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Detroit circa 1905. "Campus Martius -- Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and Detroit Opera House." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The monument was moved about 20 years ago for the readjustment of Woodward Avenue. A time capsule was found beneath it. With great fanfare, the sealed box was opened, and, alas, all the papers that had been put into it had turned into mush. Only salvageable item was a period silver dollar, which is now at the Detroit Historical Museum.
The Detroit Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument reminds me of the one in Indianapolis; both completed just before the turn of the last century; both grand and inspirational. After WWII our war monuments became more intimate. I'm thinking of the memorials at the battlefield at Vicksburg versus the one over the USS Arizona. To me, the least grand and most intimate is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D. C., where a small rope chain you could easily step over somehow keeps you pinned near that wall, near to those tens of thousands of names.
Here's the monument at roughly the same angle, with the Detroit Opera House's replacement in the background.
I thought that was a big shovel at the top ...
https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/soldiers-and-sailors-monument
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