Patterson Park Pagoda- Baltimore, MD

Located in a leafy park not far from Fells Point stands a grand Gilded Age monument built to commemorate the 1814 Battle of Baltimore. During the war, Hampstead Hill, now part of Patterson Park, was home to Rodgers Bastion, a three mile wide earthworks dug to defend Baltimore’s eastern approach from the British. Here, on September 13, 1814, 100 cannons and 12,000 men forced the British to retreat; their attempt to later take Ft. McHenry instead didn’t work out either. Baltimore was spared.

In 1827, Baltimore merchant William Patterson donated 5 acres of the area to the city; in 1860, the city was able to purchase an additional 29 acres from the family, which was opened to the public as a park. In 1891, Charles H. Latrobe, grandson of U.S. Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe, was commissioned to build an observatory as a monument to the battle atop Hampstead Hill. Reflecting the Victorian era’s fascination with the Far East, he designed a whimsical pagoda with a sweeping spiral staircase and stunning stained glass, which offered excellent views of the harbor where the British were forced to retreat.

By 1951, lack of maintenance and vandalism took its tool on the structure, and the unsafe Pagoda was closed. Although demolition was proposed, preservationists rallied, and a full $500,000 restoration was completed in 2002. Looking as good as new, the Pagoda is open on Sunday afternoons during the spring and summer months.