Monday, February 25, 2008

Defenders Parkway

If I want new shots on the blog, I can't take the same route home every day. I'll run out of things to photograph, and everyone in the blogosphere will know where I live.

So I meant to turn left and turned right instead. I parked when I saw what looked like a gravestone next to a condo building at a busy intersection. That's just not right.

But it isn't a grave. On City Hall's website, this marker is described thusly: "Granite Monument - Unknown who placed it or when it was erected." Very mysterious. Maybe "the mothers of the defenders of the flag" felt that was identification enough. We can narrow down the placement date to sometime after 1917 and before, say, 1945, or I daresay there'd be another date etched into the stone.

The Parkway, a cement footpath, starts at the southwest corner of Colorado and Orange Grove Blvds. and takes you to the Colorado Street Bridge. If you enlarge the photo below, you can see the globes of the Bridge lamps in the distance.

8 comments:

Janet said...

God bless the mothers of the defenders.

Jim Klenke said...

Very neat and mysterious. Its a very nice monument.

ben wideman said...

so facinating.

Petrea Burchard said...

Bless 'em all, I say. Those were some hard times. It is a nice monument. A nice walkway, too. And there's plenty of street parking, so you can leave your car and walk across the bridge.

Anonymous said...

Almost 29 years ago, my husband gave me my first kiss leaning against that big tree in the left of the photo. Thanks for the memory!

Petrea Burchard said...

Anonymous, you are most welcome. The tree's still there (probably bigger by some). Do you ever stop by and visit it?

Anonymous said...

We used to live off of Orange Grove and in Arcadia but moved to the Boston area 15 years ago.. No chance to visit the tree. But your blog gives me the chance to do so. Thanks!

Petrea Burchard said...

I'm glad you like the blog, anonymous. Please visit any time.

Boston has four daily photo blogs. If you go to the left side of my main page and type in Boston to the City Daily Photo search, they come up. I'm most familiar with "Clueless In Boston's" blog, but they're all worth checking out.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't come back here!!