Hundreds of Oak Park and River Forest residents spanning three generations assembled under blue skies Sunday for the official unveiling of the newly restored World War I memorial at Scoville Park.

The memorial, otherwise known as Peace Triumphant, was officially unveiled after a long-awaited restoration that lasted 18 months.

The 85-year-old monument features three American combatants cast in bronze before a granite figure of Columbia, a female symbol of liberty that appeared on many military posters during World War I.

Sculptor Gilbert Riswold of Oak Park used his wife, Anna, as the model for Columbia, whom he portrayed in the act of sheathing her sword.

Workers from Forest Park-based Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio used lasers to remove 85 years' worth of green corrosion from the bronze figures without inflicting the environmental damage that chemical agents can cause.

Andrzej Dajnowski, director of the studio, said his company placed a hidden drainage system in the base to prevent unnecessary weathering.

But that's not all they put in.

"We placed a stainless steel time capsule under the new stones for future restorers to find," Dajnowski said. The capsule contains documents from the project.

Neil Adams, a project manager for the Park District of Oak Park, said the entire restoration cost $326,400, a little more than the $320,000 originally projected.

When it was constructed in 1925, the memorial cost about $52,500, or $4 million in today's dollars.

After the rededication ceremony, members of the crowd headed west to the Oak Park Public Library for a performance by the Hemingway Readers, who brought home the theme of peace with dramatic readings from Ernest Hemingway's postwar works.

The writer's name appears on the pedestal of Peace Triumphant along with those of more than 2,400 others who left Oak Park and River Forest to serve in the war between 1914 and 1918.

"When you love, you wish to do things for, wish sacrifice for, wish to serve," they said, quoting the priest from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

"When you see veterans, thank them for their service," urged Sharon Helman, director of Hines Veterans Hospital in nearby Maywood. "That's how we need to honor their legacy – not just with this monument."

Veterans Day is Thursday.