Community Corner

One Brick at a Time: Pines Bridge Monument Needs More Money

The life-size monument would feature three soldiers and be erected at Downing Park in Yorktown. The Battle of Pines Bridge took place on May 14, 1781.

The location is set in stone, the sculptor and design have been selected and the interest has been sparked.

The grassroots efforts to build the Pines Bridge Monument, which organizers hope to erect sometime between 2014 and 2015, are a few thousand bricks away from the money needed to afford the project.

The  Fundraising Committee, in conjunction with the Yorktown Historical Society, is  that took place in Yorktown on May 14, 1781. The idea was brought up about two years ago by Yorktown police officer Michael Kahn who has been . 

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 about Kahn's project, the Battle at Pines Bridge and the Bricks Are Us program. 

About 3,000 bricks would lead the way to the life-size monument, which will be erected at Downing Park and across from the ’s graveyard.

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If all bricks are purchased by the public, organizers said that would help pay for the entire monument – the estimated costs for the finished monument are approximately $300,000 – and help fund the needed maintenance for years to come.

"We have an opportunity to allow communities to put in place their own little monument for an event or person and you don't have that opportunity every day," said James Stropoli, of the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce and supporter of the project.

Although the project is funded entirely by private donations and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, there is a still a long way to go. So far, Kahn said, they've raised $25,000 since fundraising efforts began last November. 

Supporters of the project will hold a ceremony in the near future to lay down the first 100 purchased bricks and they hope that would generate momentum and more bricks will be purchased. A date for that ceremony has not been announced yet.

Kahn said , a Yorktown business, will donate a temporary sign that will be placed at Downing Park to show the location of the upcoming monument. 

The 8-foot bronze statue will immortalize members of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, whose duties were to protect the Pines Bridge, which is where the battle took place 231 years ago. It will stand on a 6-foot platform, making the total size of the monument 14 feet tall.

Colonel Greene and Maj. Ebenezer Flagg, who were killed in the battle at Pines Bridge, are both buried at the ’s graveyard. The rest of the 10 or 15 soldiers, according to Kahn, are buried in a massive grave near the Davenport House on Croton Heights Road. There were a total of about 30 soldiers who were killed or injured in the battle. 

For more information on the Battle of Pines Bridge Monument, please contact Michael Kahn at Monument1781@yahoo.com. Updates are posted at www.yorktownhistory.org and on Facebook at Remember the Revolution-Yorktown Heights, NY.

You can also send a check, with "Monument Fund" in the memo section to: Yorktown Historical Society, P.O. Box 355, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598.

If you'd like to donate to the Bricks Are Us" program, click here. To register your organization for payment, please complete the form (attached above) and send it to: Pines Bridge Monument e/o Joseph Visconti, Chairman 800 Granite Springs Road, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598.

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