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10/23/2019 08:15 AMJulien Icher, project manager for the Consulate of France in Boston, has put East Haven on the map—his web-based map of the route that French General Marquis de Lafayette took during his farewell tour in 1824-1825, that is.
Lafayette has been lauded as playing a pivotal role in helping the United States achieve victory in several key battles during the Revolution. Lafayette’s encampment in East Haven with 2,800 men in 1778, when Lafayette would have been in his early 20s, is currently recognized with a plaque on the Town Green.
Icher insists that the combination of the encampment in 1778 and farewell tour in 1824 makes East Haven a “special stop,” one that should be recognized on the state level with an official Lafayette Trail marker.
“I strongly believe that the Lafayette Trail could play a role in bringing together parts of the state that recent economics might have driven apart from each other,” said Icher. “It has the potential to increase intrastate political integration and help celebrate the collective legacy shared across Connecticut.”
Icher’s work on a historic web-based Lafayette trail in New England is a part of the French Consulate’s 2024 bicentennial celebrations commemorating the farewell tour. Icher has been on a tour himself, approaching historical societies, libraries, state archives, and private archival repositories to confirm and document every stop that Lafayette made in the United States.
In addition to an online map, Icher would like to “install historical markers in dozens of communities as part of a nationwide Lafayette Trail historical marker program,” he said.
The impetus for Lafayette’s return to the states was made at an invitation from President James Monroe, who wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United States. The venerated war general toured all 24 states between August 1824 and September 1825. East Haven was a part of it.
“Fifty years later, he came back here. There was a big reception; quite a spectacle,” said Chris Hemingway, circulation librarian at the Hagaman Memorial Library, in a Sept. 27 online video interview with Icher. “East Haven threw quite a party for him.”
This party included a reception on the Town Green attended by the Connecticut militia, veterans, and townspeople from throughout Connecticut. Historical documents indicate that the mayor and local dignitaries gave speeches and there was an installation of a liberty pole and plaque in Lafayette’s honor.
With the commemoration plaque being all that remains today, Icher insists that “larger visibility could be achieved in East Haven.”
In Hartford, a Marquis de Lafayette statue, by sculptor Paul Wayland Barlett, stands at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Lafayette Street. It depicts Lafayette on horseback with an uplifted sword, leading troops into battle.
But Icher would like to officially capture and recognize Lafayette’s travels throughout the state with the web-based map and installation of trail markers in town’s like East Haven. He has approached several state representatives in Connecticut on taking legislative action in order to do so.
“My feedback concerning my work with the state legislature is positive,” said Icher. “The trail has been shown much attention and interest. The possibility of increasing intrastate social fabric using an icon of the Revolutionary War is very popular with lawmakers, and it resonates with the mission of so many communities across the state to preserve Connecticut’s history.”
Icher points to states such as New Hampshire and Massachusetts that have already adopted legislation for Lafayette trail markers, and to Maine, where such legislation is being considered as examples of his success.
If Icher wanted to replicate these efforts in Connecticut, he would need the support of the legislature, and to submit an official state or national nomination form through the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), according to SHPO Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Catherine Labadia.
“It’s a fairly lengthy process,” said Labadia. “I would not say it is easy.”
SHPO currently manages three trails in Connecticut, which are all in state statute. They include the Connecticut Freedom Trail, the Minority and Women’s History Trail, and the national historic trail, the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route.
Labadia says that once a site is officially recognized by SHPO, it helps “open you up to incentive programs where there is funding to put together brochures or walking trails, anything that would bring attention or highlight a story.”
For Icher, Lafayette represents a story of “the bilateral friendship to the U.S. and France. It is a very special one based on shared values reaffirmed every once in a while throughout our common history. Lafayette’s ultimate visit to the United States left an unmistakable mark to this country that has yet to wane.”
Some residents, such as East Haven Historical Society volunteer David Campbell, would agree.
“The memorial stone is on the green, nothing to travel any distance to look at,” said Campbell. “It would be nice to put East Haven out there, telling the facts about his camping on the green and then coming back.”
“It’s something that East Haven should be really proud of,” said Hemingway.