Monument City » Plaza

Billie Holiday Statue (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:49:15 +0000

Location

Pennsylvania Avenue & Lafayette Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 18′ 4.20″ N 76° 37′ 55.20″ W

History

Born in Philadelphia, Billie Holiday eventually spent her early childhood years in Baltimore City. At ten years old she was put in Catholic reform school, The House of the Good Shepherd, to help ease her troubled early development. After two years relatives and friends were able to remove her from the rigorous program, her mother then moving the family to New York City. By the time she was in her late teens Billie was working in Brothels and singing for tips. On the verge of eviction and penniless, Holiday was noticed serenading in one of Harlem’s legendary nightclubs and the rest is history.

Notes

When I first went to photograph and inspect the Billie Holiday statue in early June of this year the monument wasn’t there, having been removed for renovation and overhaul. When the bronze likeness was returned to it’s home in July, a more complete version of artist James Earl Reid’s original vision was achieved. The relief sculptures Reid had attempted to put around the base of the statue were installed, censorship not standing in the way this time around. Across the street from the plaza is a monument to the Royal Theatre, a famous venue that Mrs. Holiday played during her career.

Nearby

Francis Scott Key Fountain (Bolton Hill)

Links

Flame at the Holocaust Memorial (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:09:16 +0000

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Location

E Lombard Street & S Gay Street (Street View)

GPS: 39° 17′ 16.74″ N 76° 36′ 30.01″ W

History

One of the more ominous spots in the city, the Holocaust Memorial sits just a few blocks north of the Aquarium and takes up an entire city block. In the 1970s a ninth grade Baltimore Hebrew class told their teacher, Alvin Fisher, they didn’t believe the Holocaust occurred. Mr. Fisher promptly took a proposal for a memorial to Charm City’s Jewish Counsel, hoping to erase the unfortunate misconception. They granted his wish and the site was chosen, an area downtown owned by the Baltimore City Community College. The memorial consists of a monolith formed to resemble a train with a steel gate symbolizing the internment of Jews in concentration camps. On the ground leading up to the large structure is a series of railroad tracks, tall grass growing from between the rails. At the southern end of the park a statue was erected, in 1988, that has since become the center-piece of the memorial. Two Baltimore businessmen and philanthropists, Melvin Berger and Jack Luskin, donated funds for the monumental flame. Dedicated in memory of the Night of Broken Glass, the 1938 destruction of Jewish homes, communities and synagogues by the Nazis, the sculpture is the creation of artist Joseph Sheppard and displays the bodies of victims engulfed in fire. Sheppard also sculpted the Pope John Paul II statue near the Basilica of the Assumption.

Notes

Baltimore’s Holocaust Memorial has seen many changes over the years. It was constructed in 1980 at a cost of $300,000 and consisted of a grassy mound and two 80 foot blocks of concrete. The stark scene became a haven for the city’s homeless and a plan to re-design the area was presented in 1995. Architect Jonathan Fishman was commissioned to create the empty rail yard that exists today. A plaque, it’s inscription written by author Deborah Lipstadt, was dedicated in 1997 upon completion of the project. Several Holocaust survivors attended the ceremony.

Nearby

Links

Katyn Memorial (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:29:23 +0000

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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

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

Christopher Columbus Monument At Harbor East (Baltimore, MD)

admin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:56:36 +0000

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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

Links

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