The Obelisk on Indiana's Memorial Plaza
Near Indianapolis, Indiana
Rising one hundred feet of black Berwick granite, this obelisk anchors one of the grandest urban landscapes in America. It stands on the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, a sweep of five city blocks in downtown Indianapolis conceived in nineteen nineteen to honor the veterans of the First World War and to house the national headquarters of the American Legion. The obelisk itself was finished in nineteen twenty three, ringed by a fountain a hundred feet across.
Look near its base and you will find four bronze tablets, each devoted to a pillar of civilization, law, science, religion, and education. The whole plaza is a monument to the City Beautiful movement, the early twentieth century dream of dignified, classical public space. In nineteen ninety four the entire five block district was named a National Historic Landmark.
Few American cities ever attempted a memorial on this scale, and fewer still finished one.
