Saratoga Dedication Ceremony Is Next Week, Descendants Attending

The dedication ceremony for the newly restored Victory and Peace World War I memorial in Saratoga Park — now draped in a blue plastic tarp behind a fence so it is not visible — will take place at noon on Wednesday, September 10. Speakers and attendees will include veterans, service members and residents of the community.

Bed Stuy resident and former marine Brian Hartig of Brownstone Detectives, who let us know about the date, has researched the lives of some of the 106 men honored on the statue and contacted the descendants of 22 of them. So far, a great-niece and a great-great niece and nephew of one of them plan to attend the event. “As a Marine who’s fought in a war, myself, this is another passion of mine,” he told us.

All the servicemen honored on the statue were born and raised in the neighborhood. World War I was “a devastating event for Stuyvesant Heights,” said Hartig in a statement he prepared about the unveiling. “Neighborhoods were decimated by the losses. You can see on the map that we created to track these people how there were deaths on nearly every block –- sometimes multiple families on one block were grieving at the same time.”

All the men “knew each other, went to school together, played together. Then they went across to France and died together.”

Brownstone Detectives has published some biographies about some of the men honored. You can see them on the Brownstone Detectives blog. The photo above shows Private Budd R. Somers.

Anyone interested in attending the dedication ceremony next week can contact the Parks Department for more information at artandantiquities@parks.nyc.gov or 212-360-8143.

Saratoga Park War Memorial Statue Restored! [Brownstoner]
Images via Brownstone Detectives