Monument City Blog

Local Film-maker Steve Blair wrote and directed the romantic comedy “I Do & I Don’t” starring Jane Lynch.  Shot entirely in Baltimore, Blair and his crew filmed several scenes featuring the Cathedral of the Incarnation at 4 East University Parkway.  The building, designed by architect Philip H. Frohman, is at the top of historic Clover Hill.  Frohman is best known for his work on the Washington National Cathedral, a project he supervised from 1921 until his death in 1972.  The Confederate Women of Maryland Monument and Peace Cross are located nearby.

Edward Johnson, Baltimore’s third mayor, sat for Rembrandt Peale, the renowned 19th century American artist, upon leaving office.  Every mayor since has had their portrait painted at the city’s request, a tradition that continues today.  Most of the collection, once held at the nearby Peale Museum, is located in room 215 of Baltimore’s City Hall.  Recently installed in room 215 is the portrait of Governor Martin O’Malley.  O’Malley was mayor of Charm City from December 7, 1999 until January 17, 2007, his tenure marked with political highs and lows.

In the Seton Hill Historic District, just a few blocks west of the Washington Monument, is the Mother Seton House and Saint Mary’s Seminary Chapel.  Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church, moved into the house with her five children on June 16, 1808.  On the same day, French born architect Maximilian Godefroy’s Saint Mary’s Seminary Chapel was being dedicated by America’s first bishop, John Carroll, in the adjoining yard.  A year later Mrs. Seton would move her family to Emmitsburg, MD where she eventually started the country’s first free school for girls and a thriving Catholic community.  This statue sits just inside the fence to the right of the Mother Seton House at 600 North Paca Street.

Saint Mary’s Seminary Chapel has been operating as a religious institution for over 200 years and is incredibly well-maintained.   Designed by Godefroy, who also created the city’s Battle Monument and First Unitarian Church, the humble structure is deceptively elegant.  Surrounding the property is a large peaceful park, adding to the countryside context of the historic site.

Two blocks west at 512 Orchard Street is the Orchard Street Church.  Founded in 1825 by Truman Pratt, the church was used extensively as an Underground Railroad stop.  A near mile long tunnel can apparently be toured by appointment.

Inside of Police headquarters, located at War Memorial Plaza in downtown Baltimore, is a 19 inch cannonball found at Fort McHenry during preparation for the historic location’s upcoming bicentennial celebration of the Battle of Baltimore. The huge cannonball weighs 300 pounds and still contained black powder when it was discovered. The projectile was removed by the bomb squad and was placed in the foyer of headquarters along side numerous exhibits documenting the history of the Baltimore police force.

Nearby on Redwood Street, between South Street and S. Calvert Street, is another large cannonball from Fort McHenry memorialized in monument form. The ball was fired from a British Warship during the epic War of 1812 battle and landed inside the star-shaped fort. The enemy fire was given to Michael Keyser who in turn presented it to the city. The two monuments are part of a vast collection of Baltimore relics from the battle itself and the 100 year anniversary celebration that took place in 1914. I’m curious what the city government has in store for 2014.

The Baltimore Trust Building (or Bank of America Building) is located downtown across W. Baltimore Street from the William Donald Schaefer Tower.  Built between 1924-1929 by the architects Taylor, Fisher, Smith and May, the ’setback’ style skyscraper is a monument to the financial history of Charm City.  As the Great Depression materialized the building’s occupant, the Baltimore Trust Company, went into bankruptcy, eventually vacating the tower by 1935.  The virtually brand new Mayan Revival structure stood empty just six years after its completion.  Maryland’s Public Works Administration moved in shortly after under the direction of FDR and his New Deal.  By 1961, with the country’s economy stabilized, the Maryland National Bank purchased the structure.  In 1993, the Bank of America acquired Maryland National, turning the 37-floor building into its downtown office.

The skyscraper is decorated inside and out with various sculptures and paintings.  Mayan statues stare down to the street from above while significant relief work surrounds the entrance ways to the bank’s main lobby.  One relief shows the old Baltimore Trust Bank being protected by a God during the Great Fire of 1904.  The bank’s much smaller former building was spared when most of downtown went up in devastating flames.  The building’s large open-space lobby contains murals depicting significant Baltimore events by local artist R. McGill Mackall.

Edmund George Lind was one of America’s earliest successful architects.  Born in England in 1829, Lind eventually studied at the London School of Design.  After apprenticing in several offices in his home country, he moved to New York City to work for Nathan G. Starkweather.  The partnership gained commissions in Baltimore with Lind completing Starkweather’s design of Mount Vernon’s First and Franklin Presbyterian Church.  The young architect soon switched firms, joining William T. Murdoch.  Edmund’s most famous work, the Peabody Institute Library, comes from this period.

Lind’s artistic endeavors were not limited to building design.  He was interested in the correlation between math, music and color.  Inspired by the acoustic properties of his physical creations, Edmund began using the number seven to create the perfect environment for sound.  He noticed the relationship between the seven colors of the spectrum and the seven tones of the diatonic scale.  Applying these principals to popular music of the time, Lind created visual representations of song.  One piece he transposed to color was Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner.  His essays and drawings on the subject are kept at the Peabody Library.

Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery is the final resting place of sideshow performer Johnny Eck.  Section R, grave 19 contains the remains of Johnny and his fraternal twin brother Robert.  The Ecks (or Eckhardts) were born in East Baltimore in the same house they eventually died in.  Traveling often, the brothers always returned to their family home, maintaining the quaint rowhouse even as the neighborhood around it slowly declined.  The house was purchased by an Eck enthusiast and is being converted to a museum.

Johnny was a true American icon, born with nothing below his torso, he transformed his inadequacy into a prosperous business.  He walked tightropes, performed magic, created models, acted in movies and drove his own modified car, all while carving out a successful career in show business.  Johnny Eck died in 1991, followed four years later by his brother and lifelong companion, Robert.  This modest monument marks their permanent address.

Druid Hill Park was inaugurated in 1860.  Between 1867 and 1868 this monumental gateway was constructed at its Madison Avenue entrance.  In 1863, George A. Frederick became the city’s architect for the Baltimore Park Commission, holding the position until 1895.  He created Druid Hill’s observatory and greenhouse, along with several buildings in Patterson Park and Federal Hill Park.  There is some speculation that John H. B. Latrobe, son of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, designed the entrance ways at Madison and Mount Royal Avenues, but its more likely that Frederick was behind the constructs.  John Latrobe was on the park’s commission, but was a practicing attorney, not an architect, and may have merely supervised the projects.  Either way, the 142 year old gateway serves as a fitting monument to one of America’s oldest parks.

On September 12, 1914, during the citywide centennial celebration of the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner, Baltimore dedicated Fort McHenry as a public park.  6400 school children were arranged on a grandstand in the form of a massive human flag.  The children, accompanied by a 250 piece marching band, sang Francis Scott Key’s historic anthem, a song inspired and written during the Battle of Baltimore.  The Star-Spangled Banner would finally become the nation’s official national anthem in 1931.  The George Armistead Monument at Fort McHenry was unveiled during the day’s festivities.

Stanford White (1853-1906) was one of the most successful and gifted architects of the Gilded Age.  A partner in the prominent New York design firm, McKim, Mead and White, Stanford was known for his detailed artistic renderings.  Specializing in elaborate private residences, he created a variety of houses throughout the eastern United States, along with public buildings and churches.  The second Madison Square Garden was designed by White, its rooftop the eventual site of his highly publicized murder.  In 1906, White was shot in the head by the millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw during the premiere performance of Mam’zelle Champagne. Thaw, an avid drug user and possible sadist, was the husband of 21 year-old Evelyn Nesbit, a model, actress and former lover of White.  The murder was mistaken as exhibition by the excited Madison Square Roof Garden crowd, cheers gleefully trailing three point blank pistol shots.  Two massively popular trials ensued and Thaw, after pleading temporary insanity, was sentenced to an asylum.  He walked in 1915 and continued his abusive, bizarre life.

White designed north Baltimore’s Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in 1884.  Then known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church, the building at 2200 Saint Paul Street was completed in 1887.  The Romanesque Revival style construct was modeled after the basilicas of Italy, the tower closely resembling Pomposa Abbey.