War Memorial Plaza

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Coordinates: 39°17′27″N 76°36′35″W / 39.2909°N 76.60964°W / 39.2909; -76.60964
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Limestone horse and eagle at the War Memorial building

War Memorial Plaza is a public square, small park and space in Downtown Baltimore between City Hall 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

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

St. Paul Place and Street] - now near "Preston Gardens" opposite the site of Mercy Hospital (now Mercy Medical for Center)
.

War Memorial Plaza in 1927

From its dedication in 1875 to 1917, the new second

Baltimore Harbor during September 12–14, 1814 several weeks earlier and set to music with the tune "To An Anacreon in Heaven", a so-called English
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

high school
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

Holliday Street Theatre was rebuilt on its original site and later owned by the famous John T. Ford, (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. where 16th President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 after the end of the American Civil War
(1861–1865).

Two years after being rebuilt, the theatre was overwhelmed by the massive sized pile of marble and granite

World War I Memorials for "The Great War" throughout the world built in the various participating Allied
nations since the conflict of 1914–1918.

Present

"Negro soldier" statue by sculptor James E. Lewis from 1971 in front of east side of City Hall, relocated 2007 from Battle Monument Square

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[2] and is included in the Baltimore National Heritage Area, under sponsorship of the city, State and the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.[3]

The plaza contains the statue "Negro Soldier", also originally called the "Negro War Heroes Monument". It was created by local sculptor

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.[4][5][6]

References

  1. ISBN 9780521835381
    . It was pulled down in 1813 and a new theater built on the site; this the city of Baltimore razed in 1917 to construct War Memorial Plaza
  2. ^ "Business and Government Historic District". Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  3. ^ "Baltimore National Heritage Area Map" (PDF). City of Baltimore. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  4. ^ Kane, Gregory (January 13, 2007). "Long-ignored memorial makes a prominent move: New home chosen for statue honoring black soldiers". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 6, 2012. No work of Dr. Lewis' was more controversial than his 1972 sculpture, the 'Black Soldier,' " noted a Sun editorial of Aug. 12, 1997. "Its 1971 placement in Battle Monument Plaza was opposed by critics who thought the statue was inappropriate at a memorial to those who fought in the 1814 Battle of North Point or argued that no more tributes to the military were needed at all.
  5. Baltimore County
    , and reportedly the nation's first memorial to the common soldiers and officers of its war dead. Others raised concerns that a monument, which was representative of only one ethnic group as opposed to an individual or the entire group of 1814 war casualties, would have a polarizing effect in the City and racial relations.
  6. ^ "Negro Heroes of the US". Fieldguide to U.S. Public Monuments and Memorials. 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2012.

External links

39°17′27″N 76°36′35″W / 39.2909°N 76.60964°W / 39.2909; -76.60964

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