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Ongoing project honors military veterans
By Tim Hadac
Orders are now being taken for inscribed decorative bricks to honor local military veterans.
The bricks will be added to those already installed at the triangle at 55th, Archer and Narragansett.
The 4-by-8 inch bricks cost $30 each. For full details, visit bricksrus.com/donorsite/grcc.
Sometimes called the Lech Walesa Triangle and at other times the Veterans Triangle—the land is the target of an ongoing renovation project led by the Midway Chamber of Commerce.
Back in 2019, the effort began removing old and damaged bricks on a walkway and replacing them with commemorative paving stones, many of which carry messages honoring the memory of local men and women who served in the military.
Over the last three years, the street-level brains and brawn of the project have been provided by MCC member All Exterior Contractors.
“We’ll have this ready for dedication by Veterans Day, and it will look outstanding,” said Geno Randazzo, owner of AEC, a MCC Business of the Month. “Our veterans gave us their best efforts. The least we can do is the same for them.”
Randazzo’s company once again is donating all of its labor costs to the project—saving the Chamber literally thousands of dollars.
Randazzo’s company has been engaged in a number of efforts to support Clearing and Garfield Ridge churches, schools, parks, civic groups, neighborhood watches and senior citizens clubs—but AEC is best known for its support of veterans posts and individual veterans in need. Several years ago, Randazzo’s company donated new roofs to two Southwest Side veterans—one of them in Garfield Ridge.
In recent years, the Midway Chamber has informally adopted the triangle, decorating it for Independence Day, Halloween and Christmas. MCC President Mary Ellen Brown has credited a MCC team led by Dr. John Baetti with brightening the plot of land and using it to promote a sense of pride in the community.
Also helping beautify the triangle have been members of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch.
The triangle was created in the 1950s when city officials diverted westbound traffic on 55th Street to Archer and Nagle by carving a curved strip of street northwest. Over the years, the triangle has been used as a spot to honor the sacrifices of Polish labor leader Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement. It also is home to a monument to several young men who lost their lives fighting in Vietnam. The monument was originally placed near 63rd and Narragansett but was moved after it was damaged and vandalized several times.
I would like to buy two bricks for my parents. My father was an Army Vet from WW2 and my mother was a Marine from WW2. We lived in Garfield Ridge from 1957.