World War One was a watershed in American history. The United States' decision to join the battle in 1917 "to make the world safe for democracy" proved pivotal in securing allied victory — a victory that would usher in the American Century.
Mount Vernon Place in Baltimore, Maryland, is a National Historic Landmark District. It’s centerpiece is the Washington Monument the first monument begun to honor the founder of the United States, George Washington. Erected by a board of Baltimore citizens, and designed by American architect Robert Mills, the cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1815, and marblework of the column was largely complete when the statue of Washington was raised to the top in 1829. Carved by Enrico Causici, the statue depicts Washington resigning his commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army at the close of the Revolutionary War.
The squares of Mount Vernon Place were formally laid out in 1831, and over time it became the home of impressive mansions and public buildings.
On May 14, 1917, several weeks after the United States entered World War I. Baltimore’s then Mayor James H. Preston invited the French War Delegation, in the country soliciting the assistance of the United States Government, to come to Baltimore so that its citizens could demonstrate “the feeling of affection which the city holds for them.” In the shadow of the Washington Monument, with thousands in attendance, the French war hero Marshall Joseph Joffre, René Viviani, the French vice premier and minister of justice, and the marquis Pierre de Chambrun, a great-grandson of Lafayette, broke ground for a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette.
The groundbreaking led to the redesign of the squares of Mount Vernon Place by the New York firm of Carrère & Hastings, to the design in place today, creating a setting that linked Lafayette with his Revolutionary compatriot George Washington. As the work continued, both President Woodrow Wilson and French President Raymond Poincaré were asked by Mayor Preston to provide moving inscriptions, celebrating two centuries of Franco-American relations, for the statue’s pedestal. These inscriptions were written after peace had been declared:
Wilson inscription:
“Lafayette, immortal because a self-forgetful servant of justice and humanity. Beloved by all Americans because he acknowledged no duty more sacred than to fight for the freedom of his fellow men.”
Poincaré inscription (in translation):
“In 1777 Lafayette, crossing the seas with French volunteers, came to bring brotherly help to the American people who were fighting for their national liberty. In 1917 France was fighting, in her turn, to defend her life and the liberty of the world. America, who had never forgotten Lafayette, crossed the seas to help France, and the world was saved.”
The statue of Lafayette, by American sculptor Andrew O’Connor, was dedicated on Lafayette’s birthday on, September 6, 1924, with President Calvin Coolidge, the Governor of Maryland, Albert C. Ritchie, and the Mayor of Baltimore, Howard W. Jackson, in attendance. Because of the addition of this statue, Mount Vernon Place is not only a memorial to George Washington and the ideas of American democracy and nationhood, but a World War I memorial.
