2022 Preservation Achievement Award Winner: Pulaski Monument Committee and the City of Manchester

The N.H. Preservation Alliance is pleased to announce our 2022 Preservation Achievement Award winners, the Pulaski Monument Committee and the City of Manchester, for restoration and stewardship of the Pulaski Monument with support from Daedalus, Inc., Cassidy Bros. Forge, Inc., and the Manchester Garden Club.

This award recognizes the high-quality preservation efforts and stewardship of the monument to Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski, a Polish nobleman and cavalry officer who volunteered to serve in the American Revolution and became known as a hero and the “Father of the American Cavalry.”

The Pulaski Monument in Manchester, NH. Photo credit: Pulaski Monument Committee

The equestrian statue stands in a downtown park at the center of the early 20th century Polish American immigrant community. The park was renamed for Pulaski in 1933. Funding for the monument came from the Works Progress Administration and private donors, and the sculptor was Lucien Hippolyte Gosselin, an accomplished Manchester artist, Franco-American, and instructor at the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences.

The bronze statue, slightly larger than life-size, was cast in bronze in Boston, and its base was cut from a 42-ton block of granite quarried in Concord.

In the decades after the monument's dedication in 1938, Pulaski Day grew to be a major annual event of colorful parades, music, and formal ceremonies.

Volunteers Aurore Eaton and Patricia Howard led this $80,000 initiative to restore the statue’s bronze finish and plaques, clean the base, and rehabilitate the iron fence around it. Their team carried out a high-quality planning, outreach and fundraising effort, and they selected and oversaw a skilled conservation team.  

The Manchester Garden Club added finishing touches with clean up and new landscape plantings. Several city commissions, Currier Museum of Art, and Manchester Historic Association all endorsed the project. The Pulaski Monument Committee came together to support the effort. Yet to come: interpretive signage in the park and production of a commemorative booklet. Fundraising continues with remaining money dedicated to ongoing maintenance of the Pulaski monument. With the war in Ukraine and many other challenges across the world, our committee wanted to call out the wonderful themes of patriotism, national spirit, and intersecting immigrant stories underlying this story of today’s partnership and volunteerism.

Read about the rest of our 2022 Preservation Achievement Award Winners here.