Mount Vernon Cultural Walk: Washington Monument and Mount Vernon Place

Be Here Stories

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours. Located at Mount Vernon Place Constructed from 1815 to 1829, the Washington Monument was the nation’s first monument to our first president. A simple, 160-foot Doric column is topped by a 16-foot statue of George Washington resigning as the U.S. army’s Commander-in-Chief—an act symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power, recognized at the time as crucial to creating a democracy. The Monument stands on a small plot donated by Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard from his country estate, where his family lived along with enslaved and free Black workers. Howard’s heirs later donated land for Mount Vernon Place, the four squares that radiate from the Monument. One of America’s finest formal urban parks, Mount Vernon Place is a National Historic Landmark. Its landscaping, fountains, and statues reflect its redesign during the 1910s City Beautiful movement. In 2017, one statue was removed: that of Marylander Roger Taney, the Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision denying rights to Black people. Mount Vernon Place has long served as an important civic gathering place. LGBTQ activists calling for a gay rights bill held the city’s first Pride rally around the Monument in 1975, with others to follow. The bill finally passed in 1988, and these historic rallies evolved into Baltimore’s annual Pride celebration.