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Baltimore
Maryland

Herring Run Park

Columbus Obelisk

1792

Description

Obelisk, 44 feet 6 3/4 inches high from ground to pinnacle, made of a brick shaft with a white stucco facing.

Inscription(s)

SACRED
TO THE
MEMORY
OF
CHRIS.
COLUMBUS
OCTOB. XII
MDCC VIIIC

Small metal tablet on the side:
COLUMBUS MONUMENT
RE-LOCATED FROM NORTH AVENUE
EAST OF HARFORD ROAD AND RE-DEDICATED
OCTOBER 12, 1964
THEODORE R. McKELDIN
MAYOR

Annotation

It was donated by the French Consul to Baltimore, Charles Francois Adrian de Paulmier, Chevalier d'Anmour. It is the first monument to Columbus in the United States (and in the world). It was initially erected in 1792 on the consul's estate at the corner of North Avenue and Harford Road. It was moved to the present location in Herring Run Park near Harford Road near the Samuel Ready Institute on Columbus Day, 1964.

Christopher P. George wrote about this monument: "De Paulmier was apparently fond of entertaining on his fifty-acre estate, Villa Belmont, north of Baltimore Town. The story goes that one evening, he engaged with his guests in a conversation on "Great Men of the Western World." Someone mentioned that 1792 would be the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America and that nowhere in the New World was there a monument to commemorate the great discoverer, Christopher Columbus. De Paulmier vowed to rectify the oversight, and so he erected the obelisk on his property."
More about this monument in an article by Tom Chalkley in the Baltimore City Paper of 15 March 2000 (link).

Sources & Information

J.M. Dickey, Christopher Columbus and his Monument Columbia (1892), pp. 73-78.
[all other on-line sources are gone...]
Smithsonian American Art Museum, SIRIS (Smithsonian Institution Research Information system).

Locatie (N 39°20'11" - W 76°34'28") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

Item Code: usmd03; Photograph: 11 October 2000

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