The Francis Scott Key Monument is a monument to the author of the text of the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner", in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The monument features a gilded statue of Lady Columbia waving a flag on a pedestal of four stone columns, surrounded on two sides by gilded reliefs depicting the Battle of Baltimore. At the pedestal's base is a bronze statue of Francis Scott Key standing in a rowboat carved from stone.[1]
History
Charles Marburg gave $25,000 to his brother Theodore Marburg to hire a sculptor to create a monument to Francis Scott Key. The French sculptor Antonin Mercié was selected. Mercié had previously created a bronze equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee in 1890 in Richmond, Virginia.[2] The Francis Scott Key Monument was dedicated on Eutaw Place in 1911.[3]
It was restored and rededicated on September 11, 1999.[2]
The monument was defaced with the words "Racist Anthem" and splashed with red paint in September 2017. The city quickly restored the monument.[4][3]
Gallery
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Monument circa 1910 -
Monument circa 1920 -
Figure of Columbia with the American Flag -
Monument defaced in 2017
See also
References
39°18′14″N 76°37′34″W / 39.30388°N 76.62605°W
- ^ "Key Monument on Eutaw Place" (PDF). BHCA: Bolton Hill Community Association. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
- ^ a b "Restored Key Monument Rededicated". Heritage Preservation. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ a b Hopkins, Johns. "Francis Scott Key Monument". Baltimore Heritage. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
- ^ Campbell, Colin; Welsh, Sean (September 13, 2017). "Baltimore to keep, clean defaced Francis Scott Key statue". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved March 27, 2024.