Patterson Park

User: Iracaz (From Wikipedia.org)

This past weekend I had a date that went quite well.  It started at one of my favorite Baltimore restaurants, The Paper Moon Diner, and then meandered its way over to Patterson Park.

This is yet another area, where I live, that has gone unexplored even though I've lived here for years.  I'd always heard about the Pagoda (my friend, A, incorporates it into her fantasy wedding planning) but had never actually been there.  I can see now why she would want to include this in her plans.  It incorporates at least two important things in her life thus far: teaching English in China and her love of the city of Baltimore.

The Pagoda was built during the Victorian Era and it's easy to see that influence in the architecture and design.  I do wonder though, how ladies with larger dresses than we currently wear made it up and down those narrow stairs with people moving in the opposite direction.  Though I would guess that's what the landings are for; allowing people to climb one set of stairs without traffic.  But modern culture is less polite.  I was surprised to learn that Hamstead Hill, where the Pagoda stands, was integral in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812.  This was the same battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," our national anthem.

Growing up in Havre de Grace, I know about the War of 1812.  It was the source for the story about our town "hero," John O'Neil.  Aside from the Revolutionary War, which had George Washington sleeping everywhere and the Marquis de Lafayette naming our small town, the War of 1812 was the next most important thing we were taught in school.  So to see cannons, restored and standing, on Hampstead Hill immediately made me think of the cannon behind our Concord Point Lighthouse which John O'Neil used to defend the town against the British.

All in all, it was a very interesting day and I'm sorry that I hadn't visited the area sooner.  Perhaps my next stop should be Ft. McHenry...