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

See also HABS No. 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: 1768-1985 Initial Construction