Saving the pillars
of the community

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Tiny Fox Chase and rural borough of Rockledge held a massive joint celebration on Nov. 11, 1921.
That date marked the second anniversary of the inaugural Armistice Day tribute to World War I veterans. But in the quaint communities of Fox Chase and Rockledge, the 1921 observance of the holiday later renamed Veterans Day represented the real occasion of firsts.
The festivities began with a parade of vets up Oxford Avenue to the present-day site of St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church. Once at the Fox Chase-Rockledge border, leaders of both communities dedicated two stone monuments to the area’s three war fatalities, as well as some 60 local men and women who served in and survived WWI.
Afterward, the vets and their families enjoyed dinner at the newly chartered Cpl. John Loudenslager American Legion Post 366, named to memorialize the first resident of Fox Chase or Rockledge killed in the "Great War."
At the time, the Legion hall occupied an old farmhouse at Pine Road and Solly Avenue. Twenty-two years later, it moved to a former bank building at 7976 Oxford Ave.
Several generations on, the Loudenslager post is still there. Likewise, the two monuments on either side of Oxford Avenue have survived, outliving each of the individuals whose names are etched in bronze on them, and most of their children, too.
But the 15-foot-tall pillars are showing their age. So leaders of the Legion post have undertaken the noble and daunting task of rebuilding them.
Earlier this month, the Legion post’s monument committee chairman, Conrad Krauss, accepted a $100,000 grant from the city’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative to rebuild the more damaged of the two historic markers.
The award represented the biggest step yet in Krauss’ 15-year mission to ensure the survival of the monuments and the memory of those for whom they stand.
"When Rockledge was still a farming community and Fox Chase was a small town, these are the fellows and the women who served and helped develop the two communities," Krauss said.
"The monuments represent the patriotism of the residents of the two communities who served in World War I and who came back and continued to serve," added Roney J. Steele, the Philadelphia County American Legion commander and a monument committee member.
Not all of the area’s war vets came back.
According to the monuments, Loudenslager died on July 16, 1918, in Chateau Thierry, France. He was from Fox Chase, as was Pvt. Francis J. Pfeifer, who died on June 12, 1919, at Ellis Island, presumably while returning from overseas service.
Edith M. Winchester of Rockledge died on May 17, 1919, while serving as a nurse in Erivan, Armenia.
Those details are stamped into giant bronze plaques affixed to monuments, as are the names of about five dozen war survivors. The size of the military contingent indicates a relatively massive contribution made by the communities to the war effort.
"Every family (of the time) was represented on those plaques," Steele said. "Every family had someone who served. If it wasn’t your father or son, it was a cousin or uncle."
Over the years, however, the area surrounding the pillars changed dramatically.
Growth brought new families, waves of construction and a flood of traffic. In the 1940s, Krauss said, public officials widened Oxford Avenue (which is Huntingdon Pike on the Rockledge side) by several feet. That brought the curb flush to the base of one of the monuments.
"The state should have moved (the monument) then," Krauss said.
Instead, the pillar stayed put, blocking half of the sidewalk and blocking the view of drivers trying to turn from Fillmore Street onto the avenue.
About four years ago during a February blizzard, Krauss said, a city snowplow driver plowed right into the awkwardly located monument. The impact ripped open some temporary repair work commissioned by the Legion post in 1997.
In the early 1990s Krauss, a former Post 366 commander, began the restoration cause in earnest. While taking part in a wreath-placing ceremony, Krauss noted how the markers were deteriorating due to various forces, including vibrations from the adjacent state highway.
"I said, ‘Boy, these need to be repaired,’" Krauss recalled.
The post wasted no time appointing him for the job. Generous local businesses and building trades unions donated materials and labor to repair cracks and cover the eroding limestone facades with a pebbly plaster.
"We knew it was only a temporary fix and that the monuments were deteriorating faster than they could be fixed," said Steele, also a former Loudenslager commander and a retired civil designer for an engineering firm.
Both Steele and Krauss are Vietnam-era U.S. Navy veterans.
The snowplow run-in hastened the need for permanent repairs. Soon after, public discussion began about a full-scale rehabilitation of the Oxford Avenue and Huntingdon Pike business corridor. The Legion leaders figured they’d try to coordinate the monument repairs with that.
When a local contractor suggested that they rebuild the monuments in granite, the Legion officials agreed.
"It’s easy to clean and to maintain," Krauss said.
And the hard rock can last indefinitely. The estimate for one monument came in at $78,000.
The Legion officials plan to keep the existing plaques and light fixtures that sit atop the monuments. But the actual pillars will be rebuilt with basically six inches of granite around a cinder block and cement core.
"They’re almost identical (to the originals)," Steele said of the new plans. "We’re trying to keep the same pattern."
Steele has drafted preliminary specifications for the new monuments. St. Timothy’s Church has agreed to let one of the pillars be moved onto its lawn, although the structure will remain within the Oxford Avenue public right-of-way.
Krauss has been trying to coordinate construction with a state contractor now working on sidewalk improvements in the area. The job of digging new footings may be added to the state job.
"Everything is falling into place," Krauss said.
The timetable for construction is still unknown, but Steele hopes that one or both could be re-dedicated next Memorial Day.
The monument committee leaders have set up a fund to pay for future maintenance of the pillars, including routine cleanings and the flags and wreaths that adorn them.
"It’s our heritage we’re protecting," Steele said.
"As long as the post is here, we’ll have somebody maintaining the monuments."
Call American Legion Post 366 at 215-728-9412 for more information about the World War I monument restoration project. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com