Mount Battie Memorial Tower - Camden, Maine

Continuing our look at World War memorials, we move from the traditional town honor roll to this Memorial Tower on the top of Mount Battie in Camden, Maine.

A previous post on the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in Camden mentioned that the lovely view from the top of Mount Battie inspired her poem “Renascence”. This tower was constructed in 1921, three years after Millay’s famous poem. It was built partly using stones from the foundation of the Mount Battie Club House, a tourist destination which had previously stood here and was destroyed by fire.

The tower’s tablet honors the “men and women of Camden in the World War” and the hope to provide “an enduring memorial.”

It’s endured pretty well, and if you drive up the 800-foot summit, take a few more steps up the tower to enjoy the astonishing pleasure of that most uplifting scene of where the mountains meet the sea, and the little town below on Penobscot Bay. But hurry, the auto road is closed in winter.

If you can’t make it, have a look at this post on the film “Peyton Place” on my Another Old Movie Blog for a couple of pictures of the view from the top.