Wright Brothers

Wright Brothers
National Memorial
North Carolina

U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service

Beginning in the summer of 1928, a joint effort of the Coast Guard and local citizens partially stabilized the large hill at Kill Devil Hills through an encircling band of shrubs and stub grass in order to help prepare the hill for a planned larger monument. This became the first major alteration of the site; the War Department eventually stabilized, planted with shrubs and trees, and sodded the ground, preventing the continued southwest migration of Big Kill Devil Hill and altering forever the once barren scene of the first flight.

The beginning of the construction of the principal monument as set out in the 1927 Congressional Act began with the laying of the cornerstone at the top of Big Kill Devil Hill on December 17, 1928, just prior to the ceremonial unveiling of a small rock-faced granite marker placed at the 1903 first flight lift-off site. W.O. Saunders, Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut, and Secretary of War Dwight Davis addressed the gathering which was attended by Orville Wright and Amelia Earhart. After the laying of the cornerstone, the Norfolk Naval Station band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." However, the selection of the actual design for the monument had not yet been accomplished.

All the interested parties immediately disagreed over the monument design and function. The Memorial Commission, established by the act, dealt with all concerns. Congressman Lindsay Warren expressed hopes "that the plans will call for something grand and artistic which will worthily mark the public recognition of what the achievement signified." Another suggestion called for the monument to be combined with a new structure for the lifesaving station at Kitty Hawk, then in disrepair. William P. MacCracken, Jr., the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, as well as Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, supported this proposal. As Hoover expressed it, he was reluctant to dump "a quarter of a million dollars of public money on a sand dune where only a few neighborhood natives would see it." Hoover also suggested a marine light to further the monument's utility.

The Commission of Fine Arts, retaining the right of final design approval, rejected the utilitarian proposals put forward by the Memorial Commission and Hoover, favoring a purely commemorative structure. Senator Bingham especially expressed his disagreement with the plan that attempted "to combine memory with utility." He promoted a Greek temple design, constructed from granite quarried in his home state. Nonetheless, utility ultimately won out. Charles Moore, Chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, indicated to the Memorial Commission that the final design included "a memorial tower which should carry a powerful light to air flyers... [and] a landing place for planes." While the commemorative airstrip took many years to be realized, the final design included a beacon, though as one of the architects recorded, it was more a memorial with a beacon than a beacon glorified as a memorial.

Much of this controversy over the design took place in the early part of 1928, before the official unveiling ceremony for the smaller marker and dedication of the cornerstone. By June 1928, the Office of the Quartermaster General, charged with supervising actual construction, realized the impossibility of a quick decision and announced a design competition. The Memorial Commission appointed members of a jury to select the winning design in accordance with principles established by the American Institute of Architects. While the jury awaited submitted designs, the Quartermaster General prepared a report on the site, which suggested that the top of the largest hill at Kill Devil Hills would indeed be a suitable location for the monument. At first thought to be subject to further shifts and erosion, the hill consisted of moist and heavily compacted sand, which could be stabilized as a suitable base. Although selection of the final design was delayed until the early part of the following year, by October 1928 the site was finally agreed upon.

By January 31, 1929, the jury had received a total of thirty-six entries. The jury selected the submission of the New York architectural firm of Rodgers and Poor; and on February 18, 1929, the Commission of Fine Arts concurred, over the objections of Senator Bingham. The Joint Committee on the Library, of which Bingham was a member, held up the decision for nearly another year. On February 14, 1930, the firm of Rodgers and Poor finally received formal notification that their design won the $10,000 prize and that they were to proceed as architects for the construction of the monument.

Respected Beaux-Arts-trained architects, Rodgers and Poor were well suited to the task. Robert Perry Rodgers (1895 - 1934) graduated from Harvard University in 1917, and served in the Navy during World War I in an Atlantic transport unit. He studied at the famous Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, receiving a diploma in 1920. His early training began as a draftsman in Bertram Goodhue's office in New York. Rodgers began his collaboration with Alfred Easton Poor (1899-1988) in the late 1920s, working on an office building for Little and Brown Publishers and a private studio on East 78^th Street. Poor also attended Harvard, as well as the University of Pennsylvania, receiving degrees in architecture from both. His interests included historic American architecture, and in 1932 he published Colonial Architecture of Cape Cod Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, still considered a standard work on the topic.

Interestingly, the Rodgers and Poor design was anything but traditional and, in fact, revealed strong ties to the then popular Art Deco movement — a movement traced to the 1925 Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels in Paris. Few designs of this style existed among federally sponsored buildings; most tended to be more fully in the classical and Beaux Arts tradition. Rodgers and Poor's design gave expression to the "aesthetics of the machine." Essentially a masonry shaft, about 60 feet high, the monument was embellished with highly stylized sculpted wings on each side to symbolize the ideas of flight and motion. The design implied ancient Egyptian motifs, an important source for Art Deco designs, which also drew upon Native-American and Asian precedents.

The Wright Brothers Monument was a design unequaled by other federal projects of the era, most of which focused on utilitarian functions and character. Among the other more noteworthy projects of the same period were the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the Deadwood Dam, and the Hoover Dam. In part to placate Senator Bingham, the commission authorized the architect to give even further embellishment to the building, emphasizing the design features of the memorial more than the functional qualities of the beacon. Simultaneously, the Quartermaster Corps agreed to construct the monument from North Carolina granite, rather than the concrete proposed by Rodgers and Poor, in deference to Congressman Warren. Most of the parties involved felt the resulting unique memorial, suffused with the appropriate symbolism and majesty, properly marked the site.

Before construction of the monument began, the site required further stabilization and construction of access roads. The Quartermaster General sought an appropriation for the necessary funds to carry out the work with support given by the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of War. In addition to the original $25,000 in preparation and planning money authorized by the 1927 act, the budget now reached a tremendous $277,688, well over the $100,000 originally considered. The War Department allotted some $25,000 of this amount to stabilization work, with leadership assigned to Captain William H. Kindervater of the Quartermaster Corps, appointed inspector of construction on January 16, 1929. Kindervater began work immediately. Most of the work involved the planting of grasses and shrubs, an effort presaged by Captain Gould, the caretaker of the nearby Bodie Island Gun Club, who first experimented with the use of dune grasses in the early-to-mid 1920s. Kindervater found that the most serviceable grasses and shrubs were the locally available wire (bermuda) grass; Bitter Tanic, gathered at nearby Virginia Beach; and a range of local shrubs, including yaupon, myrtle, pine, live oak, and sumac, among others. As early as January 1929 he worked out a formula for fertilizer to encourage the growth of vegetation on the shifting sand hills. In April he wrote the Senior Agronomist at the Department of Agriculture for suggestions on "any seed that has a pretty flower ... [in order to] spell out the words Kill Devil Hill in flowers," an idea never acted upon. He also sought to protect the site from "the molestation of tourists and souvenir collectors, and the ravages of wild hogs," and to this end he constructed a wire fence around a portion of the site to prevent animal grazing on the newly planted grass. In August, apparently in recognition of his success, Kindervater received a promotion from inspector to superintendent of construction.

Kindervater chose a relatively straightforward method for stabilizing the hill and surrounding area. He harrowed the site, loosening sand and soil; spread a two-inch layer of pine straw, rotted leaves, and wood mold; sowed grass seed; and then covered the whole with brush to protect new growth. The area also received heavy fertilization. The dune withstood storms in 1929 and 1930, justifying the operation. The successful work at the Kill Devil Hills site helped lay the groundwork for the massive dune stabilization project along the proposed national seashore at Cape Hatteras during the mid- to late-1930s.

Congress confirmed appropriations for the building of the Rodgers and Poor-designed monument in December 1930. The contract documents were released shortly afterward (Specifications for Construction of Wright Brothers Memorial 1930). The Office of the Quartermaster General appointed Marine Captain John A. Gilman as the Constructing Quartermaster of the site. The Wills and Mafera Corporation of New York won the bid for general contractor around the same time, quoting a low bid of $213,000 for the monument and a powerhouse at the foot of the main Kill Devil Hill. Construction specifications, dated November 1, 1930, called for a granite tower, 61 feet high, with a base measuring 36 by 43 feet (Specifications for Construction of Wright Brothers Memorial 1930). Plans called for the use of stainless steel for the metal fittings, except for roofing, flashing, and thresholds, which were copper and bronze. The tower included a light beacon, but the contract described only the mounting, not the installation of the light. The War Department designed the more utilitarian powerhouse that supplied electricity to the monument's beacon.

The contractors scheduled construction beginning February 1931 following the completion of Captain Kindervater's work on stabilization and road construction. Materials arrived late, delaying the project start to October of that year.

Wills and Mafera received bids for granite from a number of companies in New England and North Carolina. The Sargent Granite Company of Mount Airy, North Carolina, received the contract award. The same company provided the material for the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., and for the Gettysburg Memorial in Pennsylvania, two other important federal projects of this period, securing their reputation. The stone traveled to the site by railroad via Norfolk and Elizabeth City and then by barge and truck to the Kill Devil Hills reservation. The bridge at Kitty Hawk opened that spring, and allowed smaller pieces to be delivered directly by truck. Larger stones required on-site rails for moving.

Work on the star-shaped granite base began in December 1931. Granite blocks were lifted into place by a crane mounted on the hillside. In all, the project required nearly 1,200 tons of granite, more than 2,000 tons of gravel, more than 800 tons of sand, and nearly 400 tons cement. Each construction crew averaged more than fifty men. Many local residents participated in the construction, giving them their first experience with government-sponsored projects on the Outer Banks.

The crews completed the monument construction in November 1932. By this time the site included the new monument on top of the big hill and its associated powerhouse, the original granite first flight lift-off marker north of the new monument, a road from state route 158 leading to the park boundary, a park road circling the east side of monument hill and turning due north to circle the granite marker, and a straight pedestrian trail leading from the road at the base of Kill Devil Hill to the monument. The War Department placed the memorial under the jurisdiction of the Commanding General of the Fourth Corps Area and appointed a caretaker to maintain and protect the monument. The Quartermaster General recommended Joseph Partridge, a local resident who worked as a foreman on the project, for the job of caretaker. Orville Wright and "25 outstanding citizens" including President Hoover, favored Captain William (Bill) Tate, the former Kitty Hawk postmaster who played such a central role in attracting the Wrights to the site in the first place. Surprisingly, the Quartermaster General selected Partridge. When Partridge died early the following year, Kindervater served as a temporary replacement, receiving help from an unskilled laborer.

Plans for the dedication of the monument began the summer before the scheduled completion date of October 1, 1932. Despite a pending presidential election, General Louis H. Bash, the Acting Quartermaster General, chose November 19, the Saturday after elections, as the dedication date. Soldiers from Fort Monroe, Virginia, volunteered to participate in the ceremony. The U.S. Navy planned to send a dirigible, and the Army a bomber and fighter squadron for an aerial display. Members of Congress, local dignitaries, military officers connected with the project, well-known aviators, and aircraft manufacturers, as well as the President of the United States, received invitations to the event. Orville Wright headed the list as the guest of honor. Boats chartered from Washington provided a round-trip excursion fare of $7.50. Organizers provided bleachers for 2,000 people and parking for 1,000 cars. In all, they anticipated as many as 20,000 spectators.

Dedication day arrived with heavy rains and high winds. Neither the dirigible nor the airplanes received permission to leave their bases, and estimated attendance reached no more than 1,000. General Bash, acting as master of ceremonies, read a letter from President Hoover expressing his regret at not being able to attend. Refraining from any general address to the audience, Orville later confided that he felt the monument was "distinctive, without being freakish." At the end of the ceremony, aviator Ruth Nichols pulled a cord to officially mark the dedication of the monument. The cord released a well-drenched American flag concealing the word GENIUS in the inscription along the base of the monument:

Credits: William R. Chapman and Jill K. Hanson, Wright Brothers National Memorial Historic Resource Study; January, 1997