Washington Avenue Soldier ' s Monument and Triangle The Washington Avenue Soldier ' s Monument is located at the junction of that street and Lafayette Avenue ( NY 59 ) in the village of Suffern , New York , United States . It sits on a small piece of land in the middle of the street known locally as the Triangle . At different times during the Revolutionary War , George Washington and Rochambeau encamped the Continental Army near the memorial site for brief periods . A cannon from that war had been placed on the Triangle in 1908 with the intent of starting a memorial to the village ' s dead from the Civil War , but only after World War I was the monument finished and dedicated . Plaques have been added since then to honor those locally who served and sometimes gave their lives in World War II , Korea and Vietnam . Memorial . The two most prominent features of the memorial are a small cannon and a zinc statue of a doughboy . Both sit on a slightly elevated granite base . Next to the stone bed of the cannon is a plaque stating that it was used in the Battle of Long Island in 1777 . The doughboy is depicted in a heroic , defiant pose , with his shirt open and his helmet off , on the adjacent ground . Originally he was carrying a Springfield rifle with bayonet in his left hand ; it has been replaced following the theft of the original . He stands atop a white pedestal , with plaques listing Suffern ' s dead from the different wars memorialized on each facet . History . The heirs of village founder John Suffern bought the cannon in 1851 and ritually fired it from the top of nearby Union Hill on Independence Day of every year , as well as for special events like the completion of the Erie Railroad across New York State in 1852 . They donated the cannon to the village in 1908 to use as the latter saw fit , and the Village Board decided to place it on the Triangle . A local stonemason was paid $ 65 to build the granite platform , and the village granted a " perpetual privilege " to a local Union Army veterans ' group to establish a memorial . At the time , however , the village ' s mayor was not popular , and one of the complaints against him was the establishment of the memorial , which his critics likened to a fort . Efforts to delay or outright cancel the memorial failed but delayed the completion and formal dedication of the project . Only after the United States had fought another war did interest in completing the memorial resurface , and in April 1921 the board authorized construction . The J . W . Fiske Iron Works of New York City cast a version of a statue it had erected elsewhere , in zinc ( seen as a cheaper alternative to bronze ) . The focus on an ordinary soldier was part of a growing trend in war memorials of that era to shift emphasis from a commander or hero to the common man and woman on the line . It was dedicated on Memorial Day of that year . The village has held its ceremonies for that holiday at the monument ever since . The only change to the memorial besides the additional plaques for wars later in the 20th century was the theft of the original rifle in 1968 , possibly as an act of protest against the war in Vietnam . In 2006 the monument and Triangle were listed on the National Register of Historic Places .