"Conditions on this island are much the same as those which confronted Robinson Crusoe." These not so flattering words about South Bass Island were written on November 4, 1913 by Roy L. Robinson, the 32-year-old son of John C. Robinson, whose construction company, J. C. Robinson & Son of New York City and Chicago, had won the contract to build The Perry Memorial. The younger Robinson would serve as the company's site manager for the construction project. Although the Memorial site had recently been cleared by Sandusky contractor John H. Feick, it still retained the appearance of a tornado ravaged quagmire. Displeased but undaunted, Robinson proceeded to attack the abundantly formidable problems.
First to be tackled was completion of a 600 foot long dock, begun in June 1912. Enormous shipments of granite would soon be arriving on large barges, and the water depth immediately in front of the monument site was too shallow to accommodate the huge barges. The extended dock would accommodate a short rail line, whose cars would be used to cart granite to the actual construction site. At the same time the dock was being built, machinery like the hoist machine, generating plant, and boom power plant were being hauled in and assembled, derricks were constructed, storehouses erected, the swamp was being filled in, and a cofferdam was taking shape around the foundation site.
On December 4, 1912 excavation was begun on the foundation; bedrock at the monument site was only 12 feet below the surface. However, machinery breakdowns, severe weather, and flooding hampered operations to the point where much of the work accomplished during the winter had to be duplicated in the spring. Workers started pouring concrete for the foundation on December 26, but it was not until June 1913 that concrete for the below-grade portion of the foundation had been completely poured and forms for the above-grade portion could be raised. Architect Joseph Freedlander was not pleased with site conditions. On June 27 he complained to Robinson about defective machinery on the job site and demanded replacement with operative equipment. Nevertheless, on that same date the base ring of concrete was deemed ready for the first layer, or course, of granite.
In April, barges carrying pre-cut sections of granite began arriving at the rail dock from Sandusky, and by May 16 nearly twenty percent of the 80,000 cubic feet of pink Milford, Massachusetts granite needed for the project had arrived. Freedlander was also unhappy with this development, feeling that the contractor was disorganized. The architect felt that clusters of granite lying everywhere were hindering the project, and that not enough workers had been assigned to the construction. The first granite blocks were hoisted and laid on the base ring on June 27, 1913. From that point on each numbered block - cut, shaped and protectively framed at the quarry - was located among the jumbled mass of granite accumulated on the site and eased into its assigned slot like some giant jigsaw puzzle.
Less than two courses were set before work stopped; the site had to be cleared and cleaned up for the planned 4th of July cornerstone laying ceremony. A beautiful summer day hosted the formal Masonic service. A parade through the village led to the Memorial, and dignitaries from the State of Ohio officiated over the cornerstone laying. Afterward, because the cramped construction site could not properly host additional observances, both functionaries and guests repaired to the village of Put-in-Bay for speeches and other festivities.
Work resumed after the cornerstone laying, and several more courses of granite were set. By August 5 the doorways were being framed and the spiral stairwells leading up from the rotunda were taking shape, as was the rotunda dome. Slabs of Indiana limestone were also being fit into slots to form the rotunda walls. By early September the exterior walls of the monument had risen to eight courses, but work was again halted for another special event.
Plans for the centennial celebration had been in the works for many months, and ceremonies would span two days. On September 10, 1913 thousands of people streamed to the island to visit the U.S. Brig Niagara, recently raised and reconstructed at Erie, Pennsylvania. During the course of the day a series of commemorative orations were offered by a number of dignitaries from the United States and Canada, with the featured address presented by William Howard Taft, former President of the United States. Shortly after 3:00 p.m. guns from the USS Michigan and other vessels were fired to signify the time when the Battle of Lake Erie ended, and cheering resounded across the island for several minutes. Following the day's celebration, 830 people were transported on various official vessels to Cedar Point, where the centennial banquet was held at the Hotel Breakers.
September 11 witnessed the most somber aspect of the event. The six officers - three British and three American - who had been killed in the battle were originally buried in a common grave near the northwest corner of present DeRivera Park. During the week prior to the centennial the officers' remains were disinterred. The remains were placed in a casket, which on the morning of September 11 was positioned at the burial site. A lengthy funeral cortege marched to the burial site, where the casket was placed in an ornate catafalque. Carried on the shoulders of representatives from different military services, the catafalque was reverently conveyed to the monument site. Upon arrival at the monument,
"The catafalque was borne slowly up the stairway, and upon reaching the crypt in the floor of the rotunda the box containing the remains was withdrawn from it and lowered into the open space. Solemn funeral rites were celebrated, and a military bugler blew 'taps' as the last resting place of all that was mortal of the brave men who contended for an empire in the Battle of Lake Erie was sealed forever."
The ceremonies finally over, the task of finishing the memorial column could now be undertaken. The rotunda floor and ceiling, and the lower elevator landing were nearly complete, but these lower components could not yet be polished off. Concrete for the entire column shell was being mixed outside the foundation, sloughed through a chute transecting the base ring, and lifted through what would become the elevator shaft. Thus the central core had to remain open until the last concrete was poured at the top.
Placed between the rotunda ceiling and lower elevator landing were reinforced concrete girders. The girders serve as an anchor for four continuous octagonal concrete columns - reinforced at intervals by longitudinal rods - that rise the height of the cylindrical portion of the monument and function as support for the elevator shaft and upper stairway.
One of the crucial ingredients needed to build the monument was the specially designed derrick, which was required to perform precision work with granite blocks as heavy as five tons. Consisting of two 60-foot booms supported by a wood lattice-truss and eight stout leg braces, the boom derrick was affixed to the interior wall of the shaft by buttressing the 12"x12" wooden legs against slots cored out of the poured concrete. Two courses of granite were set by the derrick, after which wooden forms were emplaced behind the granite. The concrete backing was then poured. By continually repeating this procedure an elevated section of sixty feet was completed before the derrick would have to be reset at a higher elevation.
Utilizing these innovative techniques, progress was rapid. As the months passed, residents of Put-in-Bay watched the column towered into the sky: October 15, 1913 - 16 courses, December 16, 1913 - 24 courses, February 20, 1914 - 38 courses, May 17, 1914 - 58 courses. The 78th, and last course, was set during the month of July 1914.
The spherical portion of the monument is tri-sectional. Granite blocks comprise the cosmetic exterior of the column. Thirty blocks, weighing two to five tons each and laid in three basic patterns, form each of the column's 78 courses. The granite is stabilized and strengthened by a belt of concrete anywhere between two and eight feet thick. The interior portion of the column above the elevator landing is lined with buff Kittanning face-brick, while the spiral stairwell and lower elevator landing are faced with white and green tile. The walls at the base of the upper plaza are 9 feet, 3 inches thick, and taper to 4 feet thick where the cylinder ends.
The 79th course forms the base for the cap structure and the lower rim of the echinus, which comprises the relatively thin layered section immediately above the last course of granite. Above the echinus is the abacus, the smooth rounded section just below the observation deck. The cap, which constitutes the observation platform, proved difficult since the base of the cap had to be cantilevered; in other words, the diagonals of the square base overhang the circular abacus by almost ten feet. The engineering complexities were eventually overcome. A falsework for the bottom and sides of the cap, braced by the derrick and scaffolding, was first erected. Dovetail-backed soffit (underside) stones and facing stones - which form the outer wall of the parapet - were then set into place. The soffit and facing stones were dovetailed to facilitate bonding; when the reinforced concrete was poured it filled into the dovetailed slots, anchoring granite to concrete and providing stability to the cantilevered soffits. The vexatious cap structure was completed on August 31. Next to take shape were the walls of the penthouse, the upper elevator landing, the elevator machinery platform, and the domed penthouse roof. By mid-November, 1914, except for the crowning touch, exterior construction of the largest Greek doric column in the world was wrapped up.
When work on the penthouse concluded there was no further need to shuffle concrete through the center of the shaft, so interior work was finalized. The rotunda floor, comprised primarily of Tennessee marble with designs of French, Italian, and Greek marble, was laid. Finished too was the rotunda ceiling, plus the lower and upper elevator landings. Installation of an electric Otis elevator was also initiated. Additionally, the intricate carving of the rotunda walls, ongoing throughout late 1913 and all of 1914, continued.
The 11-ton bronze urn, or lantern, which surmounts the Memorial was designed by architect Joseph Freedlander. Measuring 22 feet, 10 inches high with a diameter of 17 feet, 4 inches, the urn was cast by The Gorham Company of Providence, Rhode Island for a cost of $14,000. Assembled at the foundry in August 1914, the urn was disassembled and transported in sections to Put-in-Bay. Final assembly of the urn had to be delayed several weeks until the penthouse roof was finished, whereupon scaffolding was constructed and the lantern was lifted to the top of the monument in segments and reassembled.
The Robinson contract, when completed, totaled $357,588.00. However, building the column itself constituted only one phase of the overall Memorial project. On October 27, 1914 the Stewart Engineering Corporation of New York City was awarded a $122,000.00 contract for filling and leveling the grounds, and for constructing an architectural base consisting of an upper and lower plaza. The original design called for the plazas to be 750 feet wide, with a museum at one end and a colonnade dedicated to international peace at the other. Lack of funds eventually precluded construction of this grand concept, and a retrenched plan had to be implemented.
In the fall of 1914 the grounds work was progressing and the sinking of the casings for the "McArthur Pedestal" type concrete piles was also well under way. By December the forms for pouring concrete were in place, and a month later the entire upper plaza and the stairway risers were poured. The lower plaza was poured shortly thereafter. Erected next were the granite parapet walls and the columns and urns at the corners of the upper plaza. The granite steps and the granite stones which edged the lower plaza were also installed. At this point funding for the contract ran out and the plazas were left unpaved, covered instead with crushed stone and gravel.
The monument opened to the public without fanfare on June 13, 1915. The Memorial was not yet finished, but completion of the Robinson and Stewart contracts would suffice for the time being. At the conclusion of the project the monument stood 352 feet high. The diameter of the column at the base is 45 feet, while the diameter of the interior is a constant 27 1/2 feet. A total of 2,340 granite blocks comprise the 78 courses of the column, and the estimated weight of the monument is 18,400 tons.
On March 3, 1919 the Inter-State Board of the Perry's Victory Centennial Commission was federalized by an act of Congress, becoming The Perry's Victory Memorial Commission. It's new status enabled the commission to more easily acquire funds for improvements, and $20,000.00 was allocated for landscaping that same year. In 1924 $100,000.00 was appropriated for additional landscaping, building protective seawalls, and finishing the upper and lower plazas with Berea sandstone. Floodlights were added in 1928 for a cost of $14,000.00. Finally the monument was considered complete, and on July 31, 1931 the official dedication of the Perry's Victory Memorial took place.
On June 2, 1936 an act of Congress authorized the President of the United States to declare the Memorial a national monument, "for the preservation of the historical associations connected therewith, to inculcate the lessons of international peace by arbitration and disarmament, and for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." On July 6, 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt, by presidential proclamation, established Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial as part of the U.S. National Park Service.
