in front of our building and we didn't even know what it was," Noel said.

A part of the monument mysteriously crumbled in the last month or so, perhaps the victim of a traffic crash.

Noel noticed this, but still didn't know why the destruction might matter. He said he felt bad when he learned on Tuesday that the old stonework honored veterans.

Howard Hoover, adjutant of American Legion, USS Tampa, Post 5, heard about the damagedmile markers a month ago. When he set out to find who might be responsible for repairing it, he had no idea he would run into a wall.

The Transportation Department owns the land it sits on, but spokeswoman Kris Carson said the department is not the one to make repairs. And when Hoover approached city officials, he learned they weren't the ones to take care of it either.

Rotary of Tampa actually installed the memorial in 1921. It also helped move the monument in 1963 from the Pinellas County line at Oldsmar to near its current location. Then it worked with the Transportation Department in 2000 to ensure it was safely relocated again after an expansion of the interchange at Memorial Highway and W Kennedy Boulevard.

Rotary historian B.G. Smith said Tuesday, just after learning about the fallen structure, that there was no question his organization would seek to repair the damage.

Smith recommended that some sort of barrier be erected to help protect the memorial from crashes.

And, as long as there is a nice-sized plot of land there, he said, maybe it should be used for other memorial markers.

"That's good news," Hoover said after hearing of Rotary's interest in fixing the memorial. "I hope they call us. We'll definitely give them a hand."

Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@sptimes.com or 813 226-3383.

[Last modified March 22, 2006, 01:58:24]