![War memorial horse & eagle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/War_memorial_horse_%26_eagle.jpg)
War Memorial Plaza is a public square, small park and space in
Downtown Baltimore
Downtown Baltimore is the central business district of the city of Baltimore traditionally bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, Franklin Street to the north, President Street to the east and the Inner Harbor area to the s ...
between
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
and the
War Memorial Building, between Holliday Street on the west, East Fayette Street on the south, North Gay Street on the east, and East Lexington Street on the north.
History
On the northwest corner of the present square facing the intersection of Holliday and East Lexington Streets were a set of townhouses that were the sites for the opening of
Loyola High School and
Loyola College in 1852 by the Roman Catholic
Society of Jesus
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
(Jesuits). After a brief time, the two institutions relocated in 1855 to the west side of
North Calvert Street between East Madison and Monument Streets in a large central
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
building with a front portico connected to St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church which had been recently completed on the north. They remained here (along with a large similarly styled addition to the south along East Monument Street in the 1890s) until the mid-20th Century with the
College
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
relocating in 1922 to its present "Evergreen" campus in North Baltimore City near
Homeland
A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
community at
North Charles Street and East Cold Spring Lane, next door to the landmark "
Evergreen Mansion", (of the
Garrett Family railroad and financier family giants) and the
High School
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
moved in 1934/1941 to "Blakefield" in west
Towson
Towson () is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltim ...
, north of the city in
Baltimore County
Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City of ...
. Inala 1975, the old Loyola complex was converted into a performing arts center for the decade-old
Center Stage, which had relocated after a fire the previous year at their space on
East North Avenue, between
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
and
Calvert Streets.
A few doors to the south in the middle of the block was "Prof. Knapp's School", attended by many German immigrant students including the noted
Henry Louis Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
, (1880-1956), the famed ''"
Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
"'' newspaper reporter, editor, columnist, author and linguist in the late 1880s, just before he graduated and went on to the former "Baltimore Manual Training School" (founded 1883) in the late 1890s (now renamed 1893) the
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a U.S. public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational school by the Baltimore City Council and the Baltim ...
on the east side of Courtland Street
St._Paul_Place_and_Street.html" ;"title="St. Paul Street (Baltimore)">St. Paul Place and Street">St. Paul Street (Baltimore)">St. Paul Place and Street- now near "
Preston Gardens" opposite the site of
Mercy Hospital (now Mercy Medical for Center).
![Dedicating War Memorial (1927) (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Dedicating_War_Memorial_%281927%29_%28cropped%29.png)
From its dedication in 1875 to 1917, the new second
Baltimore City Hall
Baltimore City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland. The City Hall houses the offices of the Mayor and those of the City Council of Baltimore. The building also hosts the city Comptroller, som ...
faced the also the second building of the famed "Old Drury", the nickname of the
Holliday Street Theatre
The Holliday Street Theater also known as the New Theatre, New Holliday, Old Holliday, The Baltimore Theatre, and Old Drury, was a historical theatrical venue in Federal Period Baltimore, Maryland. It is known for showing the first performance of F ...
rebuilt in brick and stone in 1813, (replacing first playhouse built of wood in 1795), designed by famous local architect
Robert Cary Long, with a front facade in stone of
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
style which was the most notable playhouse in Baltimore for decades. It is said that the first public singing of the future National Anthem reputedly by
Ferdinand Durang
Ferdinand Durang (c. 1785 – 1831) was an American actor, best known as the first person to sing publicly Francis Scott Key's "The Star-Spangled Banner".
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of John Durang of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Ame ...
, (c.1785-1831), occurred on the stage here in late September 1814, near the end of the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, when the poem of ''"The Defence of Fort McHenry"'' written by American
Georgetown lawyer and amateur poet
Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Frederick, Maryland, who wrote the lyrics for the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". Key observed the British bombardment ...
, when he was on board an American truce ship anchored downriver on the lower
Patapsco River
The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal port ...
from the British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
fleet as it bombarded
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack b ...
on Whetstone Point guarding
Baltimore Harbor
Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's largest port facilities fo ...
during September 12–14, 1814 several weeks earlier and set to music with the tune ''"To An Anacreon in Heaven"'', a so-called
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
social society drinking song. It was also reputedly said to be re-sung lustily by the "after-the-show" crowd at the next door Theatre Tavern, (to the south, towards East Fayette Street between and adjacent to the "Assembly Rooms" on the corner) of Captain McCauley.
To its south at the northeast intersection of Holliday with East Fayette Street was the landmark "Old Assembly-Rooms", built also in 1799 by
Robert Cary Long, Sr. of
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
/
Federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
styled architecture for the old Baltimore Dancing Assembly, founded in the 1780s with elaborate decorative chambers and drawing rooms for social dancing, receptions and levees for the upper middle class ladies and gentlemen of the era. On its upper floor were housed the influential Library Company of Baltimore - a non-circulating subscription library founded in the late 1790s and later supplemented with the adjacent Mercantile Library. So the landmark structure was the center of social, cultural and intellectual activities in the growing Baltimore Town. By the mid-1840s, with the later addition of a third floor replacing its original pitched roof with a pointed stone pediment facing its Fayette Street south side and now with a flat roof with a stone balustrade earlier in 1835, (for illustration of remodeled building, see "Wikipedia" entry for "Baltimore City College"), the "Rooms" were occupied by the young men of the then decade-old "Central High School of Baltimore", later renamed the "
Baltimore City College
Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...
" in 1866. Founded in 1839, a few blocks away to the northwest on Courtland Street (now
St. Paul Street/Place/Preston Gardens, C.H.S. (now the B.C.C.) was later considered to be the third oldest public
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in America.
Both influential landmark structures were destroyed in a large disastrous fire in 1873, and the Central High School later moved to new quarters especially built for it by for the first time by 1875 of
Tudor Revival/
Jacobethan
The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...
Revival style of building at the southwest corner of North Howard and West Centre Streets, but the venerable
Holliday Street Theatre
The Holliday Street Theater also known as the New Theatre, New Holliday, Old Holliday, The Baltimore Theatre, and Old Drury, was a historical theatrical venue in Federal Period Baltimore, Maryland. It is known for showing the first performance of F ...
was rebuilt on its original site and later owned by the famous
John T. Ford
John Thompson Ford (April 16, 1829 – March 14, 1894) was an American Theatre director, theater manager and politician during the nineteenth century. He is most notable for operating Ford's Theatre at the time of the Abraham Lincoln assassinatio ...
, (1829–1894), local politician/municipal board member and East Coast playhouse operator, who was also proprietor of the infamous
Ford's Theatre in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
where 16th President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
was assassinated in April 1865 after the end of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
(1861–1865).
Two years after being rebuilt, the theatre was overwhelmed by the massive sized pile of marble and granite
French Second Empire styled architecture with construction across the street to the west in the new domed
Baltimore City Hall
Baltimore City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland. The City Hall houses the offices of the Mayor and those of the City Council of Baltimore. The building also hosts the city Comptroller, som ...
of 1867–1875 by
George A. Frederick
George Aloysius Frederick (December 16, 1842 – August 17, 1924) was a German-American architect with a practice in Baltimore, Maryland, where his most prominent commission was the Baltimore City Hall (1867–1875), awarded him when he was ...
, (1842–1924), a municipal architect who also designed a lot of the structures in the new
Druid Hill Park (established 1860) and other city structures. By the time that the theater and its surrounding block (Holliday to Fayette to North Gay to East Lexington Streets) was torn down in 1917, based on the 1910 plans of
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...
, to make room for the newly laid-out War Memorial Plaza and Building, as a major rearrangement of a proposed new
"civic center" of flanking municipal office buildings and structures providing additional space to be used in future decades, covering up the then unsightly canalized stream of
Jones Falls to the east with its periodic flooding problems, and to open up a vista of the elaborate east front of the
Baltimore City Hall
Baltimore City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland. The City Hall houses the offices of the Mayor and those of the City Council of Baltimore. The building also hosts the city Comptroller, som ...
, an influence of the then-nationwide "
City Beautiful" movement among architects and city planners then coming to rise.
The War Memorial Building was designed by local famous architect
Laurence Hall Fowler and originally dedicated to Marylanders who died in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and built in the early 1920s, dedicated 1925 and is one of many
World War I Memorials
World War I is remembered and commemorated by various war memorials, including civic memorials, larger national monuments, war cemeteries, private memorials and a range of utilitarian designs such as halls and parks, dedicated to remembering th ...
for "The Great War" throughout the world built in the various participating
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
nations since the conflict of 1914–1918.
Present
![Negro soldier](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Negro_soldier.jpg)
War Memorial Plaza is a major component of Baltimore's municipal center (aka "civic center") now officially referred to as the
Business and Government Historic District and is included in
Baltimore National Heritage Area
Baltimore National Heritage Area is a federally designated National Heritage Area encompassing portions of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The designated area includes the central portion of the city, waterfront, inner neighborhoods and portions of the ...
, under sponsorship of the city, State and the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
of the
U.S. Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
.
The plaza contains the statue "Negro Soldier", also originally called the "Negro War Heroes Monument". It was created by local sculptor
James E. Lewis (a gallery of art at
Morgan State University in northeast Baltimore is dedicated to him) in 1971. The statue originally sited at the north end, facing up
North Calvert Street at the
Battle Monument Square between East Lexington and East Fayette Streets, two blocks west) was relocated to War Memorial Plaza in 2007 after 30 years of facing the wrong way on a one-way street.
References
External links
*
War Memorial – Baltimore CityWar Memorial Building – Explore Baltimore Heritage
{{coord, 39.2909, N, 76.60964, W, type:landmark_source:enwiki, display=title
Downtown Baltimore
Landmarks in Baltimore
Baltimore National Heritage Area