Location

E Baltimore Street & S President Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 17′ 25.51″ N 76° 36′ 20.80″ W

History

In 1972, Mayor William Donald Schaefer presented the Women’s Civic League, a local community service organization, with the idea of renovating the former residence of Baltimore’s second mayor, Thorowgood Smith. The house, built around 1794, is located next to the historic Phoenix Shot Tower directly behind the Police Memorial. Now known as Shot Tower Park, the small tract of land across the street from Police Headquarters contains one of the largest installations in honor of fallen officers in the United States. The memorial contains three statues, a large panel of inscribed names and various dedication plaques. Unveiled in 1978, the monuments face City Hall and War Memorial Plaza, adding to the dignified appearance of the downtown location.

Notes

Donald Pomerleau was Police Commissioner during the memorial’s construction. Pomerleau was hired by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1965, and sent to Baltimore to examine the city’s law enforcement system during the peek of the civil rights movement. He found the police force to be as corrupt and antiquated as any in the country. He spent the next fifteen years integrating officers and correcting the mistakes of his predecessors. Pomerleau retired from the force in 1981, three years after the memorial’s completion.

Nearby

• War Memorial Building
• Fireman’s Memorial
• Negro Heroes Monument
• Battle Monument

Links

• On Flickr & Panoramio
• Baltimore Police Memorial Fund

Location

South Caroline Street & Philpot Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 16′ 45.60″ N 76° 35′ 46.80″ W

History

One of the most important figures in American civil rights, Frederick Douglass spent his honorable life defending human liberties, including his own. Born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland, Douglass was passed around between owners for most of his early life. He began learning to read at an early age from the white children in his neighborhoods and from Sophia Auld, the wife of his Baltimore owner, Hugh Auld. Douglass began reading newspapers at the age of twelve, helping to form the basis of his ideas of liberty at a young age. Constantly angering his owners through his courage and knowledge, he was shipped off to a rural farm run by a man know for “breaking slaves”. Here, at the age of sixteen, Frederick’s spirit was crushed until he finally fought back against his enemy. He won the fight and began planning his escape, eventually succeeding through the help of the Underground Railroad. He immediately joined abolitionist groups and began writing and making speeches. His autobiography, published in 1845, was a major success and his status as leading man for his numerous causes was established.

Notes

The memorial bust is placed on the grounds of the newly opened Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park. The park is part of the Living Classrooms project and is located at the site of the first African-American owned and operated shipyard in the United States. Douglass worked at these docks during his early years in Baltimore. The statue sits right on the dock and is constructed in sections. The artist Marc Andre Robinson created the work and it was installed in 2006. A second Douglass monument is located on the campus of Morgan State University.

Nearby

• Katyn Memorial
• Christopher Columbus at Columbus Center

Links

• On Panoramio & Flickr
• The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park

Location

Roundabout at Aliceanna Street and S President Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 16′ 59.37″ N 76° 36′ 6.05″ W

History

One of two Holocaust memorials in Baltimore, this one was dedicated on November 19, 2000. It commemorates the 22,000 estimated Polish military officers, police, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war executed by the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police at the Katyn forest and other Soviet detainment camps in 1940. The Soviet government officially denied the massacre ever took place until 1990. The monument also depicts significant figures from other points in Polish history, re-conceptualizing the destructive flame as the transformation and renewal of a people. Artist: Andrzei Pitynski.

Notes

This monument stands a majestic fourty-four feet tall at a geographic hub connecting the Inner Harbor, the commercial and residential revitalization projects at Harbor East and Fells Point. Construction is on-going in the area. The old President Street Station was once nearby (later turned into the Civil War Museum – now run by the Maryland Historical Society), connecting passengers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) to the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B).

Nearby

• Christopher Columbus at Columbus Center
• Frederick Douglass Memorial Bust

Links

• National Katyn Memorial Foundation
• Katyn Remembrance in Baltimore, MD
• They Shall Not Be Forgotten: Remembering the Victims of Katyn
• Remembering Katyn from the Hoover Institute
• On Panoramio & Flickr

Location

E Falls Ave and Eastern Ave (Street View)

GPS: 39° 17′ 7.16″ N 76° 36′ 13.24″ W

History

Dedicated October 8, 1984 by Mayor of Baltimore William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan, the statue depicts the history-making explorer who discovered the New World. Carved in Italian Carrara marble, the monument is a gift of the Italian American Organization United of Maryland and the Italian American Community of Baltimore.

Notes

We had to ask at the Baltimore Inner Harbor Visitor Center to track down this historic monument – one of two Columbus statues in the city (the other is in Druid Hill Park). None of the three employees working there knew its location offhand, but were soon able to find it online. It’s at the edge of Harbor East and Little Italy, across the street from the restaurant Della Notte, east of Pier Six Pavilion and signs marked Columbus Center (also right near the Public Works Museum). Columbus faces east along Eastern Avenue. The monument and piazza in which it resides are quite striking, with relief work adorning each face of the marble base. The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria are depicted, along with Columbus’ birthplace in Genoa and his landing and meeting with the Native Americans.

Nearby

• Katyn Memorial
• Frederick Douglass Memorial Bust

Links

• Columbus Monument on a Baltimore tourism website
• Smithsonian entry for this monument
• On Panoramio & Flickr