While it is probably most famous for delicious crabs and as the home of the Orioles baseball team and Ravens football, Baltimore is one of the oldest cities in America. Being a city founded earlier than the country, Baltimore is a hotspot for historic landmarks. Residents and visitors alike are afforded glimpse of the pasts events and its people that helped make the country we have now.
Constructed in 1815 by Robert Mills, Baltimore’s Washington Monument was America’s first civic monument to pay tribute to George Washington. Located within the historic neighborhood of Mount Vernon, the iconic marble monument stands 178 feet high and contains a spiraling staircase with 228 steps; local residents fondly call the monument “the Stairmaster.” The staircase leads to one of the best vantage points in the city.
Washington Monument at Mount Vernon Place
699 North Charles St., Baltimore
The Star Spangled Banner Flag House
The Star Spangled Banner House. Image courtesy of Visit Baltimore
Founded in 1927, the Star Spangled Banner Flag House is one of Baltimore’s oldest museums and has become an important landmark in this area of the city. The facility is owned by the Star Spangled Banner Flag House Association, which was formed with the intention of preserving the great story of Mary Young Pickersgill, the woman responsible for making the giant 30-by-42-foot U.S. flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. Admission to the museum includes an orientation film, a guided tour and all living-history activities.
The Star Spangled Banner Flag House
844 E. Pratt St., Baltimore
B&O Railroad Museum
Interior of B&O Railroad Museum. Photo courtesy of Expedia
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum marks the birthplace of American railroading. The site upon which the museum was established in 1953 has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The 40-acre property and structures are preserved and interpreted as a part of the museum’s collection. The museum also possesses the oldest, most historic and most comprehensive American railroad collections in the world. Besides daily tours, train rides are offered several days a week.
They say, we need to relate to our past to understand the present and make a better future. While preserving and conserving landmarks are being done, the reason why we do them must also be realized– that we need to know there importance.
The City of Baltimore thru its website, published an article about this.
The buildings and sites that a community preserves help to define the physical identity and character for which a community is known. Our preserved Landmarks reveal our common values, the past that has shaped us and who we are today.
The Baltimore City Landmark List identifies individual historically significant structures that may or may not be within a local historic district. In making recommendations for new designations, the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) considers the following criteria. The quality of significance in Baltimore history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, public interiors, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and:
That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of Baltimore history; or
That are associated with the lives of persons significant in Baltimore’s past; or
That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or
That have yielded or may be likely to yield information important in Baltimore prehistory or history.
The City of Charm values its history and the people behind it. As such, living in this city offers you the sense of pride of being an American! Found a new home near famous landmarks and wanting to sell the current one you have? Or the other way around? Let us help you!
