Bladensburg Peace Cross rededicated for Veterans Day
In its near-century overlooking the small Maryland town, the Bladensburg Peace Cross has endured a lightning strike, flooding and multiple legal battles over ownership and location — one of which rose to the U.S. Supreme Court. But still it stands and, as of Friday, has been restored and rededicated.
People huddled under tents and umbrellas on a small stretch of highway median on Veterans Day to honor those who served in the military and celebrate the once-disputed cross, built to honor 49 fallen World War I servicemen from Prince George’s County.
“The people of this county first put up this Peace Cross, the people fought to keep it up, and now — thanks to the efforts of so many — it will forever be a permanent landmark and memorial,” Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said during the rededication ceremony.
Many of the roughly 100 people who showed up were veterans. They listened as Marvin-Alonzo Greer, lead historical interpretation officer for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, read out the names of the fallen, inscribed on the memorial’s base.
The 40-foot cross, made of granite and cement, was built in 1925 and funded by local families, businesses and the American Legion to honor local servicemen who died in action overseas, mostly in France, or of disease, closer to home. It sits in the middle of busy highway median at the intersection of Baltimore Avenue and Bladensburg Road, just outside the District border.
For 90 years, it stood sentinel in relative peace, weathering the occasional calamity — human-made or natural. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission took ownership of the memorial in 1961 and pays for its maintenance and upkeep. Every Veterans Day, people come to reflect, as they did Friday.
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“On this Veterans Day, we remember the 49 fallen soldiers from Prince George’s County,” said Peter Shapiro, chairman of the Prince George’s County Planning Board. “And we remember their loved ones who committed to building a structure that remains a symbolic resting place for our heroes who never returned home.”
In 2015, a legal battle ensued over the constitutionality of the cross’s existence on public land.
The dispute began with a legal challenge by the American Humanist Association, a nonprofit atheist organization, that argued the symbol of Christianity on government property showed favor of one religion over another and encroached on the separation of church and state. The association called to move the cross off public land and into private ownership.
A federal district judge ruled against the organization, then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit disagreed, characterizing the monument as an unconstitutional and “preeminent symbol of Christianity” and ordered the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to remove, relocate or redesign the memorial.
The decision was appealed to the Supreme Court in 2018, placing the cross in the national spotlight as the high court considered the argument and weighed the fate of the cross — and the potential to set precedent for other public land crosses around country. Many Maryland officials and residents, both Democrats and Republicans, united around the effort to defend the cross’s location in Prince George’s County.
“As soon as I learned that a federal ... appeals court had deemed this peace cross as unconstitutional, I was shocked and disgusted. And I immediately began to fight back,” Hogan said at the rededication Friday.
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In 2019, the Supreme Court sided with the lower court and ruled that the cross could stay.
“The cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to everything else that the Bladensburg Cross has come to represent,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the main opinion. “For some, that monument is a symbolic resting place for ancestors who never returned home. For others, it is a place for the community to gather and honor all veterans and their sacrifices for our Nation. For others still, it is a historical landmark.”
In February 2021, the park and planning commission began fundraising to restore the crumbling and deteriorating cross. Baltimore-based Worcester Eisenbrandt began work this year. The project wrapped this fall with the new pink marble revealed to drivers through the busy highway intersection.
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Susan Pruden comes to the Peace Cross every year to celebrate Veterans Day. A member of the Prince George’s County Historical and Cultural Trust, she marveled at the results of the restoration project.
“It’s gorgeous. Oh, my god,” she said. “They did such a beautiful job of it.”
Her husband, Joseph Pruden, served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, from 1969 to 1972. Growing up in Prince George’s County, he said, he remembered always driving past the cross as a kid. Then he didn’t think of it as more than “just a thing in the middle of the road.”
Later, he saw its value. When the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the cross came down, he was thrilled.
“For many of us, it wasn’t a matter of: ‘Is this a religious or military memorial?’ ” Pruden said.
To them, it was a memorial to fallen soldiers — and a piece of history worth saving.
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