Leahy Square — Pvt. Thomas A. Leahy Memorial
Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Marker Inscription
1890-1918 LEAHY SQUARE This square is dedicated in memory of Pvt. Thomas Ambrose Leahy Co. E 101st Infantry 26th Div. AEF 1979-1918 France He gallantly served and died for his country on the battlefield of France This tablet is placed by the City of Medford Hon. Walter E. Lawrence - Mayor
Erected by City of Medford
The Story
This Medford square honors Private Thomas Ambrose Leahy of Company E, 101st Infantry, 26th ('Yankee') Division, one of the New England men sent to France with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. He died in the fighting there, and his home city dedicated this ground to keep his sacrifice in daily view.
Why it matters
Named squares like this one turned the enormous, distant losses of the Great War into a neighborhood's own memory, binding an ordinary community to a global conflict.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Cyrus Dallin Art Museum1.5 mi away · 611 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA
- Jason Russell House1.8 mi away · 7 Jason Street, Arlington, MA
- Smith Museum Archives1.8 mi away · 5;7 Jason Terrace, MA
- Griffin Museum at Digital Silver Imaging2.3 mi away
- Griffin Museum of Photography2.7 mi away · 67 Shore Road
- Old Schwamb Mill2.8 mi away · 17 Mill Lane, Arlington, MA
Attractions
- Central Street Historical District1.7 mi away
- Arlington Center Historic District1.7 mi away
- Pickerel Rock2.5 mi away
- 1899 MIT Observatory site2.6 mi away
- Harvard Square3.0 mi away
- Stone Chimney3.2 mi away
Food & drink
- Lexington House of Pizza4.4 mi away
- Dunkin'5.4 mi away · 10 Woburn Street, Lexington, MA
- Clay Oven5.6 mi away · 1666 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA
- Chateau Italian Family Dining5.6 mi away
- Inspire Bowl n' Tea5.6 mi away · 1686 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA
- Cafe Niche5.6 mi away
Places to stay
- Homewood Suites1.2 mi away · 1 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA
- Crowne Plaza Boston - Woburn5.8 mi away · 15 Middlesex Canal Park
- Hyatt House Boston/Burlington5.8 mi away · 2 Van De Graaff Drive, Burlington, MA
- Sonesta ES Suites6.0 mi away · 11 Old Concord Road, Burlington, MA
- Sonesta Select Boston Woburn Burlington6.0 mi away · 240 Mishawum Road, Woburn, MA
- Hilton Garden Inn6.1 mi away · 5 Wheeler Road, Burlington, MA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Thomas Ambrose Leahy
Related events
- · World War I
- · American Expeditionary Forces in France
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Brodette Memorial Circle
Cambridge, MA
David Joseph Brodette served in Company F of the 168th Infantry Regiment, part of the famed 42nd "Rainbow" Division of the American Expeditionary Forces sent to fight in France during World War I. He was killed in action on October 29, 1918 — barely two weeks before the Armistice silenced the guns on November 11 — at just 23 years old. Cambridge answered his loss the way countless American towns did after the Great War: by giving a piece of the community itself, a memorial circle, his name, so that a neighbor who never came home would remain part of the landscape he left behind.
World War I Memorial
Somerville, MA
When the United States entered the Great War in 1917, working-class neighborhoods sent their young men "to the colors" by the thousands. Somerville's Ward 2, like the rest of industrial Massachusetts, felt the losses at the battles named here — Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry, and the Meuse-Argonne — where American troops first bled in large numbers on European soil. Neighbors who came home formed a "Welcome Home Club" and, in 1920, raised this memorial to the friends who did not.
World War I - The War For Civilization 1914 - 1918
Chelsea, MA
This memorial honors the citizens and relatives of Chelsea, Massachusetts, who died in the armed forces during World War I, 1914–1918. Tellingly, it remembers men who served not only under the United States but also under Canada and Great Britain — a reflection of Chelsea's densely immigrant, foreign-born population, many of whom answered the call of their birth countries before America entered the war in 1917.
Joseph P. Golden Memorial
Boston, MA
Dedicated to the veterans of "the World War" — the name Americans used for World War I before a second one made numbering necessary — this memorial honors the young men of a Boston neighborhood who answered the call in 1917 and 1918. More than four million Americans served in that war, and cities and parishes across the country raised tablets like this one to their local sons. The singular phrasing dates the memorial to the years before a second world war made "the Great War" one of two.