The Washington Monument was originally to stand where the Battle Monument is today. However, once people saw the proposed plan, there was the familiar cry of “not in our neighborhood!” John Eager Howard came to the rescue donating a piece of land at the south end of his Belvidere estate. Enrico Causici was low bidder ($9,000) to carve the Washington figure. However, when he failed to raise the sculpture to the top of the monument, his commission was cut by $1,500. Causici may have had the final laugh though. Some said that Washington’s likeness looked more like Causici than George! Decide for yourself. He looks a little like Jimmy Cagney to me! Robert Mills was also retained to lay out the four squares which became the center for the Mt. Vernon community. The final cost of the monument was over $203,000, double the original estimate.

With regard to the Shot Tower, there were four of them in Baltimore: Fayette & Front, Conway & Eutaw, Montgomery & Howard, and Gay and Saratoga. All four can be seen in Nicholas Calyo’s 1837 painting of the city at the BMA. One of the earliest preservation battles took place in 1920s when plans were announced to raze the Shot Tower for a gas station. A Committee for the Preservation of the Shot Tower was organized. Also, city newspapers conducted a Shot Tower poetry contest to generate interest in saving the structure. So many were published in support of the Tower (John Dos Passos and Lizette Woodworth Reese to name two) and so much public interest was raised, that the campaign to save the Shot Tower succeeded. The city bought the tower from in 1924 and money was later appropriated for repairs. Oh yes, the proposed Union Oil Co. gas station was built nearby.