Hutchinson · US

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

On a tree-lined median where Walnut Street meets First Avenue in the heart of downtown Hutchinson, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument rises forty-one feet of white granite, crowned by a nine-foot figure of Abraham Lincoln. Erected by Reno County in 1918 and dedicated on Flag Day in 1919, this Classical Revival memorial honors the soldiers and sailors loyal to the Union flag — and it is the kind of landmark that rewards a slow, close look rather than a quick photo. What makes it worth a stop is its detail: four bronze-and-granite service figures ring the base, flanking their Commander in Chief, while two genuine Civil War cannons stand guard on the east side. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the monument is a rare, intact piece of early-20th-century memorial craftsmanship set right in the middle of Kansas's flat downtown grid.