FAIRHAVEN MEMORIALS                                     

BENOIT SQUARE

Location: , Howland Road and the convergence of Main  and Adams Streets, North Fairhaven.

BENOIT SQUARE

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF ERNEST J. BENOIT OF FAIRHAVEN, MASS.

KILLED IN ACTION

IN THE WORLD WAR OCT. 13, 1918
BURIED IN FRANCE

NORTH SIDE OF SQUARE

IN MEMORY OF
VETERANS
OF
FOREIGN
WARS
POST No. 2892
1937

At the February 11, 1928 annual Town Meeting, it was voted to name the spot at the junction of Main and Adams Streets Benoit Square, after the first  Fairhaven man killed in World War I  Private Ernest J. Benoit was drafted in September, 1917, and left for Camp Devens on October 5, 1917.  He was assigned to the 321st Machine Gun Battalion and was in France by October 16, 1918.  He and a friend were killed in their foxhole by a German explosive shell on October 16, 1918, near the town of Sommerance, France.  In 1937 Benoit Square was selected as a site for the erection of a tribute to all of Fairhaven's soldiers, living and dead, by Post 2892, Veterans of Foreign Wars. The site contains a French 75mm cannon and flag staff.  Sometime during the 1940's the existing house on the square was moved to Sycamore Street

Source: Fairhaven Star, April 1, 1937