SCHS: Photo of Week — East Moriches Eagle World War Memorial, 1923, by Sculptor Theophilus Bruower

Photo of the Week

———— September 18, 2023 ————

FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES

“How shall we know it is us without our past?”
– John Steinbeck

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The East Moriches Eagle, 1923. (Image from the Postcard Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library & Archives.)

For back to school month this postcard selection shows us one of the most unique landmarks in the Moriches area: a large eagle statue on the front lawn of the old East Moriches School. A memorial for World War I, the East Moriches Eagle was erected in 1923 to honor those from East Moriches who served in that war.

Mayhew Tower, a member of the East Moriches Board of Education, headed the committee in charge of erecting a distinctive war memorial. It was largely through his efforts that $500 was raised and then awarded to Theophilus Brouwer, a well-known sculptor from Westhampton, to create the memorial. The half globe mound and huge eagle were carved on the spot by Brouwer. A bronze plaque was fitted on the front of the memorial, below the claws of the eagle, in the design of the Congressional Medal of Honor. On this tablet are engraved the names of the 21 men and 2 women of East Moriches who fought or aided the sick and wounded during the First World War.

For more information, check out Strolling Through Old East Moriches, by Members of the Catherine D. Afterman Chapter of the National Junior Honor Society of the East Moriches School, 1975. This book was gratefully dedicated to Mr. Harry W. Huson, Principal of the East Moriches School (1930-1967), Educator, Historian, and friend of all young people of East Moriches.

by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian 

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