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Photo, Print, Drawing Monument Square, North Calvert Street between Fayette & Lexington Streets, Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), MD

[ Photos from Survey HABS MD-1126  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS MD-1126  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS MD-1126  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Monument Square, North Calvert Street between Fayette & Lexington Streets, Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), MD

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Godefroy, Maximilian
  • Carson & Sperry
  • Wyatt & Nolting
  • Capellano, Antonio
  • Lewis, James E
  • Westmore, James A
  • Baldwin & Pennington
  • McKim, Mead & White
  • Rosenthal, James W, photographer
  • Ossman, J Laurie, historian

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  squares (open spaces)
  • -  office buildings
  • -  war (War of 1812)
  • -  commemoration
  • -  business & finance
  • -  law & legal affairs
  • -  politics & government
  • -  fires
  • -  urban growth
  • -  monuments & memorials
  • -  Maryland--Baltimore (Independent City)--Baltimore

Latitude / Longitude

  • 39.29063,-76.61259

Notes

  • -  For additional documentation, see also Battle Monument (HABS MD-185)
  • -  Significance: Monument Square is the site of the first of the Baltimore monuments that led President John Quincy Adams, in 1827, to refer to the city as "the Monumental City," a nickname that is still in use. Maximilian Godefroy's Battle Monument (1815-25) at the center of the square is believed to be the first military monument commemorating the soldiers, rather than the heroes or officers, associated with a battle (in this case, the 1813 Battle of North Point during the War of 1812). The Battle Monument stands on the site of Baltimore's first courthouse (1768), and the two succeeding courthouse structures have been erected on the square in deference to this historic location, at the heart of the original 64-acre chartered tract of the city. Throughout the nineteenth century, the square housed prominent citizens, and its hotels hosted prominent visitors. The present courthouse and 1889-94 Equitable Building (southwest corner of Calvert and Fayette) mark the northern boundary of the Great 1904 Fire that destroyed most of Baltimore's commercial district and, indeed, neighboring buildings adjacent to them on the square. By the early twentieth century, the erection of the Federal Reserve and central Post Office on the square cemented the site's institutional identity. Sculptor James E. Lewis's Black Soldier Memorial Sculpture (1985) stands to the immediate north of the 1815 Battle Monument, thereby updating and reinforcing the civic significance of the monument and its square.
  • -  Survey number: HABS MD-1126
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1768 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1985 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1815-1825 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1730 Initial Construction

Medium

  • Photo(s): 12
  • Color Transparencies: 3
  • Data Page(s): 29
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 2

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS MD-1126

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • md1573

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS MD-1126
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Maximilian Godefroy, Carson & Sperry, Wyatt & Nolting, Antonio Capellano, James E Lewis, James A Westmore, Baldwin & Pennington, Mead & White McKim, and J Laurie Ossman, Rosenthal, James W, photographer. Monument Square, North Calvert Street between Fayette & Lexington Streets, Baltimore, Baltimore Independent City, MD. Maryland Baltimore Independent City, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/md1573/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Godefroy, M., Carson & Sperry, Wyatt & Nolting, Capellano, A., Lewis, J. E. [...] Ossman, J. L., Rosenthal, J. W., photographer. (1933) Monument Square, North Calvert Street between Fayette & Lexington Streets, Baltimore, Baltimore Independent City, MD. Maryland Baltimore Independent City, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/md1573/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Rosenthal, James W. Monument Square, North Calvert Street between Fayette & Lexington Streets, Baltimore, Baltimore Independent City, MD. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/md1573/>.