Today’s Throwback is an update to a post I shared for Veterans Day 2023. I had learned that a boulder at Stone Haven Hill in Cape Porpoise used to have a bronze tablet honoring Civil War Veterans embedded in it. I lamented that the original plaque had been lost for many years.

The Civil War marker had first been unveiled in 1913 by Stone Haven Hotel owner, Justin M. Leavitt, a Civil War Veteran. The hotel burned in 1931 and Justin Leavitt passed away a few days later. The significance of the plaque and the boulder were lost in time. When Stone Haven Hill became the site of the WWII Airplane Spotting Tower, a marker was embedded to the very same boulder.

In the Veterans Day post, I shared the KHS hope that the plaque could someday be found or recreated and returned to its boulder on Stone Haven Hill. Some very generous community members have since stepped forward to help make that happen. We are extremely grateful. I had recently sent them the 1913 unveiling newspaper article that included the wording that appeared on the original Civil War Tablet.

Last week, when I was searching through the President Bush memorabilia in our collection for President’s Day post inspiration, I moved a box of autographed Easter Eggs from the George H. W. Bush Whitehouse Egg Hunt. Under it was a heavy piece of metal labeled with an accession number from 1989. The documentation associated with that number failed to enlighten me. Apparently, someone had left the piece of metal outside the locked door of the Town House School one day in 1989 and left no name or provenance with the “donation.”

When I turned the piece of metal over and read the words inscribed on the front, I recognized them immediately as the same words that had been inscribed on the Stone Haven Hill Civil War Monument. WHAT?!?! I could not be more delighted. Now, with the blessing of the current owner of the boulder, The Kennebunkport Historical Society can reaffix the original plaque where it belongs.