War memorial at Memorial Stadium to be preserved
Aug 18, 2017, 5:25 PM | Updated: Aug 27, 2019, 10:12 am
(File, Feliks Banel)
(File, Feliks Banel)
The endangered “memorial” at the heart of Seattle Center’s Memorial Stadium will live on in a new home.
Late Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for Seattle Public Schools confirmed that the memorial wall at Memorial Stadium will be preserved as part of a project to build a new stadium and high school at Seattle Center. The original stadium was built on land donated to the school district by the City of Seattle, and effectively functions as part of the city-owned Seattle Center campus.
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As first reported on KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show, Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Kim Schmanke wrote, “am able to confirm the district will preserve the wall. No details on the how, where, when.”
KIRO Radio had reached out to the City of Seattle and Seattle Public Schools officials last week after Mayor Ed Murray’s office announced that an agreement had been reached to replace the 70-year-old stadium. The official announcement of the agreement, and the agreement itself (which was signed in July), made no mention of the fate of the limestone wall that lists nearly 800 Seattle School District alums who died in World War II.
Mayor Murray’s office was contacted again early Friday in the wake of the mayor’s call for the removal of other features — a Civil War memorial and a statue of Lenin, both on private property. Was the mayor also willing to go on the record in support of keeping the World War II memorial on public land at Memorial Stadium?
The mayor’s communications staff did not respond to requests for comment.
