Memorial Arch

The Memorial Arch greets all visitors as they prepare to begin their tour of the park.

NPS / Brewer

Quick Facts

Location:

Vicksburg National Military Park

Significance:

Tour Road Entrance Memorial

Memorial Arch

Perhaps one of the grandest entrances into a National Park, the 1920 Memorial Arch welcomes visitors almost as a portal to the past. Built with funds leftover from the park’s 1917 Peace Jubilee – a reunion of both Union and Confederate veterans – granite monument is a symbol of reconciliation and reunification of the country and its people in the decades following the Civil War. Expressed within its design are architectural elements synonymous with the American Renaissance, providing an excellent orientation to many of the artworks we will discuss today. Exemplifying simplicity are the two Doric order columns. The simplest of the three orders, Doric columns are the only style column you will see within the park. Carved in the granite are structural details such as triglyphs and guttae. These carvings offer no actual structural support but are meant to be indicative of actual architectural elements, rather than just for design purposes.

Designed by Charles L. Lawhon, the Memorial Arch used to stand over Clay Street, the main thoroughfare at your right, until 1967 when expansion of that roadway required its relocation to its current site.

• Memorial Arch

  
  

  A one minute and twenty-four second description of the Memorial Arch that welcomes visitors onto the park tour road.

  Date created:

  12/17/2022

  Audio Transcript

  Perhaps one of the grandest entrances into a National Park, the 1920 Memorial Arch welcomes visitors almost as a portal to the past. Built with funds leftover from the park’s 1917 Peace Jubilee – a reunion of both Union and Confederate veterans – granite monument is a symbol of reconciliation and reunification of the country and its people in the decades following the Civil War. Expressed within its design are architectural elements synonymous with the American Renaissance, providing an excellent orientation to many of the artworks we will discuss today. Exemplifying simplicity are the two Doric order columns. The simplest of the three orders, Doric columns are the only style column you will see within the park. Carved in the granite are structural details such as triglyphs and guttae. These carvings offer no actual structural support but are meant to be indicative of actual architectural elements, rather than just for design purposes.

  Designed by Charles L. Lawhon, the Memorial Arch used to stand over Clay Street, the main thoroughfare at your right, until 1967 when expansion of that roadway required its relocation to its current site.