John Paul Jones Memorial Park is a municipal park in the town of

Kittery, Maine Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town in t ...

. The trapezoidal park, flanked by the lanes of

United States Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

approaching the Memorial Bridge across the

Piscataqua River The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the river ...

, was established in 1926 and named for

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

naval hero

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

. Its centerpiece is a memorial commemorating the soldiers and sailors of the state of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, designed by

Bashka Paeff Bashka Paeff ( be, Башка Паэф) (August 12, 1889 — January 24, 1979), was an American sculptor active near Boston, Massachusetts. Bashka Paeff was known as the ''Subway sculptor'' for the pieces she modeled at the Park Street T stat ...

. The park was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1998.

Description and history

John Paul Jones Memorial Park is located between Hunter and Newmarch Streets in southern Kittery, just north of the Piscataqua River. The two roadways carry one-way traffic in opposite directions, to and from the Memorial Bridge to

Badger's Island Badger's Island is located in the Piscataqua River at Kittery, Maine, directly opposite Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It carries U.S. Route 1 between the states, connecting to the Kittery mainland by the Badger's Island Bridge, and to New Hampshire b ...

and

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...

. The park is roughly , in size, and trapezoidal in shape. It is mostly a flat grassy area, with trees fringing the border and a few specimen trees dotting the park. The southern end of the park is dominated by the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial sculpture of

, a gold bronze relief sculpture set in a granite frame mounted on a stone plaza. The park is home to three other memorial, all placed in the park after its establishment. The Sloop ''Ranger'' monument, originally placed on Badger's Island in 1905, was moved to the park in 1963; it is a bronze tablet mounted in granite, commemorating USS ''Ranger'', Jones' first command. The Province of Maine Monument is a bronze tablet mounted in a circular granite pedestal, placed in 1931; it memorializes the chartering of the English

Province of Maine The Province of Maine refers to any of the various English colonies established in the 17th century along the northeast coast of North America, within portions of the present-day U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the Canadian ...

to Sir

Ferdinando Gorges Sir Ferdinando Gorges ( – 24 May 1647) was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the mai ...

in 1635. The third memorial is to the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

, and was placed in 1984. The park's construction is intimately bound to the construction of the original Memorial Bridge, which is a war memorial to the military of both Maine and New Hampshire who served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The bridge was completed in 1923, and Governor

Percival Baxter Percival Proctor Baxter (November 22, 1876 – June 12, 1969) was an American politician and philanthropist from Maine. The son of canning magnate and Portland, Maine mayor James Phinney Baxter, he served as the 53rd Governor of the U.S. state ...

held a design competition for a suitable memorial. Paeff's initial design was acceptable to Baxter, but not his successor,

Ralph Owen Brewster Ralph Owen Brewster (February 22, 1888 – December 25, 1961) was an American politician from Maine. Brewster, a Republican, served as the 54th Governor of Maine from 1925 to 1929, in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1941 and in t ...

, and the memorial was consequently not placed until 1926, after Paeff made alterations to its design. The park was officially named for John Paul Jones by an act of the state legislature in 1927, somewhat obscuring the intent that it be a memorial to World War I soldiers.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures completed in 1924 Buildings and structures in Kittery, Maine Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine 1924 establishments in Maine

Description and history

See also

References