Ground was broken on land at the corner of Ohio and Kentucky Avenues in February to create a site for the statue, which will be installed this spring.
The finished site will include walking paths and can attract tourists that travel to see the National VA History Center and the Dayton National Cemetery on campus, according to project organizers.
“The purpose of this memorial is to provide a place for reflection and healing, opportunities for educating students and future generations, and to create a national tourist destination point,” according to the Montgomery County commission.
American Veterans Heritage Center president Bill DeFries said the project has now exceeded its funding goals.
The American Veterans Heritage Center, a nonprofit that aims to honor veterans and preserve history at the Dayton VA Medical Center, raised $225,000 for the statue’s creation and another $250,000 for the statue’s placement and creation of its surrounding park, according to the nonprofit.
He thanked the county for its contribution to the project, saying it was “pivotal in getting us across the finish line.”
“Their generous support of not only the AVHC Lincoln Statue Project, but their support of the overall mission of the American Veterans Heritage Center and the Dayton National Cemetery Support Committee has raised awareness to all the other counties and cities in the Miami Valley that are starting to support us,” DeFries said.
The sculpture was created by artist Mike Major, who owns a studio in Urbana. Major also created the Lincoln statue that was installed in Dayton Courthouse Square in 2016.
In 2018, the American Veterans Heritage Center, in partnership with the Lincoln Society of Dayton, began a project to create the bronze statue of Lincoln at the Dayton VA.
The new Dayton VA statue honors the promise Lincoln made to the country’s Civil War veterans. Just over a month before Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, he gave a speech promising “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”
Major’s work depicts Lincoln, pen in hand, with legislation he signed establishing the National Soldier’s and Sailor’s Asylum to care for Civil War veterans. The president is seated in a favorite wooden chair he traveled with that would accommodate his height.
Dayton was the location for one of the first three soldier’s homes in the country, which is now today’s Dayton VA Medical Center.
Officials behind the statue project hope to unveil the installed statue this spring, but until then, Abe takes up space at a Dayton-area storage facility.
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