The First Washington Monument

A postcard of the first monument to George Washington, near U. S. 40, Boonsboro, Maryland, circa 1930–1945. Public Domain

On the morning of July 4, 1827, the citizens of Boonsboro, Maryland gathered in the public square. Almost 500 strong, they marched behind the flag and a fife and drum corps for two miles up a nearby ridge. There, they picked up stones and began to stack them in a circle. In one day, the citizens laid a dry-stone monument to honor George Washington. It stood 15 feet tall on a 54-foot diameter base.

A resident who was there that day wrote, “At the conclusion of our labors, about 4 o’clock, the Declaration of Independence was read from one of the steps of the monument, preceded by some prefatory observations, after which several salutes of infantry were fired, when we all returned to town in good order.” There was, after all, farm work to be done.

In September of that same year, the Boonsboro citizens came back and built the monument twice as high. In doing so, they laid claim to the distinction of completing the first Washington Monument. It is a simple structure of undressed natural stones. It was a rustic pillar in a rustic mountaintop location. Certainly, George would have loved it.

But that wasn’t the first Washington Monument to have been designed. The great Doric column in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Place, designed by Robert Mills, was begun in 1815. It wasn’t finished, however, until two years after the Boonsboro one. The more famous obelisk in Washington, also designed by Mills, wasn’t completed until 1885.

Reduced to Rubble

Washington Monument State Park, Boonsboro, Maryland. The Mama Travels/Shutterstock

Washington would have admired the simple ridgetop location, but would have been saddened by some of the monument’s subsequent history. The following was adapted from his 1783 Circular Letter to the States:

“I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have the United States in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks (sic) of the Devine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. Amen”

In 1862, Union forces were using the monument as a signal tower when Confederate invaders moved in from the west. The bloody Maryland Campaign saw thousands of men killed. The tearing apart of his beloved country—what Washington feared—was playing out below the tower dedicated to his honor. The monument later fell into disrepair. Weather and vandalism combined to topple the tower and it was reduced to a simple pile of rubble. But like the great nation, it, too, would rise from the destruction.

A Symbol of the Patriotic Marylanders

Facsimile of the dedication tablet on Washington Monument. Warrenfish/CC BY-SA 3.0

In 1882, the Odd Fellows Lodge of Boonsboro restored the tower and built a road up to it. They rededicated it with a crowd of 5,000 people in attendance. It was a bit different from the original design, having whitewashed walls and a steel viewing tower. By 1906, it had crumbled into ruin again, victim to a direct lightning strike. A father, rumored to be upset that his daughters were meeting suitors there, is said to have dynamited the tower as well. The remains of the ruined monument stood on the ridgetop, awaiting future restoration. The Baltimore Sun wrote that the monument “is not only a memorial to Washington. … It is equally a memorial to the patriotic spirit of the Marylanders of 1827 whose ardent hearts conceived it and whose strong hands built it.”

It would be rebuilt again, but not immediately, as funding was slow in coming.  Still a pile of stones, two Boonsboro residents placed a flag and a wreath at the site’s remains on July 4, 1927—the 100th anniversary of the monument’s original construction and dedication. The Washington County Historical Society purchased the site in 1922. Seven years later they deeded it to the state of Maryland as a park.

Between the two world wars, members of the Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt the monument—now with mortar. The monument we still see today stands 40 feet tall. You can ascend a circular stone staircase to a viewing platform at the top.

A dedication ceremony was held on July 4, 1936. The original cornerstone and a facsimile of the dedication tablet were added to the rebuilt monument. The Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia was routed by, though most visitors arrive via the shorter walking path from the parking area. Shored up with a thousand barrels of cement and 670 tons of sand, then-ark superintendent George L. Schindel remarked, “Nothing short of a bomb will ever destroy the monument again.”

A postcard of the first monument to George Washington, circa 1930–1945. Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection. Public Domain

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