Court Is Asked View On Lee Memorial

The Circuit Court today was asked to authorize that a city-owned tract at Lake Roland be developed for public recreational purposes as a memorial to Gen. Robert E. Lee under the will of Mrs. Elizabeth B. White, who died in 1917.

A fund of nearly $77,000 now is available for such a purpose. Mrs.

White’s great nephew, Robert Garrett, who is executor under her will, filed the petition asking the court to approve the park in place of the statue to General Lee which Mrs. White’s will proposed for Druid Hill Park.

Another Memorial Started

Through Philip B. Perlman, his attorney, Mr. Garrett pointed out that since his great aunt’s death another memorial to General Lee has been started.

That is the combined statue to General Lee and General “Stone-wall” Jackson for which the late J. Henry Ferguson left a $100.000 bequest. The base of the statue has been prepared in Wyman Park, opposite the Baltimore Museum of Art, but cannot now be completed because of scarcity of materials.

Mr. Garrett alleged that another statue to General Lee in near-by Druid Hill Park would be undesirable, and asserted that he believed Mrs. White, in view of General Lee’s “great love of trees, shrubbery, flowers and gardens,” would have approved the proposal for a substitute memorial.

Will Executed In 1909

Mrs. White’s will, executed in 1909, had left her house at 12 East Mount Vernon Place to be sold to provide funds for the Lee statue. However, when the house was sold, it brought $18,000 and Mr. Garrett at the time was advised that a suitable equestrian statue of General Lee might cost $60,000. Mr. Garrett therefore invested the $18,000

fund, which with accumulation of interest and dividends had grown by last March 1 to $76,723.60 and is now slightly larger.

The substitute memorial in the Lake Roland area would be “a more useful public service,” Mr. Garrett’s petition alleged.

Awaits Jurist’s Approval

Mr. Garrett, as chairman of the Board Public Recreation, vouched for the board’s ability and willingness “to create a beautiful and useful memorial to Gen. Robert E. Lee” at the Lake Roland tract.

The late John W. Garrett, who, with his brother, was a residuary legatee under Mrs. White’s will, also signed before his death an authorization approving a substitute plan for a Lee memorial. The case is now pending before Judge William L. Henderson for judicial approval of the substitute plan.