PRIDE HALF ACRE WIDE.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

NEWHALL - On Saturday morning, area military veterans and their families will see something worth waiting for: honors covering about 2,420 square yards in a new patriotic park.

They will help dedicate the outcome of hours they spent writing letters, collecting thousands of signatures and talking up the need for a local monument for veterans - all the while watching many they wished to honor dwindle in numbers.

``A lot of vets are declining every day of the week. You never know what happens tomorrow,'' World War II veteran Harry Gratz had said in 2002 in the midst of his letter-writing campaign to establish a monument honoring military veterans for their hard work and sacrifice.

The long-awaited Veterans Historical Plaza, stretching for about one- half acre or 2,420 square yards, will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Saturday at Market and Walnut streets in downtown Newhall. Brick walkways, nearly 50 trees, flags from each branch of the military and story stations detailing key battles in the nation's history are among features of the Victorian-style plaza.

The park evolved from an early-1990s proposal for some sort of memorial to honor veterans of all wars. Santa Clarita city officials bought the triangle-shaped parcel in 2000 with a $250,000 grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs and appropriated $700,000 in development funds in July 2004. Ground was broken in November 2004 in a ceremony attended by veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Families of Americans serving in in the Middle East also were there.

More than $25,000 was raised when community residents made donations to have names imprinted on bricks, benches, flagpoles and other features in the park. Now that the first wave of nearly 500 bricks have been placed, the fundraising is focusing on raising $68,000 for a sculpture of drummer boy Willie Johnston created by Newhall artist Mark Henn.

``It was the goal of the design team to create a place of serenity and reflection in the middle of a bustling city,'' said Rick Gould, parks director for the city.

Market Street - between San Fernando Road and Newhall Avenue - and Walnut Street - between San Fernando Road and Market - will be closed during the ceremony that will start at 10 a.m. Saturday. Newhall Avenue will close just briefly to allow a procession from William S. Hart Park at the beginning of the event.

The park is on a site that has been significant in the history of the town. Newhall Constable Ed Pardee made his home there before movie cowboy Tom Mix used a building on the property as a dressing room and part of his Western set he called Mixville. In the 1940s, a telephone exchange operated on the property. Then the area's first Boys Club opened there.

The last business incarnation of the property was as the headquarters for the Newhall-Saugus-Valencia Chamber of Commerce, forerunner of the Santa Clarita Valley chamber. The building that housed all those enterprises was relocated in 1992 to Heritage Junction Historic Park.

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com