F-4-100 Braddock Monument Architectural Survey File This is the architectural survey file for this MIHP record. The survey file is organized reverse- chronological (that is, with the latest material on top). It contains all MIHP inventory forms, National Register nomination forms, determinations of eligibility (DOE) forms, and accompanying documentation such as photographs and maps. Users should be aware that additional undigitized material about this property may be found in on-site architectural reports, copies of HABS/HAER or other documentation, drawings, and the “vertical files” at the MHT Library in Crownsville. The vertical files may include newspaper clippings, field notes, draft versions of forms and architectural reports, photographs, maps, and drawings. Researchers who need a thorough understanding of this property should plan to visit the MHT Library as part of their research project; look at the MHT web site (mht.maryland.gov) for details about how to make an appointment. All material is property of the Maryland Historical Trust. Last Updated: 01-31-2013 MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST NR Eligible: yes DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY FORM no kopertyName: Braddock Monument Inventory Number: F-4-100 Address: South side ofU.S. 40 Alternate Historic district: yes X no City: Braddock Heights, MD Zip Code: County: Frederick USGS Quadrangle(s): Frederick Property Owner: Daughters of the American Revolution, Frederick Chapter Tax Account ID Number: Tax Map Parcel Number(s): Tax Map Number: Project: Monument relocation Agency: MD SHA Agency Prepared By: MD SHA Preparer's Name: Anne E. Bruder, Architectural Historian Date Prepared: 04/07/2009 Documentation is presented in: Project Review and Compliance files. Preparer's Eligibility Recommendation: X Eligibility recommended Eligibility not recommended Criteria: *_A B X c D Considerations: A B C D EF G Complete if the property is a contributing or non-contributing resource to a NR district/property: Name of the District/Property: Inventory Number: Eligible: yes Listed: yes ^te visit by MHT Staff yes X no Name: Date: Description of Property and Justification: (Please attatch map and photo) The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Frederick Chapter's Braddock Monument on US 40 Alternate is dedicated to the National Trail over which General Edward Braddock and Lt. Col. George Washington traveled with their troops towards Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in April 1755. The monument consists of a large (20 ton) limestone boulder with a square tablet attached to it. The tablet depicts General Braddock, Lt. Col. Washington, and an unknown man, with an inscription describing the monument. Between 1909 and 1929, the DAR joined other groups to commemorate the National Old Trails Road. The National Old Trails Road Committee identified trails in twelve states associated with colonial events, such as Braddock's Road created during the French and Indian War, which received various commemorative monuments, markers and statues to highlight the colonial history of each state. The earlier DAR monuments commemorating the portion of the National Trail identified with Braddock's march are in Rockville and Clarksburg, Maryland. Both are large granite boulders with square bronze tablets. The text in both tablets commemorate the National Trail and Braddock's encampments. However, both of the earlier monuments lack a pictorial device, perhaps because each is set near the sites of two ordinaries or taverns where Braddock stopped during his trip to Frederick. MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST REVIEW Eligibility recommended X Eligibility not recommended Criteria: X A B X C D Considerations: A B C D E F G MHT Comments: The location of the monument is integral to its significance; see letter, J Rodney Little to Julie M. Schabletsky, dated May 6, 2009. Reviewer, National Register Program Date NR-ELIGIBILITY REVIEW FORM F-4-100 Braddock Monument Page 2 Braddock arrived in Frederick, Maryland on April 21, 1755 and met with Benjamin Franklin and his son. They discussed the need Tor additional supplies, and Franklin agreed that Pennsylvania could provide wagons, horses and feed for both troops and animals. George Washington had previously written to General Braddock and offered his services. Braddock invited him to join the Army as an aide and Washington arrived in Frederick on April 30 or May 1, 1755. Braddock's headquarters were located in a tavern on Carroll Creek, but in his history of Frederick County, T.C. Williams notes that the "belief that the army was encamped around the spring is erroneous, for the first stop after leaving Frederick was on the other side of South Mountain." While tradition associates Braddock with this particular spring, there is no clear connection between Braddock's Spring and him, Washington or the French and Indian War. The iconography of the Braddock Monument bas relief shows Braddock drinking, and Washington standing before him. A third man kneels behind Washington. It is not clear if he is a soldier, guide, Indian or servant. Berge, who frequently worked in bronze, chose to depict the meeting between Washington and Braddock. Braddock is drinking, perhaps toasting, Washington's decision to join the Army, while Washington appears grave and noble in his offer. The original intent of the DAR Frederick Chapter was to place the marker near Braddock's Spring, which was suggested by Mrs. Donald McLean in 1913. Unlike the earlier monuments which are solely large boulders with bronze tablets attached to them, when the Frederick marker was completed it had a pump placed near the boulder, as shown in a postcard from the 1920s. When the Maryland State Roads Commission (SRC) proposed to move the monument in 1950 in order to widen US 40 Alternate, the DAR Frederick Chapter agreed to the move. SRC plans and right-of-way plats for this portion of US 40 Alternate show that the monument was raised approximately ten feet and the spring was capped off. The SRC's 1951 plans also indicate that the pump was broken at that time. Today, the concrete pad that held the pump remains visible, but that is all that remains to demonstrate its location. By September 1952, the work was completed and the DAR Chapter learned that it "was in a very good place for observation," from a chapter member, Mrs. William M. Storm. No mention of the pump or the spring as part of the monument is included in the Chapter's meeting minutes between 1913 and 1960. In order to demonstrate that the Braddock Monument's location is a significant aspect of its integrity, it would be necessary to demonstrate that Braddock had stopped at the spring and that both the DAR Frederick Chapter and Berge specifically associated that event with the commemorative monument. The historic accounts of his time in Frederick indicate that Braddock was quartered within the town at a tavern, meeting with Franklin and Washington. As noted above, in 1910, a local historian discounted the association that the army camped at the spring. Furthermore, the monument's tablet commemorates the trail which Braddock and Washington and the army took in 1755. The DAR Frederick Chapter selected the inscription in 1916: THIS BOULDER MARKS THE NATIONAL TRAIL OVER WHICH MARCHED GENERAL BRADDOCK AND HIS AIDE, LT. COL. WASHINGTON -- 1755. It was revised to: THIS BOULDER MARKS THE NATIONAL TRAIL OVER WHICH TRAVELED GEN. EDWARD BRADDOCK AND LIEUTENANT COLONEL GEORGE WASHINGTON - 1755. Berge's drinking motif may be associated with the monument's proximity to the spring, but the spring is not a significant aspect of its location. His design on the small tablet needed to convey the importance of two historic figures preparing for a march to battle. The standing figures evoke the march they undertook in 1755 as explained by the tablet's inscription. In the 1920s, the DAR joined with other groups to commemorate the National Old Trails Road which focused on important colonial trails rather than individual elements within or near the trails. The location of the monument can be associated with a place along the identified National Old Trail Road, which is US 40 Alternate, that is acceptable to the DAR Frederick Chapter; and that is west of Frederick since that is where Washington joined Braddock on the march to Fort Duquesne. The DAR Frederick Chapter has recommended that the Braddock Monument be placed in the US 40 Alternate Overlook, which is approximately 2900 feet west of the present location, and also on the south side of the highway. SHA has agreed to provide space within its right-of- MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST REVIEW Eligibility recommended Eligibility not recommended Criteria: A B C D Considerations: A B C D E F G MHT Comments: Reviewer, Office of Preservation Services Date Reviewer, National Register Program Date NR-ELIGIBILITY REVIEW FORM F-4-100 Braddock Monument Page 3 way at the overlook. Likewise, the setting of the monument is not an important aspect of its integrity. The monument stands on a narrow slope within SHA right-of-way, protected from US 40 Alternate by guardrail. The slope ends at Ballenger Creek at the bottom of the hill. Although a pump originally provided water from Braddock's Spring, by 1950, it did not work according to a note on the SRC plan sheet. SHA could not find any mention of the pump in the DAR Frederick Chapter's meeting minutes between 1913 and 1924 when the monument's planning and dedication occurred. It appears to have been a separate monument built by an unknown builder. As an object, the boulder and attached tablet should be in a setting associated with the National Old Trails Road, but its current setting is not the sole appropriate one. The Braddock Monument is a work of art rather than a building or structure. As such, its particular setting requires that it be associated with the road which is its chief topographic feature.