Washington Monument - Boonsboro, MD
N 39° 30.026 W 077° 37.388
18S E 274451 N 4375597
This 35-40 foot tower first constructed in the early 1800s affords a most amazing view of the valley below. The viewer will see several summits, Antietam, West Virginia and all sorts of other waymarks dotting the landscape.
Waymark Code: WMC9BG
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 08/11/2011
Views: 5
The monument is free and open until dark. Take the old, stone winding steps to the top and you will see some amazing vistas helped out by two orientation tables. Up top, there is 18 feet (diameter) to move around. The top has a 360 degree of the landscape.
According a period newspaper account, on July 4, 1827 at 7am, most of Boonsboro’s 500 inhabitants assembled at the public square. Behind the Stars and Stripes and stepping spiritedly to the music of a fife and drum corps, they marched two miles up the mountain to the monument site. The citizens worked until noon and then held a dedication ceremony and lunch. They resumed work and by 4pm the monument stood fifteen feet high on a 54-foot circular base. The day ended with the reading of the Declaration of Independence and a three round salute fired by three Revolutionary War veterans. The workers returned that September to finish. Upon its completion, the monument stood 30 feet high. SOURCE
In the ensuing years, the Washington Monument became a popular meeting place, but over the years, weather and vandalism reduced it to a pile of rubble. In 1882, the restoration of the monument was undertaken and carried out under the sponsorship of the Odd Fellows Lodge of Boonsboro. At this time a canopy was added, and a roadway for vehicles was built up the mountainside to the site. A decade later the rugged tower was marred by the development of a crack in the wall. Because it was not repaired, the monument again fell in ruins.
In 1920, the 1-acre (4,000 m2) site was purchased by the Washington County Historical Society, and in 1934 it was deeded to the State of Maryland for use as a State Park. The tower was rebuilt in its present form by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who set in place the original cornerstone and a facsimile of the dedication tablet.
The third dedication ceremony was held on July 4, 1936, exactly 109 years after that first day of patriotic activity by the citizens of Boonsboro, which produced the beginnings of the country's first completed monument to George Washington.