Monument City

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Location

Hanlon Drive & Mansion House Drive (Street View)

GPS: 39° 19′ 3.00″ N 76° 38′ 33.60″ W

History

This statue was constructed in 1857 in Rome by the American artist Edward Sheffield Bartholomew at the behest of Noah Walker, a Baltimore businessman. Walker had the statue installed in a niche within the facade of his West Baltimore Street clothing business, at what came to be known as the Washington Building. The statue was originally installed on the second floor and was lit at night by a circle of gaslights. An 1871 sketch of its original appearance can be found here. When Walker died the statue was donated by his family to the city and was moved to Druid Hill Park. A new niche for it needed to be constructed as the statue had no back. Enoch Pratt, the philanthropist after whom Baltimore’s library system is named, donated the pedestal upon which it now stands.

Notes

Bartholomew’s Washington statue is one of many monuments dedicated to America’s first president. Aside from the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon, there is also a Washington Bicentennial marker near the Basilica. And compatriots of Washington’s like Lafayette and Pulaski are also memorialized in Baltimore City.

Nearby

• William Wallace
• Christopher Columbus at Druid Hill
• Eli Siegel
• Richard Wagner
• John Cook Sundial
• Repeal Statue

Links

• On Flickr & Panoramio
• Images of Baltimore Parks & Squares from the Maryland Historical Society
• Smithsonian sculpture entry
• Ghosts of Druid Hill Park