Washington Monument

The Washington Monument is the centerpiece of intersecting Mount Vernon Place and Washington Place, an urban square in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood north of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first major monument begun to honor George Washington (1732–1799). History The Monument, a colossal landmark column, was designed by American architect Robert Mills (1781–1855), who also designed the later Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Construction began in 1815 on land donated by Colonel John Eager Howard (1752–1827), from his extensive "Belvidere" estate just north of Baltimore Town, and the masonry work was completed by 1829. The 178 foot, 8 inch doric column holds a ground-floor gallery offering digital exhibits about the construction of the Monument, the history of Mount Vernon and Washington Places neighborhood and of the life and accomplishments of General and President George Washington. Climbing the 227 steps to the top provides a view of the city from the historic neighborhood where it is located. Its neighbors and cultural institutions within a few blocks include the Peabody Institute, The Walters Art Museum, the Central Library of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Maryland Historical Society with its Enoch Pratt Mansion, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (old Baltimore Cathedral), and the Baltimore School for the Arts (public high school). The glorification of Washington began long before his death at his beloved Mount Vernon estate, along the Potomac River in Virginia in December 1799. The old Confederation Congress (1781–1789 under Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union) had first announced a desire for a sculpture in his honor in 1783 after the end of the War and of General Washington's resigning of his commission and after his death, revived the idea of a memorial. However, these expressions of honor in the national capital floundered and would not be realized for decades. A monument honoring Washington in Baltimore, then an up-and-coming rising town, the third largest in North America, was first proposed as early as 1807, and in 1809 a Board of Managers of private citizens formed to commission and fund the monument intended to be erected in the old former colonial-era Courthouse Square on North Calvert Street, between East Lexington and East Fayette Streets (today's location of the Battle Monument Square, constructed simultaneously 1815–1822).