Square has played host to various large gatherings, During the 1851 Jerry Rescue, a crowd in Clinton Square advocated for the freedom of a fugitive slave. They were spoken to by antislavery leaders including Samuel Ringgold Ward. In 1869 the Cardiff Giant was exhibited at a building on Clinton Square for several weeks. A feast in the square on New Years Day in 1870 was organized by the brewer John Greenway. Aimed at feeding poor inhabitants of the city, Greenway had invited the whole of Syracuse, at the time 43,000 people. Contemporary reports stated that most of the attendees were not actually poor, and included some living outside of the city who had taken a train in explicitly for the banquet. Attendance was reported to have been around 20,000 people, many of whom sat at a long table. Although the attendance was described as "guesswork", in 1971, The Post-Standard wrote that "every two-fisted drinking man" attended the barbecue, while in 2001 the Syracuse Herald American wrote that "[h]alf the city" had come. Greenway reportedly supplied three oxen, of roast beef, 5,000 bread loaves, and of plum pudding in the form of 12 puddings. There was also live music. Clinton Square also held celebrations after presidential elections and when wars ended, sometimes with fireworks set off. The square was officially re-designated from a marketplace to a park in 1899, and an oval flower garden was added to its center. Early-mid 20th century Construction began on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the square in July 1909, in front of a crowd estimated at 50,000 people. It was dedicated in 1910 or 1911 in memory of Onondaga County citizens who died in the American Civil War. An estimated 110,000 people were present at the final dedication. The Erie Canal was closed in the city six years later. It was filled in and the bridge that spanned it was removed over the course of several years, reopening for traffic in October 1924. The Canal's path was replaced by Erie Boulevard, and much of the square replaced by a parking lot. Part of the parking lot was adapted into a park in the 1930s as part of a Works Progress Administration project. Since 1933 Clinton Square has held Syracuse's municipal Christmas tree during the holiday season. It was lit on Christmas Eve until the 1960s, when the date was brought forward. The process of