Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

The bronze "Doughboy" statue now in place in Evergreen-Washelli's Veteran's Memorial Cemetery was cast in 1928 by Seattle sculptor Alonzo Victor Lewis. It was moved to the cemetery from the old Veterans Hall at Seattle Center and rededicated on November 11th, 1998.

The statue weighs 3,500 pounds and stands 12' 8" tall. It used to stand over 14 feet tall, but a bayonet attached to the rifle was removed in the 1970s.

The name "Doughboy" comes from the boiled oil and flour dumplings that were part of the diet of infantrymen in the mid-1800s and which were called "doughboys". That name was transferred to the big globular brass buttons on the infantry uniform, and in the First World War was applied to the men themselves.

The original statue was commissioned in plaster in 1921. In 1928 a citizen's committee was set up to raise money to have the statue cast in bronze as a First World War memorial. The statue was controversial. Some said it was too artistic, others that it was not artistic enough. Military groups complained that the statue represented an Army man and not the Navy or Marines. The complaint was also made that since the Doughboy carried two German spiked helmets as battle souvenirs it would keep old hatreds alive.

There were even protests that Doughboy's expression was not "noble" enough. The artist replied that his Doughboy was "just returning from a victory, mud-covered and with a grim smile on his face". Lewis cast the statue, but it remained in storage for three years while he awaited his promised fee. While he had received $4,000 from the public by 1931, it was not until 1932 that the City Council paid the other $5,000 promised.

"Doughboy" was placed in front of the Civic Auditorium in May 1932, but the helmets soon disappeared. One of them has been found and is the keeping of Evergreen-Washelli. When the Auditorium was converted to the Seattle Opera House for the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, a group of veterans and concerned businessmen arranged for the statue to be moved to a place in front of the Veterans Hall behind the Opera House.

In 1998 the Veterans Hall was to be demolished. Once again a group of veterans and businessmen stepped in, and they prevailed on the City of Seattle to donate the unwanted "Doughboy" to the Veterans' Memorial Cemetery. Evergreen-Washelli undertook the expense of cleaning and restoring the statue.

Evergreen-Washelli commissioned a new granite base for the statue. The base is a columbarium designed to contain the cremated remains of veterans and their families.

Email: info@evergreen-washelli.com