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Pa. town claims only statue of Washington dressed in British uniform

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A marker commemorates George Washington’s visit to Waterford Borough in Erie County.

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This statue of George Washington outfitted in a British uniform in Waterford, Erie County, is believed to be a one-of-a-kind.

Americans may not realize the first president of the United States once served in the army of England’s King George III, the monarch the Revolutionary War overthrew.

Southwestern Pennsylvanians within an easy drive of Fayette County’s Fort Necessity are perhaps well-acquainted with Washington’s role in the French and Indian War when the officer fought on behalf of the British in a contest to determine which colonial power would dominate North America.

The earliest known portrait of Washington dates back to 1772 when Charles Wilson Peale painted him as a colonel in the colonial Virginia Regiment. And he’s depicted in many places looking oh so presidential in his military or civilian garb, or, in a sculpture enshrined in the Smithsonian, a toga.

But one has to travel Route 19 North to Waterford, Erie County, to see what is believed to be the only statue of Washington wearing the uniform of the empire against which he later rebelled.

“He’s not in the center of town,” said Stacy Mattson, Waterford Borough secretary, but he’s next to the Sugar ‘n Spice Restaurant, home of Amish-style cooking and baking. That’s appropriate considering the strict Amish way of life hasn’t changed much since colonial times.

“The food is plentiful, delicious, and we take leftovers home,” said Washington, Pa., historian Patricia Stavovy, who summers nearby with her family. “They have a delicious dessert named “forest cake” that is made with a variety of berries…. Yum, yum.”

The restaurant is in the landmark “old Waterford Hotel, one of the original hotels in town,” Mattson said, part of a “a very small, quaint town about 10 miles south of Erie.”

“George Washington really did sleep here,” according to the Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society website. “No, not in a nice hotel room, but in a primitive fort in 1753 when he came to share a message with the French.”

According the Atlas Obscura website, “The statue was erected in 1922 by the citizens of Waterford, the small town on the former site of Fort Le Boeuf, to commemorate Washington’s first act of military diplomacy.

“True to the period, Washington is depicted wearing the uniform of the Virginia Militia and extends the cease-and-desist letter to the French.”

Gov. Robert Dinwiddie of the Virginia colony commissioned Washington as an officer, which Washington resigned in 1758.

Civil unrest in 2020 brought down many a statue, but Mattson said as the year drew to a close that George remained unscathed during the tumult, but the statue has, in the past, been subjected to some derision.

Stavovy notes the citizens of Waterford honored Washington’s visit with the statue purchased for $13,000. Its placement in the center of a street and the dedication brought more than 10,000 people to the tiny town for the ceremony.

In time, George was the subject of school boy pranks – dressing him up – but most importantly, the fear that the statue would be destroyed due to traffic accidents became a real threat.

He was moved to a safer location in 1945.

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