By David Fortier
The theft of statue of an eagle from the Quinlan Memorial Park monument honoring veterans is beyond the comprehension of the commander of the American Legion post who recently led the effort to improve and revitalize the park where the monument stands.
At the same, American Legion Post 209 commander Brian Avery said that the improvements to the park have become a point of pride for the community, and efforts to recover and/or replace the statue have begun.
“It makes me question why somebody would do that,” he said. “Why would somebody go to a veteran’s memorial at whatever time of day or night it was and say that I am going to vandalize this memorial?
“For what a five-dollar piece of iron? It’s not like they get a lot of money for it if they go to the scrapyard. Or to throw it in the Pequabuck River? Or to hang it up in their garage?”
The monument and the improvements to Quinlan Memorial Park were completed over a year-and-a-half period and celebrated with a dedication ceremony this past May, Avery said. The vandalization of the monument was discovered Thursday morning.
“I called Bob Lincoln, the park supervisor,” Avery said. “After I called Bob, I called Sarah Larson at the Park Dept. and informed her about it. I left a message at the mayor’s office.”
He also contacted Pepin Steel, the company that made the archway and the eagle to let them know about the theft and to begin discussing next steps.
“We are going to replace [the eagle],” Avery said.
Post 209 worked with businesses and the Bristol Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services to improve the park, which had fallen on tough times. The placard for the honor roll was deteriorating, the grounds were unkempt and the general appearance was one of decline.
“We did everything in that park,” he said. “We had to redo the Forestville honor roll that was in there. We had to replace all the plywood that was on there because it was all rotted.”
The Park Dept. provided much needed labor to restore the honor roll and to remove dead trees and cut back brush along the Pequabuck River, which borders the park, Avery said.
“But then we had volunteers who came in and fixed the cannon that was in there,” he said “because the cannon was breaking, so we had to sand it all down and put in all new concrete facing on it and paint everything. Everything was powered washed.”
The cost to restore the park was well over $20,000, Avery said.
“The post raised money to put the nine flagpoles in there,” he said, “plus the lighting, plus the bell, plus the bricks.”
The flagpoles were a couple thousand dollars apiece alone, he said. The bricks were donated by Home Depot, and the archway was donated by Pepin Steel.
“You will see bricks there from American Legion posts all around us,” he said, “from Thomaston to Terryville to Bristol to Forestville.”
The memorial is for all veterans of all wars, Avery said, and it has deep meaning for the people of and beyond Forestville.
While it was not vandalized, of particular interest, he said, is the bell that is part of the monument that was donated by the Frank Owsianko family, for a long time, a fixture in downtown Forestville, where the late Frank Sr. had a convenience store in the block that has been the location of 150 Central.
The bell was a part of the Forestville Memorial Day Parade for decades, Avery said, where it appeared on a homemade stand on a flatbed and rung during the parade.
Made by the Doolittle Clock and Bell in Hartford, the bell was unique in that it was the only one of its kind made for the city. Doolittle, who was from Bristol and who still has family in the city, cast the bell in 1837 for St. Stanislaus Church. It was removed from the church in the 1980s and has been with the family of Frank Jr. since 1996, the year his father passed.
Avery said he was on the phone with Frank Jr. that morning, telling him what happened.
The bell and its incorporation into the monument, as a significant part of Forestville, and the improvements to the park have received many positive responses not only from people in the village but also from those who have moved away, Avery said.
“We have had people come up to me, sent me letters, emails, messages in Facebook,” he said. “We got a letter from a lady who lives in Colorado that was talking about Quinlan Park and being raised next to it and was so proud that we are redoing this park and bringing it back to the glory it was at one time.”
For others is it a way to honor family, he added.
“We’ve had people who said they watched their brothers with flags draped over their caskets coming off the train station right there,” Avery said.
The train station is no longer functioning, but its building is still there, just across the Pequabuck from the park which sits at the intersection of Broad, East Main and Central streets in Forestville.
“This is a way they go and remember their family members now that they are no longer here,” he said, “by going and looking at the bricks and having a place to go and say, ‘You are not forgotten.'”
He said that he has had people from Florida buy bricks to support the improvements and the monument because they were born and raised here in Forestville, and they wanted something in there to remember their family.
One veteran transferred his post affiliation from where he lives in Florida to Post 209 because he is so proud of what happened with Quinlan Park, he said.
The pride extends not only to people associated with the park but also to the family of members of Pepin Steel. Allen Pepin, who designed the monument, passed before the dedication.
“When we did the grand opening in May,” Avery said, “he was not there but his family was there.”
At the dedication, Post 209 presented the family with a plaque in Pepin’s honor. A photo from the day captures his son with the plaque, standing in front of the monument, with the eagle over his left shoulder.
“When something like this happens, it doesn’t just affect us that did the work,” Avery said. “It affects anybody that has anything to do with this.”
He said is hoping that the individuals who vandalized the monument are found, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In the meantime, he has asked that anyone with information about theft and vandalization to please contact him at brianavery@sbcglobal.net or call the Bristol Police at (860)584-3000.
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