Our Mission
The National Monuments Foundation’s mission is to create beautiful self-sustaining destination landmarks of national and historical relevance containing peace education centers for cultural, civic, and social activism for communities around the world.
Its Atlanta headquarters (within the Millennium Gate Museum, a 101-foot-tall arch based on the Arch of Titus in Rome) preserves and interprets Georgia history, art, culture and philanthropic heritage and highlights Georgia’s historical and aesthetic relevance to the United States and to the world. With the successful completion of the Prince of Wales’s Olympics Monument, its destination landmark - the Millennium Gate Museum, and The Honorable Rodney Cook, Sr. Peace Park, the National Monuments Foundation has established its leadership role in the development of public spaces. The National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the NMF’s founder their National Preservation Prize for saving the Fox Theatre. The Newington Cropsey Foundation ensemble designed by the NMF president in Hastings-On-Hudson, New York received the Arthur Ross Award in 1997. In 2006, the NMF received the Palladio Award for the Peace and Justice Gate, the best new public space in the United States. In 2011, the NMF received the Daughters of the American Revolution Historic Preservation Award. In 2019, the Peace Award was bestowed on the National Monuments Foundation by the Italian Senate. The NMF’s commitment to classical design for urban spaces has attracted the attention of numerous leaders in cities around the world. These leaders desire to accomplish for their communities what the Millennium Gate Museum has done for Atlanta: versatile and energizing community plazas, state of the art education facilities and inspirational destinations that promote legacies of history, honor and hope.
The NMF Credo
NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM
The Millennium Gate is dedicated to peaceful accomplishments that have shaped the Western World, the United States, and the city of Atlanta over the two millennia since the birth of Christ. A symbolic portal into the city, the ensemble refers to the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilizations, the foundations of western culture. The statues of Justice and Peace represent Egypt and Greece respectively. The arch represents Rome and is based on the Arch of Titus.
Cities are the engines of contemporary society and citizens are obligated, to the best of their abilities, to make their city better than the one in which they were born. Eighteenth Century Georgia, one of the thirteen original colonies, led to establish this tradition and heritage in America. Her citizens first created the sublime city of Savannah, one of the world’s most extraordinary urban plans. In making any of our cities more beautiful, we nurture our children and grandchildren; we honor our ancestors, our history, and ultimately God. This we have tried to do at the Millennium Gate.
The United States of America, at this significant date, has risen to the greatness envisioned by our founding fathers. The New World has eclipsed the Old; our Republic has surpassed the ancients’ and has established a high standard to which future cultures can aspire long after we are gone. In celebration, the twenty-first century National Monuments Foundation and her patrons gift this arch to the people of Georgia and her capital, Atlanta. The Millennium Gate is built in the hopes that we may, in the words of Plato and Jefferson, become ennobled through the nurturing qualities of beautiful architecture.
Rodney Mims Cook, Jr
