Construction of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
Put-In-Bay, South Bass Island
Courtesy of the National Park Service

2013 marked the Bicentennial of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory on Lake Erie that ended British control of the Great Lakes. The naval battle was a pivotal moment in the War of 1812. As the occasion drew near, Put-in-Bay, the site where Perry set sail to meet the British fleet, was jam packed with events to commemorate the historic occasion. Much of the activity took place at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial.


As early as the 1850s, monument associations attempted to establish a memorial to Perry on South Bass Island and nearby Gibraltar, but each time ideas, money, and plans seemed to fizzle. As the 100th anniversary neared, the Inter-State Board of the Perry’s Victory Centennial Commission was formed. With funds from states surrounding the Great Lakes, the commission decided to build a memorial to the long-lasting peace between the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain that followed Perry’s Victory.


After choosing architects Joseph H Freedlander and Joseph D. Seymour’s design in a national competition, the commission broke ground in the fall of 1913. The following 4th of July, the cornerstone was laid. Prominent photographer Otto Herbster was contracted to photograph the monument’s construction.

 

Construction of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
Taken by Otto Herbster as the Work Crew Reached the 16th Course
Charles E. Frohman Collection

Herbster’s photographs captured the workmen as they built forms, hauled sand and gravel, and shaped and built 79 courses of pink granite. The Doric column reaches 352 feet above Lake Erie. Its 9 ½ foot thick domed walls and ceiling feature Indiana limestone.

Put-In-Bay: The Construction of Perry's Monument by Jeff Kissel

Arcadia Publishing

Amazon.com

 

Nearby, you can see Mr. Herbster’s photo of the monument as the 16th course was reached and another taken in March 1914 of the full construction crew. To see more of Otto Herbster’s great photos of the construction of the monument, see Jeff Kissel’s fine work by Arcadia Publishing. Online, go to HISTORYPIN and click on South Bass Island on the map. There you can see a slideshow of 28 of Mr. Herbster’s monument construction photos. Better yet, when winter ends (!)head for the Bay this summer and enjoy the magnificent view from the top of this great monument - the 4th tallest in the United States.

Construction Crew of  Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
Photo by Otto Herbster, March 1914
Charles E. Frohman Collection

A version of this post appeared during the Bicentennial in Lifestyles 2000.

 

Alice M. Bowen of South Bass Island:

Alice M. Bowen

Dr. Thomas Huxley Langlois Collection

The above photograph is a reprint of an original copied by and found in the Dr.Thomas Huxley Langlois Collection at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. Alice M. Bowen was identified as the daughter of Amassa Bowen, a farmer who had migrated from New York to Howell, Michigan where Alice was born in1853. According to notes by Dr. Langlois, Alice Bowen was a nurse suffering from tuberculosis, who came to South Bass Island from Detroit, Michigan. 

She purchased land on the island and built a retreat for nurses known as "The Shingles." Her project failed. But Ms. Bowen remained on the island, continuing to buy and sell a succession of lots. Little is known about her life on South Bass Island. She is believed to have died there in 1921.






 

Jack Day's Bay View Hotel

Jack Day

Like so many before and after, John “Jack” Day, Jr. came to South Bass Island never intending to stay, but he soon made it his home. His father, John, Sr., was the son of Irish immigrants. He worked as a builder and contractor near Poughkeepsie, New York. Eventually, the Day family settled in Detroit, where Jack learned to build organs. But in 1887, at the age of 20, Jack came with his father to South Bass Island to work on the new town hall. When the hall was finished, Jack stayed on to manage a restaurant and later the Oak Point House. He helped with the construction of the Victory Hotel and leased the Gibbons property before moving to Ballast Island. There, for seven years, Day managed a club.

 

Jack Day's Bay View Hotel



Jack was persuaded to return to South Bass Island and purchase the Gibbons property that he had leased earlier. There were 5 acres of fruit trees and a 15-room house on the property. Day soon moved the structure forward on the lot and added a third floor, verandahs, and an “outside dining room.” Jack Day’s Bay View Hotel grew to 50 rooms. Like other South Bass Island hotels, it became a respite for city dwellers hoping to escape the summer heat and ever-present smoke and dirt.

Jack Day's Barns

Day’s careful management brought hundreds of vacationers back to Bay View year after year. It became a focal point for many Lake Erie yacht gatherings. According to the “History of Northwest Ohio,” Day credited much of his success to his wife, May Belle Millen of Norwalk. In addition to their hotel business, the Days raised Mildred Welch, who later married Bernard McCann.

Jack took part in Put-in-Bay’s civic life. He served as chairman of the park board and street commission, on the town council and school board, and as mayor for several terms. After his wife’s death, he continued to manage the Bay View with the help of a cook, and in his later years, the Jack Day Tourist Home. In the spring of 1958, Jack fell ill shortly after returning from Florida. He was flown to the mainland, where he passed away a short time later at Magruder Hospital. Jack Day, 91 years old, was buried at Maple Leaf Cemetery on the island he had loved for a lifetime.



George Gascoyne: Island Contractor

George Gascoyne surrounded by his wife Mary, relatives, and his Dog "Watch"

Dr. Thomas Langlois Collection

Like many others, George Gascoyne came to South Bass Island perhaps never intending to stay. George had grown up in New Providence, New Jersey, the son of a farmer who had emigrated from England.  At the age of 18, he enlisted in the 26th New Jersey Infantry, experiencing the horrors of the Civil War at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Maryes Heights. After the war, the 25-year-old Gascoyne accepted contracts to build the Beebe House and the first Put-in-Bay House. When the job was done, Gascoyne stayed on, making the island his home for the remainder of his long life.

An ambitious, creative individual, he served for a time as a Put-in-Bay councilman, island postmaster and the village’s first fire chief and funeral director. He owned and operated a livery service as well as a vineyard behind Perry’s Cave. He performed in island theatricals and enjoyed his whiskey and his gamecocks.   

But it was truly his skill and talent as a building contractor that set him apart. Gascoyne built the U.S. Fish Hatchery, the Oak Point House, and the Town Hall, one of the few brick buildings then on the island. Around 1875, dock master and storekeeper Clinton Idlor hired Gascoyne to build his new home. Featuring Italianate architecture, the Idlor House was considered one of the island’s finest homes. Perhaps Gascoyne’s masterpiece was the home he built in 1875 for railroad magnate James Monroe.  Designed by a Toledo architect, “Inselruhe” (meaning “island rest” in German) features a broad verandah, a corner tower, and long narrow windows. Decorative moldings, brackets, and woodwork adorn the interior. Even the outbuildings were ornate The architectural style was sometimes known as “Steamboat Gothic.” Today the home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gascoyne’s own home, located near St. Paul’s Parish House, was simple and featured none of the elegance of the summer homes he designed for others.  The nearby picture shows Gascoyne sitting on the steps of that home beside his wife Mary, their relatives, and his dog “Watch.” When he died at the age of 93, as the oldest man in Ottawa County and the last surviving Civil War veteran, no one could say that the enterprising George Gascoyne had not lived life to the fullest!

A version of this post appeared in Lifestyles2000.