A new quarter-million-dollar monument honoring all veterans of all branches of the service and the Merchant Marines has been designed and may be under construction as early as this summer. Plans call for public viewing by Veterans Day, 2019. Designated the Veterans Plaza, it will be located on the downtown Brunswick, Maine Mall, an expansion on the site that will include the current Veterans Monument.

Included in the Plaza will be 320 granite honor blocks that people can adopt to permanently honor those veterans they wish by engraving the name of their honoree, their branch of service, the conflict in which they were engaged, or the years they served. Information on this and the Veterans Plaza is on the project’s website www.veteransplaza.info.

The Brunswick Town Council and The Village Review Board have already provided formal approval for this unique project. The concept includes granite honor blocks that will radiate out from a medallion located in the center of the Plaza. The center medallion graphically depicts an American Eagle over an image of the stars and stripes. The honor blocks will radiate out toward the twelve sentinel posts each representing a major conflict in the history of our country. In addition, the area will also have ground level lighting that will provide the public with access to the Plaza during evening hours.

“We are very proud that the Veterans Plaza was designed to increase awareness of our veterans’ sacrifices and will honor all of whom took the same oath of allegiance to defend our country,” said David Watson, commander of American Legion Post 20, and a Brunswick town councilor. “All Maine residents and the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to Maine are invited to sit, spend time, and reflect on the efforts of our military that helped preserve our freedoms that none of us can ever take for granted,” Watson reflected.

The conceptual design of the Veterans Plaza was prepared by the landscape architecture firm of Richardson and Associates, the architects of Brunswick’s General Joshua Chamberlain Statue and Memorial.

An organizing committee is currently developing efforts to attract the funding needed to construct the Plaza. American Legion Post 20 is serving as the fiscal agent for the project. “They have already established a special Veterans Plaza account at one of Brunswick’s prominent banks and have instituted several ways people can help cover the project’s construction costs.” Watson added.