In old postcards of the square, there are four cannons in the area around the civil war memorial, what ever happened to them, and where are they now?
I've heard the cannons were cut up for scrap during the first or second World Wars.
I wonder if it would be possible to cast some cannon replicas to place on the square again. This would be a good project for the city. We could hold a scrap drive and have a local foundry melt the metal in the shape of a cannon.
The four cannons were from Fort Sumpter. For some reason they were unusable, so our Congressman at the time who was McKinley obtained them for the city.
When the cannons were dedecated, two politicians who would go on to be President of the United States were among the speakers.
The cannon facing North West was unstable and every time a streetcar went by, it would move up and down.
Jay is correct in that they were turned in for scrap during World War I which means that the photos that show them is pre-war.
In The Man on the Monument column that use to run in The Vindicator there are a number of very funny accounts concerning the cannons.
One account for example tells how candidates for public office would scramble up on one of them to address crowds waiting for their street car.
I'm sure that if we looked hard enough, I'm sure that four cannons could be found. Has anyone looked on eBay?
Another possable source would be through Congressman Ryan.
The Army does have a depot where old weapons are stored that are no longer used, and if he could get his hands on even two matching Civil War cannons, that would really be great.
As for hiring a company to cast two Civil War cannons would be really more expensive than you would think, but Congressman Ryan could get us the real thing if the right people asked him.
What about it Phil?
Why not tackle a project that we can do, like acquiring and restoring the Central Square Library building? Couldn't put it back on the square, but it needs to be saved.
I think it would be cool to have the cannons back, maybe just two instead of four. But with the size of the island today, would it be to crowded? What happened with the library building? I always assumed it had just been demolished, but from what your saying it sounds like it still exists somewhere.
Also, if these cannons weren't scrapped, does the city still have them somewhere? This also makes me wonder what else the city has in storage from days gone by. Does the city have a storage facility somewhere with cool random stuff like the cannons in it?
The old library building is along the north side of 422 as you drive into the Girard city limits.
If someone is driving past the building, please take a photo and post it to this Forum.
Elmo, at my webshots site I just added a closeup of one of the cannons in the Central Square folder. It was the one pointing Northeast toward the Stambaugh Building.
That's a sweet picture, haven't seem any old ones that close up in the square before.
New cannon photo on my webshots site showing the cannon facing North West. This was the cannon that would move every time a streetcar rumbled by. It became a running joke with the folks at the banks (First National and Dollar Bank).
Just added a new photo of one of the cannons that use to be on Central Square. This cannon faced South East pointing toward the Tod Hotel.
Its on my Webshots page in the Central Square folder.