Montgomery Monument at St. Paul Chapel

Architect: Jean-Jacques Caffieri

Preservation Organization: ICR ICC

Date: Commissioned, Jan 25, 1776; Renovation, 2010

Leading the charge of the Battle of Quebec, Major General Richard Montgomery died under British fire in 1775. In order to drum up public support for the revolutionary war effort, Benjamin Franklin convinced the Continental Congress to commission the monument, to build support for separation from Britain. Benjamin Franklin championed the monument from its design to its installation, in spite of the intervening war and paltry coffers.

On Jan 25th, 1776 Ben Franklin was given 300 pounds sterling to oversee its creation commissioning the French royal sculptor, Jean-Jacques Caffieri

It was also Franklin who scouted the Versailles sculptor Jean-Jacques Caffieri. After Caffieri completed the sculpture in 1777, Franklin had the chutzpa to show it off in Paris while the war still raged. One year from declaring independence and the young nation was already commemorating its own. For the remainder of the war the monument was stowed away in North Carolina. By 1787, it found its way to front of St. Paul’s and Pierre L’Enfant, the so-to-be planner of Washington D.C., oversaw the installation. Montgomery is buried beneath the monument.

This was the first piece of commissioned public artwork by the new country.