Washington Monument- Boonsboro, MD
Sixty miles from the most famous monument honoring George Washington resides the very first memorial erected in his honor. At 40 feet tall, the field stone monument is decidedly more humble than its urban counterpart, however, the view from the top is every bit as inspiring.
On the morning of July 4, 1827, the entire town of Boonsboro, Maryland celebrated Independence Day by marching two miles from the town square to the summit of South Mountain. On this patriotic day, they set out to erect a fitting tribute to Founding Father George Washington. Before the day was over, a 15 foot stone monument stood in his memory, overlooking the valley below. By the end of the year the completed monument stood 30 feet tall.
The idea of honoring Washington of course was not new. Following his death in 1799, several cities planned grand monuments in his name. Baltimore started construction of their elaborate marble memorial in 1815, intending it to be the first; however, their fancy 178 foot structure topped with an Enrico Causici statue was not completed until 1829, allowing a monument built in a day from a pile of rocks to cloud their claim to fame. The most famous of all Washington monuments, the 555 foot obelisk located in Washington, D.C., was not started until 1848, languished in an incomplete state for years, and was not dedicated until 1885.
Time was not kind to the original memorial. It was not properly maintained, and a combination of weather and vandalism reduced the monument back to a pile of rocks within a few decades. During the Civil War, the ruined monument was used by the Union Army as a signaling station, but otherwise forgotten. In 1882, the Odd Fellows, whose name has always amused me, sponsored a restoration of the tower, adding a canopy and a road leading to the monument, but within a few decades the tower was once again in ruins.
In the 1920s the site was purchased by the Washington County Historical Society, and deeded to the State for use as a park in 1934. At that time, the Civilian Conservation Corp rebuilt the tower memorial, using the original cornerstone; a third dedication ceremony was held on July 4, 1936, more than a century after the first. Today the monument stands proud, despite a recent lightning strike. While it may not be the tallest or grandest Washington memorial, its simplicity speaks volumes about a town who rallied to construct a monument within their means, and the generations that followed that would not let that act be forgotten.
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