Refurbishing Edmonton's Beverly Cenotaph an uphill battle

Joe Luce watches construction workers at the historic Beverly Cenotaph at 118th Avenue and 40th Street.

"Right now they're doing the brick work for the walkway," the Beverly Memorial Cenotaph Committee chairmanand former military member said.

"We've opened up the whole park.Before it was all covered in shrubs. Now it's opened up and it's going to look great when it's all done."

Luceand the committee havebeen working for the last decade to refurbish the crumblinghistoric monument.

The Beverly Cenotaph was official unveiled on Oct. 17, 1920 making it one of the oldest cenotaphs in Alberta.

Less than two years after the end of World War I, the monument honoured the 170 people from Beverly, then a coal-mining town of just 1,000 people, who served in the war.

Names of the 17 Beverly soldiers who died in the war are still etched into the granite pillar.

"I find that quite amazing that it took them two years after the great war to put it up and it took us 10 years to get it revitalized,"Luce said.

He admits itwas an uphill battle to raise the required$415,000, clear approvals, and deal with weather-related construction delays, but now the end is in sight.

"Other than the sod that will happen next spring everything will be ready to do our ceremony this year," Luce said.

The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m., Nov. 11, with a non-denominational service at the Maranatha Christian Reform Church at 11905 47 Street.

At 10:20 a.m. the parade leaves the church and marches down 118th Avenue to the cenotaph where the service will conclude.

"It's important to keep something like this going," Luce said.

You can see more from the neighbourhood of Beverly this week on Our Edmonton at 10 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday and Monday on CBC TV.