The Merewether Monument

the Merewether Monument Tapton [45, 70] the Osment Museum a cemetery Summers Lane Pearcy Bank the Merewether Monument Marston Way Dineen Park Chetwind Lane Reid Square Basic Info: A monument is a city block containing a statue or similar piece of public art, without a building in it. It is functionally equivalent to a street, except that players with the Tagging skill can gain 2 XP for writing graffiti on a monument. This is, game-play wise, an empty block, and cannot be barricaded. After the July 3, 2009 update, some monuments became tall and can be seen from a distance with binoculars

The Merewether Monument

Description

Humans and zombies alike will see the following (permanent) description when standing in front of the monument:

"You are at the Merewether Monument, a metal obelisk engraved with memorial dates."

History

1935. Bronze on Granite Plinth. Sculptor: Jervaise Pimlico.

Josiah Ramforth Merewether was one of the leading lights in Malton's millinery industry. During the great depression, there was no millinery industry in Malton and all hats needed to be brought in over the dangerous North Road (before the turnpike reached Malton in 1954). Frequently, millinery deliveries were harangued by Hat Bandits who prowled the county searching for a ripe cargo of Homburgs, or barrels of Panamas, which they could sell at a high price on the black market thanks to an effective prohibition of "Dressings of the Head" (Malton County Byelaws, Vol 3 Ch 8.2(vii), 1919 rev. 4 - Commonly called the "Hat Laws").

Merewether was a county alderman at the time, and campaigned to have the outdated Hat Laws repealed. In April of 1929 he was successful in doing so. A number of closet hatters met with Merewether and the Municipal Council in August of the same year, and the Malton Milliner's Union was established. This paved the way for a small but successful millinery industry to flourish in Malton.

Following his tragic death from mercury poisoning in 1934, the Union paid for a large statue of Merewether to be erected on the north east corner of Dineen Park, just two blocks west of where Merewether first established his revolutionary Municipal Hat Warehouse.

The art deco style statue depicts Josiah Merewether standing atop several unconscious or dead dragons (said to be an allegory for either the Malton County "Hat Laws" or the bandits that lost their illegal source of hat income), presenting an over-sized Cloche hat to the city of Malton represented by a naked androgynous child.