Maryland Square

Maryland Square
Maryland Square

Steuart Hall, formerly known as Maryland Square c1868.
Alternative names Steuart Hall
General information
Type Mansion
Architectural style Georgian
Location Corner of Monroe St and Baltimore St
Town or city Baltimore, Maryland
Country USA
Construction started late Eighteenth Century
Completed late Eighteenth Century
Demolished 1885
Technical details
Structural system Timber frame

Maryland Square, later known as Steuart Hall, was a mansion built in the late 18th century on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland, and owned by the Steuart family until 1861, when, at the beginning of the American Civil War, it was confiscated by the United States Federal Government. Brigadier General George H. Steuart fought for the Confederate States of America during the war and in 1862 Jarvis Hospital was constructed on the grounds of his estate, built for the care of wounded Union soldiers, while the house itself was used as the hospital's headquarters.[1] After the war, in 1866, the property was restored to General Steuart, but he never lived there again, choosing instead to live at Mount Steuart, his family estate on the Chesapeake in Anne Arundel County. In 1867 the building was re-named Steuart Hall, became a school for boys and, in the 1870s, a convent. Finally in 1884 the mansion was demolished, and today the modern Bon Secours Hospital stands on its former site.[2]

Contents

History

The Boston Greys encamped in Baltimore, July 1844. Maryland Square can be seen on the right hand side.
Brigadier General George H. Steuart was raised at Maryland Square.

Maryland Square, later known as Steuart Hall, was the Baltimore residence of the Steuart family from around 1795 onwards. It was located at the present day junction of Baltimore and Monroe streets and was built on relatively high ground, which at the time was on the edge of the city of Baltimore, and, according to one contemporary writer, benefited from "a salubrious air".[1]

In around 1795 the house was bought by the physician James Steuart of Annapolis, son of the politician and planter George H. Steuart.[3] The Steuart family moved to Baltimore from Annapolis in 1795, as Baltimore began to eclipse Annapolis in size and importance.[3]

Among the members of the family who were raised there was the physician and philanthropist Richard Sprigg Steuart, who described the "large and solitary" mansion in his memoirs as having "the reputation of being haunted...[with] departed spirits coming back to visit their old haunts".[3]

On May 8, 1829 James Steuart's daughter Elizabeth was married at Maryland Square, to the writer and essayist George Henry Calvert. Calvert's father, also called George Calvert, had been opposed to the match on the grounds that Elizabeth had little or no property to her name. However a compromise between father and son was eventually reached and, after a suitable delay, the couple were married.[4]

On July 19, 1844, the Boston City Greys visited Baltimore, and marched in parade with various companies of the 53rd Regiment. Militia General George H. Steuart hosted a party at Maryland Square for the visiting militia. The event was celebrated by extensive coverage in the Baltimore American and was commemorated in a lithograph.[5] In 1846 Steuart inherited the house on the death of his father, the physician James Steuart.[6]

From 1841 to 1861 Steuart was Commander of the First Light Division, Maryland Volunteer Militia.[7][8] Until the Civil War he would be the Commander-in-Chief of the Maryland Volunteers.[9][10] The First Light Division comprised two brigades: the 1st Light Brigade and the 2nd Brigade. The First Brigade consisted of the 1st Cavalry, 1st Artillery, and 5th Infantry regiments. The 2nd Brigade was composed of the 1st Rifle Regiment and the 53rd Infantry Regiment, and the Battalion of Baltimore City Guards.[11]

Civil War

Close up view of Jarvis Hospital HQ, formerly the Steuart mansion known as Maryland Square, c.1861.
Jarvis Hospital was built on the grounds of Maryland Square (visible bottom right) at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Although Maryland was a slave state, she remained loyal to the Union during the civil war. However, many Marylanders were sympathetic to the Confederacy, including the Steuart family, who were planters and slave owners in the Chesapeake Bay. On April 16, 1861 Brigadier General George H. Steuart (1828–1903), then a captain in the US Army, resigned his commission and joined the Confederacy.[12] His father, Major General George H. Steuart (1790–1867), did the same, though he was by then considered too old for active service.[13] As a consequence of these actions, Maryland Square was confiscated by the US government, and became the site of Jarvis Hospital, built for the care of wounded Union soldiers. On May 25, 1862 the property was taken into the control of the medical director of the US Army, with the former Steuart mansion now serving as the main administration building for the hospital.[14]

In February 1862 a Massachusetts soldier described the property (by then known as "Camp Andrew", after Massachusetts Governor John Andrew):

"We are nicely quartered on a high hill situated on the west of Baltimore formerly owned by Gen. Stewart now of the Rebel Army and the property is now confiscated. There are about 36 acres in the field and a house and out buildings and it must have been a very nice place before the troops went in there."[15]

After the war

Jarvis hospital was closed in 1865, at the war's end. In 1866, on May 15 and June 6, the buildings of Jarvis hospital were auctioned off, permitting successful bidders 10 days from the date of auction in which to remove their purchases from the grounds.[14] Maryland Square was restored to General Steuart after the war, but he never lived there again, choosing to live at Mount Steuart, his family estate on the Chesapeake in Anne Arundel County. When he visited Baltimore, Steuart would stay instead at the Carrollton hotel.[2]

In 1867, the building was leased to the Reverend Newman Hank as a school for "young gentlemen", one of whom later recalled that, though the "long corridors, many closets and corners in unexpected places" made a fine place to explore and play, few dared enter after dark. The boys feared "the groaning of the dying, and when the stairs creaked, we knew why - they were bearing out the dead".[2] At around this time the building appears to have acquired its new name, Steuart Hall.

In the early 1870s the house was acquired by the Sisters of Bon Secours for use as a convent. In 1872 what was left of the land was sold off in lots as part of a development known as "Chesapeake Heights", and in 1884 the mansion was demolished.[2]

Legacy

General Steuart died in 1903, and little trace of his mansion, or Jarvis Hospital, remains today. However, in 1919 the Sisters of Bon Secours opened a hospital on the site, their first in the United States, at 2000 West Baltimore Street.[16] The Bon Secours Hospital continues to flourish today, and forms an important part of the modern neighbourhood, which still retains the name of Steuart Hill.[2]

See also

  • George H. Steuart (brigadier general)
  • Jarvis Hospital
  • Steuart family

References

External links

Notes

  1. ^ a b Lossing, Benson John, p.605, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, Volume 3 Retrieved Feb 6 2010
  2. ^ a b c d e Rice, p.290
  3. ^ a b c Nelker, p.133
  4. ^ Callcott, p.375
  5. ^ Rice, p.119
  6. ^ Nelker, p.107
  7. ^ Sullivan David M., The United States Marine Corps in the Civil War: The First Year, p.286, White Mane Publishing (1997). Retrieved Jan 13 2010
  8. ^ Sparks, Jared, and others, p.168, The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, Volume 10 Retrieved August 29, 2010
  9. ^ Hartzler, Daniel D., p.13, A Band of Brothers: Photographic Epilogue to Marylanders in the Confederacy Retrieved March 1, 2010
  10. ^ Niles Weekly register, Volume 62, p.177 Retrieved March 2, 2010
  11. ^ Field, Ron, et al., p.33, The Confederate Army 1861-65: Missouri, Kentucky & Maryland Osprey Publishing (2008), Retrieved May 10, 2010
  12. ^ Cullum, George Washington, p.226, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Retrieved Jan 16 2010
  13. ^ archive of the Maryland Historical Society Retrieved Jan 13 2010
  14. ^ a b Rice, p.256
  15. ^ Mitchell, p.166
  16. ^ History of Bon Secours Hospital, Baltimore Retrieved Feb 7 2010


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