War memorial for mothers looks to another 100 years in Vineland

VINELAND — A memorial created 104 years ago for mothers with sons killed at war is back from its first thorough overhaul and looking better than it has in decades.

The gates to the Mothers’ Garden of Remembrance reopened this month. But it took more than three years of volunteers and government pushing to undo the neglect and to reimagine the design.

City Councilman Albert Vargas and city resident Stephen Lewis, both veterans, got the project started and kept after it as one piece after another of the overhaul slowly fell into place. The creation of a statue for the garden, from concept to funding to foundry order, was its own struggle.

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Mothers’ Garden opened in Landis Park in May 1920, with a design by Wilbert Harrison Fenton. It was finished just a few years after the end of World War I. Fenton, who also designed the Heroes’ Memorial Circle close by the garden, was a longtime newspaper editor who moved to Vineland and became a landscaper.

Vargas was among speakers at the garden’s re-dedication. The city unofficially calls the refurbished memorial the Gold Star Mothers Garden. Starting in World War I, the homes of families with members in the service displayed service flags, and the addition to one of a Gold Star meant a member had died.

In attending Memorial Day events at Landis Park, Vargas said he was bothered by the disrepair of the garden. Many passersby also did not seem to know its significance, he said.

“It made me sad to see what had become of it,” Vargas said. “I thought about the families and decided they deserved better.  I discussed it with the mayor and my fellow council members, and they were enthusiastic about supporting the project.”

The Vineland Public Works Department was assigned to help with the project. Private donations, most of them anonymous, helped meet the costs.

The scope of the work included restoring the brick pillars and iron gate at the entrance, replacing an encircling hedge with a black metal fence; adding benches spaced around the outside of the fence; renovating the memorial pool; adding two flag poles; and adding signs and lighting.

A statue of a woman holding an American flag also is new to the garden.

The July 6 re-dedication was attended by family members honoring relatives lost to war: 1st Lt. Charles Carl Asselta (2/2/47 – 3/18/68); Private First Class Louis Joseph Inferrera (1/1/49 – 5/20/67); Sgt. Dominick Pilla (3/31/72 – 10/3/93); and Lance Corporal Harry Raymond Swain IV (7/29/83 – 1/21/05).

Relatives placed wreaths and released white doves in memory of their loved ones.

“This garden was here when Dominick died,” Pilla’s sister Jennifer said. “It wasn’t this beautiful, but it was here and part of the ceremony every Memorial Day.  Vineland does a lot to honor its veterans, and we are so grateful as a family.  This is another great thing that they have done.”

Dominick Pilla, a 21-year-old Army Ranger, died during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, earning the Bronze Star posthumously for valor in the 1993 fight.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: War memorial for mothers looks to another 100 years in Vineland