Lewisburg Purple Heart Memorial to move to Mifflinburg park

The Purple Heart Memorial is leaving Hufnagle Park in Lewisburg and will be installed in Mifflinburg Community Park along North Fifth Street, ending months of dispute over the monument’s future and placing it beside a space already devoted to military remembrance.

Veterans representatives and borough officials reached the decision at a Tuesday night public meeting, with the memorial’s supporters and Mifflinburg Borough Council settling on a new home near the Union County World War II Honor Roll. Lewisburg Borough Council had approved the relocation in its May 20, 2025 meeting, after the chapter objected when the memorial was moved in Lewisburg to make room for a proposed bus shelter. Bob Lauver, commander of the Purple Hearts chapter, and Barry Mabus both voiced concern and disappointment over the move, while Debra Sulai said Lewisburg Neighborhoods had received grant money for the bus shelter and that floodplain restrictions limited where the shelter could be placed.

The new site changes the context of the memorial as much as the address. The Union County World War II Honor Roll in Mifflinburg Community Park honors 2,260 county residents who served in World War II, and 59 of those names belong to people who died in service. The Honor Roll was dedicated on Nov. 8, 2003, and hosts an annual Veterans Day program on the Saturday before Veterans Day, giving the Purple Heart memorial a place among other countywide commemorations rather than on a single downtown block in Lewisburg.

The Purple Heart Memorial itself was originally erected and dedicated on Aug. 17, 2002, by the Lt. George H. Ramer Chapter 654 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Local officials said the chapter will cover the cost of the move and any additional site work, and the goal is to have the monument relocated before Memorial Day. The Mifflinburg park is about 10 miles from the memorial’s current location on Market Street in Lewisburg, near Pennsylvania Route 45, and supporters say the move resolves a long-running dispute while keeping the monument visible in a setting where veterans’ service is already recognized and regularly honored.

The relocation also reflects how Union County communities negotiate contested memorial spaces: by weighing park uses, grant-funded projects, floodplain limits and the expectations of veterans who believe public remembrance should remain prominent. In Mifflinburg, the Purple Heart Memorial will sit closer to a county memorial landscape that has already drawn major local investment, including a 2024 restoration that raised more than the initial $14,000 bronze estimate and ultimately brought in over $19,000 for additional repairs.