Main and Wigglesworth Streets
Malden, MA
“Bell Rock Memorial Park… shall be set apart as a perpetual memorial of the self-sacrifice and patriotism of the founders of the town of Malden and of the inhabitants thereof in the eras of the Revolution and the Civil War; and shall be dedicated to the promotion of patriotism; to the better understanding of civic rights and duties, and to the reception of monuments or memorials for those who have labored for the welfare or d fence of the people.”
— A Special Act of the Legislature as quoted in the ‘Introductory Remarks At the Unveiling of the Tablets of Bell Rock Park Memorial Park’ by Frank Ernest Woodward, President, Malden Chapter Sons of the American Revolution, Malden Historical Society, 1910
A public open space since 1648, Malden’s picturesque 3.41acre Bell Rock Memorial Park is dedicated to remembering the patriotic sacrifice of the city’s residents. As such, it is a contemplative landscape that features multiple monuments and memorials dedicated to local veterans, including a bronze tablet honoring those who served in the American Revolution.
The local chapters of the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution originally set the tablet in a boulder and placed it at the site on May 22, 1905, prior to the park's creation; its cost was $700.
The inscription at the top of the tablet reads:
TO THE MEMORY OF THE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WHO ENLISTED FROM MALDEN.
Over two hundred names fill the tablet in four equal columns. Near the bottom, a few lines acknowledge the organizations responsible for the its dedication:
THIS TABLET PLACED BY THE MALDEN CHAPTER, SONS OF THE REVOLUTION
AND THE
DELIVERANCE MONROE CHAPTER, DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION
The monument was ultimately integrated into the 1908 design of the park, which was laid out by the prominent landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and features noted sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt’s important public monument and art piece, The Flag Defenders.
Integrated into the terraces upon which The Flag Defenders is sited, along with a complementary tablet detailing the history of the site, it was unveiled on Columbus Day, October 12, 1910.
In some ways, the Revolutionary War tablet inspired the push to create Bell Rock Memorial Park in the first place. At the 1910 unveiling ceremony, Frank Ernest Woodward, then president of the Malden chapter of the SAR, admitted there had been public criticism of the original monument's "shabby" surrounding area and the shape of the boulder. Shortly after its installation, public discussion began about purchasing the entire tract of land for public use as a commemorative landscape. In Woodward’s words, “the fact that we had placed a memorial tablet on Bell Rock served to attract attention to the natural beauties on the spot and recalled to the minds of the older inhabitants the historic associations connected with it.”
Once the city purchased the site, plans to create the park began. As a result of the public’s desire to improve the town’s Revolutionary War memorial, Bell Rock Memorial Park exists today and is recognized for its design which harmoniously integrates the landscape with the park’s commemorative features. Bell Rock Memorial Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.