About the Memorial

In 1995 the Jamestown City Council named a Commission to make recommendations on creating a veterans memorial to recognize and commemorate the sacrifice and dedication of those from our Chautauqua County community who served our county in defense of liberty.

After careful consideration the Commission recommended that a memorial be built with two goals in mind. The first goal was to remember those who served, and the second goal was to educate and remind today's citizens of the serious commitment to freedom and justice made in years past by members of our community.

Two focal points were established for the Memorial. The first is outdoors on Tracy Plaza recalling the sacrifice made by those who died in combat. The second focal point was a touch-screen computer that gave the name, rank and other facts about Chautauqua County veterans. This database was searchable and allowed the search results to be printed out.

This first database was housed in a kiosk in the lobby of City Hall, and it worked well until the hardware became outdated. At that time the Commission decided make the database available on the Internet so that more people could have access and so that it might be easier to maintain. A portal remains available to the public in the lobby of City Hall.

The Veterans Memorial was built primarily with private money raised with the help of the original Commission members and the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation (CRCF). In addition, NYS Senator Patricia McGee provided a state grant to complete the project, including the conversion of the veteran's database to an Internet web site.

Contributions to the CRCF for maintenance, repair and up-grading of the Memorial still are welcome.

The Veterans Memorial on Tracy Plaza was dedicated on November 11, 1997.