The memorial’s groundbreaking took place in June, and the dedication is set to take place on November 11, 2024, or Veterans Day.
While the current Dover Area High School building has only been around for a less than decade, it’s already poised to be home to meaningful history. That’s in part due to the new Veterans Memorial that’s being constructed at the school, supported with the pro bono design by Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects.
The memorial is a passion project of Bradley Jacobs, a Dover Area High School graduate (class of 1962) who served as a Commission Officer in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
“I guess you could say it's a dream come true,” says Jacobs.
In 2018, just a few years after the new high school building opened, Jacobs wrote to the administration explaining his mission. First inspired by the Veterans Memorial at the Central Dauphin High School, which he saw when attending events for his grandsons, Jacobs wrote in his letter, “As a former member of the Armed Forces of the United States, I think it'd be appropriate that the Dover Area School District establish a memorial to honor the service and sacrifice of veterans not only from the Dover Area School District, but from beyond who served our country.”
The project survived a pandemic and secured enough funding to reach construction. The memorial’s groundbreaking took place in June, and the dedication is set to take place on November 11, or Veterans Day.
The memorial’s intricacies
Memorial during construction
Frank Dittenhafer II, President of Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects, was the first person Jacobs called when he wanted to get the memorial moving. M&D has been a part of the process since the beginning, having created the design in 2018.
The design includes eight granite pylons and eight granite benches, as well as a thoughtful arrangement of engraved concrete pavers and donor-engraved bricks.
The pylons represent the branches of the military and the American flag. Jacobs foresees the benches serving as a place for remembrance and reminiscence for community members, but also for educational purposes for the high school students. “Teachers will be able to bring their class down to the memorial, meet a veteran, let that veteran tell them what it meant for him or her to serve their country and give something back,” Jacobs says.
A quote from Abraham Lincoln is also part of the design: “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
A community effort
Jacobs can’t help but shout out the team at M&D, who he says “have been absolutely fantastic to work with over these six years of putting this project together and now seeing it come to fruition.”
In addition, the Dover Eagle Foundation made the fundraising possible, and donations rolled in not just from the local community, but from across the country in places like Oklahoma and Florida. Other noteworthy names include John Herrold, Brad Perkins, and a range of teachers and administrators from the school district.
Dittenhafer, also a graduate of Dover Area High School, has been a part of Jacobs’ story for some time. “Back as a young boy, I delivered newspapers to his parent’s house in Dover,” says Jacobs. Now, the story has evolved.
Regarding the Dover Area High School Veterans Memorial, Jacobs says, “There's a lot of history that can be spoken there, but the idea of public service and civic engagement, I think, is a real need today.” He recognizes that civic engagement can take shape in a variety of ways, but the simple act of getting involved is something he believes young people will benefit from at the memorial.
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The memorial’s groundbreaking took place in June, and the dedication is set to take place on November 11, 2024, or Veterans Day.