Existing comment:
Constructing the Battle Abbey, facing southwest, 1912.
This photograph, taken on May 4, 1912, shows the early stages of constructing the Confederate Memorial Institute, which was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Bissell & Sinkler.
Building Battle Abbey
The idea to build a Confederate memorial was conceived in the 1890s in direct response to the construction of a memorial to Ulysses S. Grant ("Grant's Tomb") in New York City. In 1898, the Confederate Memorial Association (CMA) chose Richmond -- the former Confederate capital -- as the site of its memorial.
Even before it was built, the building became known as Battle Abbey in reference to the memorial in East Sussex, England, built to commemorate the 1066 Battle of Hastings.
Fundraising for the project faltered until 1910, but renewed interest among white southerners was invigorated by their opposition to the creation of a national memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC. On January 22, 1912, the CMA broke ground on Battle Abbey. The construction process, expected to take a year, was not completed until January 31, 1921. |