Someone destroyed a monument to a Providence World War I hero. The city will make sure he's not forgotten

A local World War I veteran billed as an “Italian-American hero” will be honored with a new memorial after a vandalization over the summer. 

City Councilman David Salvatore used those words in describing Carlo Lafazia, a Providence native who served as private 1st class in the 16th Infantry Regiment.

Landing on French soil in 1917, Lafazia and his battalion fought the Germans occupying the Forest of Argonne on the Western Front. Just a month before the armistice, Lafazia was killed in battle on Oct. 11, 1918.

The Lafazia Square Monument, a stone block chiseled in the fallen soldier’s honor, was placed on Admiral Street in 2017. Earlier this year, it was vandalized and knocked off its foundation. Despite Salvatore's offer of a $500 reward for information, the perpetrator was never caught.

Now, Salvatore is working with the city to arrange for a new monument, which will be commissioned and dedicated next spring.   

“We’re going to relocate it to a new area that is going to allow for an education opportunity, first and foremost about the history of Private Lafazia and the contributions that he made, and secondly, some of the history around World War I and what that meant to the Eagle Park community and to Rhode Island as a whole,” Salvatore said.

Jeremiah O’Connor, Lafazia’s nephew, said that because his uncle’s body was never recovered, he couldn’t be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

“So the stone that is placed in the square is for all intents and purposes his burial stone, O'Connor said. "That’s where he’s buried, spiritually if nothing else.” 

That stone has been moved to the garage of the Department of Public Works as the city determines its replacement. While designs are still in the works, it will bear Lafazia’s image and will sit at 389 Admiral St.

Whatever the final plans are, O’Connor hopes they’ll help locals remember those who’ve been lost.

“What we have now is a war that’s been forgotten, the men that died and suffered in that war who’ve been forgotten, and I don’t think that Carlo should be one of those,” O’Connor said. “Not as long as I’m alive he won’t be.”