Four beautifully landscaped parks surround Baltimore's Washington Monument (at the intersection of North Charles Street and Mount Vernon Place). With the circle that rings the monument, the layout forms a Greek cross. The squares to the east and west are called Mount Vernon Place, while the north south parks are Washington Place (pictured).
Baltimore's Revolutionary hero Colonel John Eager Howard donated the land for the Washington Museum and the parks. He died in 1827, just two years before the completion of the monument. His heirs sold lots around the parks and by the 1850s some of the city's most gracious townhomes bordered the parks.
Over the years the parks have become an outdoor sculpture garden. Statues of important figures in Baltimore history such as George Peabody, who endowed the institute that bears his name, and Severn Teackle Wallis, a Baltimore attorney and political reformer of the late 1800s, stand in East Mount Vernon Place, while and US Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney and John Eager Howard are in North Washington Place.
In West Mount Vernon Place look for bronze sculptures a lion and depictions of War, Peace, Order and Force by Antoine-Louis Barye, French animal sculptor. They were donated to the city by William Walters, founder of the Walters Art Museum, which owns more than 150 Barye works. Walters also donated the statue of Military Courage by Paul Dubois in the west square. The imposing equestrian statue on South Washington Place is not George Washington but General Lafayette.
