Monument City Blog

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.

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This banner, the largest battle flag in existence (1914), measures 36 by 29 feet. It was made by Mrs. Mary Young Pickersgill and her two nieces. The material was cut at Mrs. Pickersgill’s home, “No. 60 Albemarle Street, Old Town” (Pratt and Albemarle Streets, Baltimore), and carried to a nearby brewery, where it was sewed together. During the bombardment it was pierced by a number of shots.  The flag was restored at the National Museum, Washington, D. C., where it is considered one of the most precious possessions of that institution.

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By 1873, when the banner was hung from a third-story window at the Boston Navy Yard, the great rectangle had been squared off. Some of the trimmings patched holes in the flag; others served as souvenirs.

Francis Scott Key, on a friendly mission to retrieve an imprisoned American doctor from a British warship, sailed out of Baltimore Harbor in early September, 1814.  On September 7, just a week before the Bombardment of Fort McHenry, Key and John Stuart Skinner boarded an enemy boat, eventually lobbying General Robert Ross for Dr. William Beanes’ release.  However, Key, Beanes and Skinner were not allowed to leave British captivity until after the Battle.  They returned to their ship but were tied to an enemy craft in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.  On September 14th, after a day long barrage of mortar shells and Congreve rockets, Fort McHenry lowered its tattered flag and raised a much larger one in its place, inspiring Francis Scott to scribble a few stanzas on some letterhead.  Penned during battle with the British and eventually adapted to a British drinking song, the Star-Spangled Banner officially became America’s national anthem in 1931.

At 11 am on Tuesday, September 8th, 1914, the Francis Scott Key Buoy was lowered into the Patapsco River, marking the spot where the Baltimore lawyer, and sometimes poet, wrote the Star-Spangled Banner.  The ceremony was part of the week-long National Star-Spangled Centennial celebration.  Each year the buoy is removed before winter and replaced in the spring, allowing for maintenance and preservation.

On the front of the United Methodist Church in Mount Vernon Place is a tablet to Francis Scott Key. The plaque was created, in 1912, by Hans Schuler and marks the location of the lawyer’s death.  Key died of pleurisy in his daughter’s home, formerly located on this site, at the age of 64.