George Rogers Clark - Legacy

Legacy

On May 23, 1928, President Calvin Coolidge ordered a memorial to George Rogers Clark to be erected in Vincennes. Completed in 1933, the George Rogers Clark Memorial, built in Roman Classical style, stands on what was then believed to be the site of Fort Sackville, and is now the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park. It includes a statue of Clark by Hermon Atkins MacNeil. On February 25, 1929, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the surrender of Fort Sackville, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a 2-cent postage stamp that depicted the surrender. In April 1929, the Paul Revere Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Muncie, Indiana erected a monument to George Rogers Clark on Washington Avenue in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The marker doesn't identify the connection between General Clark and Fredericksburg, so this choice of location is currently a mystery. In 1975, the Indiana General Assembly designated February 25 George Rogers Clark Day in Indiana. Built in 1929, the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge (Second Street Bridge) carries U.S. Highway 31, over the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky.

Other statues of Clark can be found in:

• Metropolis, Fort Massac, Illinois, by sculptor Leon Hermant, placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in the early 1900s.
• Louisville, Kentucky, by sculptor Felix de Weldon, at Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere, next to the wharf on the Ohio River.
• Springfield, Ohio, by Charles Keck at the site of the Battle of Piqua.
• Charlottesville, Virginia, by Robert Aitken on the grounds of the University of Virginia.
• Quincy, Illinois, in Riverview Park, on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River.
• Indianapolis, Indiana, by sculptor John H. Mahoney, on Monument Circle.

Places named for Clark include counties in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky (home to George Rogers Clark High School), Ohio (home to Clark State Community College), and Virginia, and communities in West Virginia (Clarksburg), Indiana (Clarksville), and Tennessee (also Clarksville). Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois is named for him, as is a campsite in the Woodland Trails Scout Reservation, Camden, Ohio.

Schools named after Clark include:

• George Rogers Clark College in Indianapolis, Indiana (closed 1992)
• George Rogers Clark Elementary School in Clarksville, Indiana (closed 2010)
• George Rogers Clark Middle/High School in Hammond, Indiana
• George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, Kentucky
• Clark Middle School in Winchester, Kentucky
• Clark Elementary School in Charlottesville, Virginia
• George Rogers Clark Middle School in Vincennes, Indiana
• George Rogers Clark Elementary School of Chicago.
• George Rogers Clark Elementary School in Paducah, Kentucky