Volunteer Park Trust is working with Seattle Parks & Recreation (SPR) to add a new “welcome” sign to the historic stone monument situated northwest of the Water Tower. The stone face, currently blank, previously held a memorial plaque that in 2022 was removed by SPR following a review led by Volunteer Park Trust and a number of community partners, which had flagged the memorial plaque as inaccurate and offensive. The new welcome sign, still in development, could include a simple map of the park’s features; text noting its historic Olmsted Brothers design; and a link for more information on the park as well as the memorial.
The inaccurate memorial plaque commemorated the volunteer soldiers of the Wars of 1898 (also known as the Spanish-American War), for whom the park is named.
The effort to remove the memorial plaque began with community member Shamika Rivera’s request to SPR and it was bolstered by an op-ed, “The big lie in Volunteer Park,” published in the Northwest Asian Weekly by University of Washington history professor Dr. Christoph Giebel.
Volunteer Park Trust reached out to community members who were interested in seeing the memorial plaque addressed, and representatives of a number of organizations, university professors, and community members came together to form a task force. Following that meeting, the task force sent a joint letter requesting the memorial plaque’s removal to SPR. It was signed by representatives from:
· El Centro De La Raza
· The Ethnic Heritage Council
· Filipino American National Historical Society
· Filipino American Political Group of Washington
· InterIm CDA
· Capitol Hill Historical Society
· Volunteer Park Trust
· Volunteer Park Conservatory
The letter was also signed individually by several notable community activists such as Cindy Domingo, Phil Bereano, Vicente Rafael, and Christoph Giebel.
Happily, SPR removed the memorial plaque shortly after receiving the letter. Then-Superintendent Jesús Aguirre commented, “Seattle Parks and Recreation seeks to steward our historic parks in a way that fits with our community values. We are grateful to the community and Volunteer Park Trust for bringing a conversation about this historic memorial to the forefront, and for your advocacy to ensure that what is celebrated and remembered in our parks affirms our commitments to advancing racial equity and inclusivity in our public spaces.”
Additional background:
The memorial plaque in the park recognized the volunteer American soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War. The text of the memorial is incorrect, claiming the people of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were “liberated, by the Americans, when, in fact, the war was imperialistic and led to American rule, rather than independence.
Read the commentary “The big lie in Volunteer Park” by Christoph Giebel published in the Northwest Asian Weekly on May 13, 2021.
Read the article “Amid pandemic’s hate, Seattle Parks considers options for offensive monument in Volunteer Park” published by CHS Blog on May 21, 2021.
