[shareprints gallery_id=”39188″ gallery_type=”filmstrip” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”xlarge” image_padding=”0″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” comments=”false” sharing=”true”]Editor’s Update, Aug. 28, 2015 / The recently installed Peace Pole in Veterans Park (303 E. Gartner Rd.) will be dedicated during a special ceremony from 2-3:30PM on Sat., Sept. 19. The public is invited to the “Celebration of Peace 2015.” Highlights of the program include an address by Mayor Steve Chirico, live band and choral music by Naperville children, a raffle, recognition of Naperville’s first ‘Peace Advocate’ and a very unique peace formation by all in attendance. The 8-foot tall Peace Pole featuring 12 different languages stands internationally to remind individuals to “Let Peace Prevail on Earth.”
Original Post, Feb. 15, 2015 / Last month I read about the ThinkGlobal Arts Foundation’s upcoming installation of a Peace Pole in Veterans Park. That made me think of an image I had seen in our collection. On the 1869 Bird’s-eye View of Naperville, smack-dab in the center of Central Park, there is a large pole surrounded by a fence. The flagless pole is in front of the DuPage County Court house. A little more digging and I found an image showing both the Courthouse and the pole.
I started digging around in our Central Park and DuPage County Courthouse files and I found a reference to a page out of the Naperville City Council Minutes. After a quick trip to our Vault where the original minutes are kept, I found this: “June 6, 1857 ‘On Motion of George Martin – Michael Hines was appointed a Committee to attend to the erection of a Liberty Pole on the Public Square.’”
What was a Liberty Pole? I found that Liberty Poles have been erected since the days of the Roman Empire. Freed slaves would erect a pole, originally to hoist a cap symbolizing their freedom. During the American Revolution Liberty Poles were raised to rally support for a Republican form of government in defiance of the English government/monarchy.
The Council Minutes did not reflect who built the pole, and I have not found when the pole was removed from the Public Square or Central Park.
If you look on some early maps of Naperville you will see that Van Buren Street east of Central Park was called Liberty Street. In 1845 Captain Morris Sleight named the east-west street “Liberty” which begs the question,” Was there a Liberty Pole before the 1857 installation? Records do not indicate when the name was changed to East Van Buren.
