Historic Landmark Reborn Once Again - Baltimore, MD
N 39° 17.452 W 076° 36.335
18S E 361537 N 4350283
This article focuses on the transformation of the Phoenix Shot Tower as a historical and culturally relevant piece of American heritage to tourist attraction and museum to help celebrate Baltimore's history and the nation's history.
Waymark Code: WMHTZZ
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 08/13/2013
Views: 8
40. The SHOT TOWER, Fayette and Front Sts., a tapering, cylindrical brick structure, 234 feet high, was once used in the manufacture of shot. Molten lead poured through a sieve at the top hardened into round pellets as it fell. -- Page 228; Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State
Today, the Shot Tower is administered by Carroll Museums, Inc. and located in Historic Jonestown. Phoenix Shot Tower Tours depart from the Carroll Mansion every Saturday and Sunday promptly at 4pm. All visitors must meet the docent at the Mansion by 4pm to participate. SOURCE Museum visitors learn how the Shot Tower was used to make lead shot as molten lead was dropped from a platform at the top of the 234' tower through a sieve and into a vat of cold water. Visitors may visit the Shot Tower by making advance reservations. Please call Carroll Museums to schedule your visit. The Tower’s exhibits include a sound and light show and video on the production of shot. Panels around the base discuss lead shot technology, the popularity of hunting with shot, the 1924 perservation effort, and the imagery of the tower in print.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid its cornerstone. Over 234 feet high, the Shot Tower was the tallest structure in the United States until the Washington Monument in Washington, DC was completed after the Civil War. This type of building was rare even during the 19th century and today only eleven shot towers remain in existence. Of these four, the Shot Tower is the most outstanding example. This National Historic Landmark is also an excellent example of the simple elegance that can be achieved in the design of industrial architecture.
The Shot Tower is located at the southeast corner of Fayette and Front Sts. Once part of the Baltimore City Life Museums, the tower is currently not open to the public. SOURCE
The Shot Tower was a lead shot manufacturing facility in operation from 1828 to 1892. Known originally as the Phoenix Shot, then the Merchants' Shot Tower and now the old Baltimore Shot Tower, the red brick tower was erected in 1828.