Monument City Blog

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The Monument to the Maryland 400 in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York, commemorates the contribution and sacrifice of the Maryland Line at the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolution. On August 27, 1776, some four hundred Maryland troops led a rear-guard action to check the British advance and protect the retreat of Washington’s greatly outnumbered army. The Marylanders launched six counter attacks at the Cortelyou House. During the last attack, Cornwallis’ troops were reinforced and the Marylanders were swept back to the Gowanus Canal. After the battle, 256 Marylanders were buried in a mass grave that is located a few blocks from the park. It is for this heroic action that Maryland became known as the Old Line State.

We’ll have to try and find this book at the Enoch Pratt Free Library!

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The Maryland Military Monuments Commission is responsible for restoring and preserving our inventory of approximately 400 memorials honoring Maryland’s veterans. This commission, which is appointed by the Governor and chaired by Maryland Secretary of State, consists of fifteen volunteer members who bring military, historical, business and government expertise to the important work of safeguarding our state’s military monuments.

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Bolton Hill’s landscaped boulevards became the ideal setting for public monuments. The Francis Scott Key Monument, designed by French sculptor Jean Marius Antonin Mercie, was added to Eutaw Place in 1911. War memorials sprung up along the tree-lined median of Mount Royal Avenue. F. W. Ruckstuhl designed the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 1903. In the same year, Edward Berge unveiled the Watson Monument, commemorating the Mexican American War. Later this sculpture was moved from Mt. Royal Avenue at Lanvale Street to Mount Royal Terrace just north of Bolton Hill. The Maryland Line Monument, dedicated to Maryland veterans of the Revolutionary War, also stands on Mount Royal Avenue just south of Bolton Hill across from the Lyric Theatre.

A monument honoring two winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War I stands on Dolphin Street and Park Avenue. Stone lions that had decorated the Calvert Street Bridge over the Jones Falls now reside in the small park in Park Purchase, a townhouse development within Bolton Hill. The park is now known affectionately as “Lion Park.” The sculpture tradition continues in Bolton Hill with the modern artwork in and around the buildings of the Maryland Institute College of Art.

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The Francis Scott Key Monument, which is undergoing renovation in Eutaw Place at Lanvale Street in Bolton Hill, will be a stop on a planned downtown Star-Spangled Banner Walking Tour. This proposed mini-tour will link to the larger 200-mile planned Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail that has been under consideration by Congress after being proposed by Senator Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland.