During the early 1880s, August Forsburg was asked by the city to create an easier path to get from Court Street to Church Street and vice versa. He designed a stairway to get up the steep hill. The bottom most set of stairs formed a semi-circle with an iron fountain in the center of it. In 1883 five firemen were killed in a fire, and the fountain was changed to a memorial for those men.
During the early 1920s, Aubrey Chesterman updated the design. This new addition was to honor the men from Lynchburg who died during World War I. The Fireman’s Fountain was replaced by a bronze statue of an infantry soldier by Charles Keck. This statue was named The Listening Post, but was also known as The Doughboy. It was dedicated on November 11th 1926.
Other memorials at the site and when they were put in:
Confederate Statue- 1900
Spanish American War Memorial- 1940
WWII Memorial- 1986
Korean War- 1989
Vietnam War Memorial- 1986
POW-MIA (Prisoner of war – Missing in Action)- 2005
Purple Heart Memorial- 2008
