Monument City » Mount Royal

Saint Paul Street Bridge Statue (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:54:50 +0000

Location

Mount Royal Terrace & Lennox Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 18′ 42.64″ N 76° 37′ 34.53″ W

History

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Baltimore’s 1729 town charter, the citizens and government threw an elaborate party and parade. To commemorate the event, the artist Herman Henning was commissioned to create four Lady Baltimore statues to be placed at each corner of the ornate old Saint Paul Bridge. For close to 80 years the monuments greeted locals as they crossed over the Jones Falls and railroad tracks, leaving or entering downtown. In 1960, the bridge was renovated as part of the Jones Falls Expressway project. The over-pass was torn down, and the ladies were moved to new locations. Two were placed inside Cylburn Arboretum, in northern Baltimore, while a third was given to Ireland, in 1974, by Baltimore’s Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Society. The remaining statue was installed nearest to it’s original location, on Mount Royal Terrace, just north of the Col. William Watson Monument.

Notes

The limestone lady loosely holds a sledgehammer in her right hand, while a shield, with the Battle Monument on it’s front, rests to her left. An anchor, gear, anvil and steam engine are represented around the base of the sculpture. Situated in a small park at the foot of Druid Hill, the statue sits inside a neglected garden. A plaque adorns the front of the structure, listing the Commissioner and Engineer of the bridge.

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Fallsway Fountain Monument (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:43:34 +0000

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Location

E Biddle Street & Guilford Avenue (Street View)

GPS: 39° 18′ 12.00″ N 76° 36′ 42.60″ W

History

The Jones Falls Expressway is a mostly above ground thoroughfare connecting the northern suburbs of Baltimore to downtown. Created around 1960, the motorway is the city’s main north-south artery. The highway project started where the old Fallsway system ended. The Fallsway was a massive public works project that took place between 1911-1916, consisting of elevated downtown roads that passed over the Jones Falls waterway. The stream, impounded at Lake Roland in north Baltimore, eventually empties into the Inner Harbor. The Fallsway ended dangerous overflows onto city streets, making travel in downtown safer and more efficient. Parallel to the creation of this roadway, a new sewage and water system was built. Before the government opened the works, they arranged a tour of the operations by automobiles, impressing the local media. James Harry Preston, who served as Mayor from 1911-1919, spearheaded the effort. A Monument, sculpted by Hans Schuler, was erected to commemorate the Fallsway.

Notes

Installed at Eager Street and the Fallsway, in 1915, the fountain was re-located by Mayor Theodore McKeldin in 1967. After comparing postcards from the early 20th century, it appears that the monument was only moved a few blocks north during the expressway’s creation. The statue is of a woman holding a shield in one arm and a vase, that once poured water, in the other. She is sitting atop a pedestal inscribed with the names of commission members involved in the Fallsway’s development and completion. The pool at the structure’s front is now filled with dirt, the fountain long since operational. Theodore Wells Pietsch served as architect.

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Edgar Allan Poe Monument (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:08:33 +0000

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Location

W Mount Royal Avenue & Maryland Avenue (Street View)

GPS: 39° 18′ 20.33″ N 76° 37′ 2.39″ W

History

The Poe monument was dedicated on October 20, 1921 and is by artist Moses J. Ezekiel. It’s original location was in Wyman Park at the corner of 29th Street. Interestingly, the first model for this monument was destroyed in a custom house fire, the second was destroyed in an earthquake and the third was delayed many years during WWI from being shipped across the Atlantic. The original base too, now lost, also has a strange history. It contained two misspellings in its dedication quote, one of which was eventually corrected by a vigilante-fan using a chisel in 1930 who was arrested but not charged. Poe’s monument was moved from Wyman Park to its current location in the Law Center Plaza in 1983 outside the University of Baltimore on Mount Royal Ave.

Notes

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, MA in 1809 to actor and actress David Poe, Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. Poe’s father abandoned the family in 1810, and a year later his mother died. He was taken in as a foster child by John Allan, a prominent businessman in Richmond, VA. Though he was only an occasional resident of the City of Baltimore, Poe was found in the street quite unwell and wearing someone else’s clothes on October 3, 1849 and died several days later. The precise cause and circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery, though several prominent theoretical explanations have been put forward. He was laid to rest at Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, MD on Fayette Street. The controversy over his demise is perhaps not surprising since much of his work dealt with the vicissitudes of death. Another curiosity connected to Poe’s final moments is a ritual undertaken annually by a mysterious figure known as the “Poe Toaster” who every year on January 19 makes a toast of cognac and leaves three roses at the site of Poe’s grave monument. According to Wikipedia, “Members of the Edgar Allan Poe Society in Baltimore have helped in protecting this tradition for decades.” Though not originally from Baltimore, Poe has become something of a patron saint of the city. The NFL football team, the Baltimore Ravens are named after his famous poem, “The Raven,” and an anthropomorphized raven character named “Poe” is the team’s official mascot.

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Maryland Line Monument (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:50:25 +0000

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Location

Cathedral Street & W Mount Royal Avenue (Street View)

GPS: 39° 18′ 20.35″ N 76° 37′ 7.58″ W

History

Sculpted by Albert L. Van den Berghen (variously attributed as, Vander Bergen), this monument was dedicated October 19, 1901, to the “Bayonets of the Continental Army.” The name of this memorial references the state’s nickname of “The Old Line State.” The columnar monument was sponsored by the Maryland chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and the figure depicted high atop the column is the Goddess of Liberty, who holds unfurled the Declaration of Independence in one hand and a laurel wreath in the other. The state motto of Maryland, actually an Italian phrase and not Latin, adorns one of the four decorative plaques at the base of this monument, Fatti maschii, parole femine, the official state-sanctioned translation of which is “Strong Deeds, Gentle Words.”

Notes

Located across the street from the Lyric Opera House, home of the now-defunct Baltimore Opera Company, this monument is the site of much skate-boarding during the warmer months. A good deal of graffiti can be observed around the base of the monument. Across the street and down the hill on the other side is the Maryland Institute College of Art’s “Station Building“, or Mount Royal Station, a former B&O passenger train station erected in 1896 and renovated to academic use in 1966.”

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Links

On Panoramio & Flickr
At the Smithsonian

Col. William Watson Monument (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:34:56 +0000

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Location

W North Avenue & W Mount Royal Avenue in Bolton Hill (Street View)

GPS: 39° 18′ 39.60″ N 76° 37′ 31.80″ W

History

Col. William Watson commanded the Battalion of Baltimore and District of Columbia Volunteers during the Mexican-American War. He was killed at the storming of Monterrey on September 22, 1846. The bronze and granite monument to Watson was installed in 1903 by the Maryland Association of Veterans of the Mexican War and was created by Maryland’s own Edward Berge. Watson is mentioned in the fourth verse of the state song “Maryland, My Maryland.”

Notes

Originally placed at W Mount Royal Avenue and Lanville Street, in front of the Maryland Institute College of Art, the memorial was moved to its current location in 1930. The statue stands atop a massive pedestal and is surrounded by two cannons and four shot piles. Holding a sword in is right hand and a monocular in his left, the Colonel faces east down North Avenue, steadily surveying the Monumental City.

Nearby

Links

Artwork of monument from a 1925 postcard
Watson on U.S.-Mexican War Monuments & Memorials
Watson on Wikipedia
On Panoramio & Flickr