Qualla: Washington Monument (Baltimore)

Washington Monument (Baltimore): Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap, CC BY-SA 2.0. Ishmael, on the masthead in Moby-Dick, looks down and remembers Baltimore. 'Great Washington, too, stands high aloft on his towering main-mast in Baltimore,' Melville writes, 'and like one of Hercules' pillars, his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go.' Two hundred and twenty-seven steps lead to the platform where Washington stands. He is depicted in the act of resigning his military commission - the rarest gesture in the history of generals, the one that made him worth a column in the first place.

Image: Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap | CC BY-SA 2.0

Washington Monument (Baltimore): The Column That Came Before the Obelisk

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Concord, CC BY-SA 4.0. Baltimore got there first. The cornerstone was laid on Independence Day, 1815, by Governor Levin Winder in a Masonic ceremony, on land donated by Colonel John Eager Howard from his Belvidere estate north of the city. The original site, in old Courthouse Square downtown, had been ...

Image: Concord | CC BY-SA 4.0

Washington Monument (Baltimore): The Shooting Star and the Eagle

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0. Tradition records a prodigy from the day Causici's marble Washington was hoisted to the top in 1829. A shooting star crossed the sky, and an eagle settled on the new general's head. William Rusk recorded the story in his book Art in Baltimore, and like most Founding Father lore i...

Image: Quintin Soloviev | CC BY 4.0

Washington Monument (Baltimore): Two Time Capsules in the Cornerstone

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 4.0. Restoration crews began work in 2014 on a $5.5 million project run by the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy. In October of that year they discovered a sealed copper box behind a plaque inside the monument - the 1915 Centennial time capsule, forgotten by anyone still living. The next...

Image: AgnosticPreachersKid | CC BY-SA 4.0

Washington Monument (Baltimore): Mount Vernon Place

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 4.0. The monument anchors the intersection of Mount Vernon Place and Washington Place, the two perpendicular squares that give the surrounding neighborhood its name. Within a few blocks sit the Peabody Institute, the Walters Art Museum, the Central Library of the Enoch Pratt Free Libr...

Image: AgnosticPreachersKid | CC BY-SA 4.0

Washington Monument (Baltimore): The View From the Top

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ilovecollegepark, CC0. The 227 steps up the interior spiral staircase open onto a platform with a view across the historic neighborhood. Looking south, downtown Baltimore stacks up toward the Inner Harbor. Looking north, the streets of the Belvedere neighborhood roll away under the brownstones. The Ham...

Image: Ilovecollegepark | CC0