BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Francis Scott Key Park

DC -- Francis Scott Key Park:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.17.74.227 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

[1] FSKEYP_131006_02_STITCH.JPG

[2] FSKEYP_131006_03_STITCH.JPG

[3] FSKEYP_131006_05.JPG	[4] FSKEYP_131006_08.JPG	[5] FSKEYP_131006_15.JPG
[6] FSKEYP_131006_25.JPG	[7] FSKEYP_131006_26.JPG	[8] FSKEYP_131006_34.JPG
[9] FSKEYP_131006_43.JPG	[10] FSKEYP_131006_52.JPG	[11] FSKEYP_131006_55.JPG
[12] FSKEYP_131006_61.JPG	[13] FSKEYP_131006_64.JPG	[14] FSKEYP_131006_68.JPG
[15] FSKEYP_131006_71.JPG	[16] FSKEYP_131006_77.JPG	[17] FSKEYP_131006_79.JPG
[18] FSKEYP_131006_81.JPG	[19] FSKEYP_131006_83.JPG	[20] FSKEYP_131006_93.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FSKEYP_131006_05.JPG: Because of the federal government shutdown, this National Park Service facility is closed.
2. FSKEYP_131006_25.JPG: Francis Scott Key Park A Place With Its Own History. Before 1620 the area of the Francis Scott Key Park was inhabited by members of the Algonquian, Nacostine, Nacotchatank, Piscatoway and Patawomeke tribes. In 1634 it became part of the English Colony of Maryland. Beginning in the 18th Century, Falls or M Street (1) was the trail to the Potomac river falls, and Frederick or 34th Street (2) was the access to the west landing of the port of George Town and Hite's Ferry (3) to Virginia. George Washington passed along 34th Street on the way to his first Presidential Inauguration in 1789, and again in 1793 to lay the cornerstone to the U.S. Capitol. In 1789 this land was added to George Town, an early trading center and major tobacco port. In 1791, the land was included in the 10-mile square designated as the "Nation's Capital." During the late 18th century, the "Court End" of George Town saw the construction of "Gentleman's Houses," some of which are still standing today. These included Francis Scott Key's house (4) built c. 1803 and dismantled in 1947; John Mason's house (5) built c. 1794 and his model farm on Analosian (Roosevelt) Island (6); the Forrest-Marbury House (7) built c. 1788; Halcyon House (8) built c 1786; Prospect House (9) built c. 1790; Quality Hill (10) built c. 1799; and Foxhall House (11) built c. 1802. Georgetown University (12) was established in 1789. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal (13) was begun in 1828 as a major trade route to and from the West. The now destroyed Aqueduct Bridge (14) carried the Canal to Alexandria, Virginia. The Canal's 1924 demise was the result of river flooding and competition from the railroads. The Park site became more commercial at the end of the 19th century and homes were replaced by small shops and businesses. Around 1923, all of the buildings were demolished when Key Bridge (15) was built. Archaeological investigations in 1989 and 1992 examined some of the foundations of these buildings and analyzed artifacts from our early history. The Francis Scott Key Foundation created and built the Star Spangled Banner Monument with private funds and donated it as a gift to the united States from the American people on September 14, 1993.
3. FSKEYP_131006_26.JPG: The Star-Spangled Banner The Flag. The immortal words "star-spangled Banner" refer to the magnificent flag which Francis Scott Key saw "by the dawn's early light" after the British bombardment of Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814. It is the largest flag ever flown in battle in U.S. history. During preparations to defend Baltimore's vital seaport and center of commerce during the War of 1812, the commander of Fort McHenry, Major George Armistead, wanted a flag so big "that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." Armistead wanted a "suitable ensign," a clear signal of American resolve. Mary Young Pickersgill, a "maker of colours," was commissioned to make the new flag. With her 13-year-old daughter Caroline, the work began. Each stripe, eight red and seven white, was two feet wide. Every star, fifteen in all, spanned spanned two feet from point to point. The completed flag weighed eighty pounds! The Star-Spangled Banner, immortalized by Francis Scott Key, is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The Anthem. Originally entitled The Defence of Ft. McHenry, Francis Scott Key's poem effectively dramatized the bombardment, the flag, and the sentiment of the times. Key's stirring verses were soon set to a popular tune of the day. The song, To Anacreon in Heaven,* has been attributed to John Stafford Smith and was sung by the members of the Anacreontic Society, an English music and social club. However, the melody had become familiar to many Americans who knew it as the patriotic song, Adams and Liberty, by Robert Treat Paine. When Key's lyrics were set to this music, it became known as The Star-Spangled Banner. In George Town, nine years before the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key composed a poem to commemorate the victory of Commodore Stephen Decatur and his brave men over the Tripolitan pirates during the Barbary Wars. The poem contains the words, "the star-spangled flag," has the same metric composition, has the same length verses, and was set to the same tune: To Anacreon in Heaven. Moreover, the stanzas have the same repetitive last lines in both songs. So it was at his George Town home that the idea of The Star-Spangled Banner was born. The American people quickly adopted The Star-Spangled Banner as the song to be sung on patriotic occasions. The greatest boost came during the Civil War when it was sung by Union troops. Later the Army required that it be played each day at flag lowering. The Navy ordered it played at morning and evening colors. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson declared it the Armed Forces' official anthem. On March 3rd, 1931 President Herbert Hoover signed the law making The Star-Spangled Banner the official National Anthem. As the anthem of the United States of America, these words and the melody are renowned throughout the world. *Anacreon was a lyric poet of Ancient Greece.
4. FSKEYP_131006_34.JPG: Francis Scott Key 1779-1843. The author of our National Anthem was a lawyer, patriot, community leader and poet. His home and law office stood approximately 100 yards west of here. Francis Scott Key lived there from 1803 to about 1833 with his wife, the former Mary Taylor Lloyd of Annapolis, Maryland, and their six sons and five daughters. The house was demolished in 1947 after years of neglect by various owners. During the war of 1812, British troops had invaded and captured Washington in August of 1814. They set fire to the Capitol, the White House and most Federal buildings. as they withdrew to their ships they took Dr. William Beanes prisoner because he had arrested some stragglers among the British troops for looting. The popular and respected 35-year-old George Town lawyer, Francis Scott Key, came to the aid of friends seeking Dr. Beanes' release. Under a flag of truce approved by President James Madison, key set out with Colonel John Stuart Skinner, an American agent for prisoner exchange. They located the British fleet and boarded Admiral Cochrane's Royal Navy Flagship. Key successfully arranged for Dr. Beanes' release. However, lest they reveal the British plans to attack Fort McHenry and Baltimore, they were detained under guard aboard their ship. Throughout the night of September 13-14, 1814, Key stood on deck watching the bombardment of Ft. McHenry. At dawn Key's anxiety was relieved. Our flag was still there! Key began to compose a poem on the back of a letter. After the release following the British defeat, Key continued to work on his poem. On the next day, he showed it to a relative, Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, a Fort McHenry's defender. Nicholson was so moved he immediately had broadsides of the poem printed and circulated. That poem became The Star Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key's law practice continued to flourish. He was three times appointed to the post of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He was active in anti-slavery causes, advocated the establishment of public schools, negotiated a treaty in 1833 between the Creek Indians and settlers in Alabama, and was a vestryman of St. John's Church as well as a founder of Christ Church in George Town. On a trip to Baltimore in 1843, Francis Scott Key died of pneumonia on January 11 at the home of his eldest daughter, Mrs. Charles Howard. He is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery near his birthplace in Frederick, Maryland. The high standards which guided Francis Scott Key's life continue to be an example to all Americans.
5. FSKEYP_131006_71.JPG: Francis Scott Key bronze 1985 Sculptor Betty Manhouse Dunston
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].