David J. Russo

Henry Huttleston Rogers Memorial

Huttleston Avenue
Fairhaven, Mass.

Year Built: 1911

This memorial was built in 1911 and unveiled in January, 1912. It was originally in the center of Huttleston Avenue but was moved in 1963 to the west side of Fairhaven High School's lawn. It is a fluted shaft, rising 30-feet from a granite base. It was given by the grateful people of Fairhaven after Rogers’s death. On the memorial is a tablet containing these Latin words: "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (If you seek his monument, look around you).

A medallion bust of Rogers, the work of an unknown artist, is located above the tablet. The column is surmounted by a bronze structure supporting a sphere, which is electrified and lighted nightly.

Interestingly, this design was originally intended to be used to memorialize the Drake well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The Daughters of the American Revolution was raising money for an appropriate memorial on the site of the first commercial oil well, but funding fell through when H.H. Rogers passed away. According to an article about that memorial:

“The monument is in the form of a monolithic Doric shaft bearing aloft a bronze lantern in the form of a globe. The shaft rests upon a single block of stone, upon the four faces of which are bas reliefs symbolical of the departments of human activity which have been most affected by the discovery of oil—heat, light, power and locomotion. The base rests upon a stylobate of three high steps. The stylobate is in the center of a paved area surrounded by a parapet having at the four corners salient masses, upon the outer surface of which are to be cut inscriptions telling of the history of the discovery of oil by Colonel Drake and of the evolution of the industry. The whole monument is to be raised upon a sodded plateau and is to be approached on all four sides by flights of thirteen steps.

“The dimensions of the monument are as follows: plateau, 94 feet square; platform at parapet line, 52 feet; diameter of shaft, 5 feet, 6 inches; pedestal, 8 feet square; stylobate, 20 feet square; height of plateau, 8 feet; height of monument, 53 feet; total height of monument and plateau, 61 feet.

The memorial to H.H. Rogers in Fairhaven is substantially similar to this proposed memorial, except for the four bas reliefs (which are blank in Fairhaven except for the front), the sodden plateau and the flight of 13 steps.

The Fairhaven memorial was originally set on a stylobate of three steps in the middle of Huttleston Avenue until 1963, but was relocated to the grounds of Fairhaven High School for safety reasons.

This structure is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Registries

• National Register

References

• Romance of American Petroleum and Gas, Vol. 1, A.R. Crum, editor, 1911, p. 214.

• "Architect Brigham of Boston Here Today," Titusville Herald, July 26, 1907, p. 2.

• National Register of Historic Places, 6/26/1995, Charles Brigham, architect

• The Drake Well Memorial Park, Paul H. Giddens, Pennsylvania History, January, 1945, Vol. XII, No. 1, p. 35.

• Massachusetts Cultural Resources Information System, Massachusetts Historical Commission, Inventory No. FAI.902 (Rogers Memorial, Huttleston Avenue, Charles Brigham, architect).

• National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Fairhaven Academy and Rogers Memorial (amendment), May 4, 1995

• Dedication of the Memorial Monument to Henry Huttleston Rogers, Millicent Library, Fairhaven, Mass., C.D. Waldron, 1912