Momument to Washington

Baltimore is a city of monuments and one in particular is dedicated to George Washington. It has been the center piece of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Place since 1829*. Situated in the center of a circular, cobblestone drive that is flanked by a tree lined park, a fountain, and bronze statues depicting various aspects of our Republic’s foundation: “WAR,” “FORCE” (which includes deception and thievery), “ORDER,” and “PEACE.” The surrounding park is a place where people come to quietly gather. On the day I visited, it was mostly derelicts sleeping on park benches and washing up in the fountain. The inspiration for this pillar was undoubtedly Trajan’s Column in Rome, but it was done without the imperial pomp and flash of Trajan’s due to a lack of funds and cost overrides. Nonetheless, it is equally as impressive, and I say this as a witness of both.

Adorning the top of the column’s 178 feet, a limestone statue of George Washington—-originally he was going to be riding in a chariot—takes an upright pose. The commanding view from the top is breath-taking, as are the steps that lead you there. I counted 228 steps that corkscrew up the core of the tower, and I counted half that coming down. The tight staircase reminded me of my youthful frolic up the spiral stairs of Paris’ Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the decades since have loosened the coils of my youthful spring, such that I stood on the final stoop with rickety knees and legs that wobbled. The heat inside the monument was unforgiving and the humidity crushing.

"Great Washington stands high aloft on his towering mainmast in Baltimore , and like one of Hercules' pillars, his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go." - Herman Melville, from Moby Dick

Unquestionably, I have gone where “few mortals will go” (especially in mid-July), and I am here to say that I shant go there again. (By the way, that awesome gothic cathedral in the background is Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, of which we are members—I mentioned it in a previous email.)

HAIL TO THE CHIEF:

Washington’s Column at Mount Vernon Place with Washington posing at the top.

A marble bust of Washington representing him as a Roman warrior (this is inside the small museum at the base of the column). Note his Romanesque hairdo.

View from behind iron grate at the top of the column (the spire of Mount Vernon Place UMC). There are four doors at cardinal points on a compass from which to view the city.

.This is the last known photograph taken of George Washington. It captures him in a private moment whilst he contemplated his legacy, and puzzled over a troublesome hangnail.

Final stoop before iron grate at the column’s interior apex.

Separation of a marble step near the top where an alarming crack has formed in the center column that supports Washington’s statue.


*The cornerstone was laid in 1815, but plans for its construction commenced in 1809. The War of 1812 interfered with its execution.

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