By  Hannah Marcano On the afternoon of October 25, 1925, several thousand people assembled for the commemoration of the newly-erected Spanish-American War Monument in New Haven’s Edgewood Park.  National, state, and municipal authorities led the commemoration and paid tribute to the men who gave their lives in the conflict, reported the New Haven Evening Register .  There was to be a parade for the monument which would include “every military organization in the city,” but it was cancelled due to the rainy weather that day. The countless citizens that arrived, undeterred, were described to be “crowded into the armory in Meadow Street,” rather than at the monument itself. The monument was made by Michel Martino, a local sculptor who worked on monuments and Works Progress Administration projects around the city, writes historian Laura Macaluso. The sculpture was cast by American Art Foundry located in New York. The statue depicts a heroic image of a soldier in combat, ...