| Fort Smallwood Park | |
|---|---|
 Battery Hartshorne, Fort Smallwood Park, December 2009 | |
 Interactive map of Fort Smallwood Park | |
| Location | Anne Arundel County, Maryland,U.S. |
| Nearest city | Pasadena, Maryland |
| Coordinates | 39°9′51.75″N76°28′36.72″W / 39.1643750°N 76.4768667°W /39.1643750; -76.4768667 |
| Established | 1928 |
| Governing body | Anne Arundel County, Maryland |
Fort Smallwood Park is a county park in northeasternAnne Arundel County, nearRiviera Beach andPasadena, Maryland, United States. It is located on the outerPatapsco River as it meets theChesapeake Bay, on a peninsula known as Rock Point.
On April 1, 2006 it became a regional park in the Anne Arundel County Park System, after being transferred from the Department of Recreation and Parks of Baltimore City after extensive decades-long negotiations. On September 19, 2009 County ExecutiveJohn R. Leopold officially dedicated the 380-foot (120 m) fishing pier at Fort Smallwood Park "Bill Burton Fishing Pier", named for the long-timeBaltimore Sun outdoorsman/reporter and columnist. The previous pier was destroyed in 2003 byHurricane Isabel. It provides a view of theSparrows Point plant ofMittal Steel Company (formerly owned byBethlehem Steel Corporation), one of the largest steel manufacturing complexes in the world.[1]
Fort Smallwood Road (Maryland Route 173) leads from Patapsco Avenue and Pennington Avenue inBrooklyn-Curtis Bay in southern Baltimore City acrossCurtis Creek, past theU.S. Coast Guard Yard through theArundel Cove-Hawkins Point area toRiviera Beach andPasadena coastal communities across Stony Creek to the old fort and park.
A cluster of rock outcroppings known asWhite Rocks is located in the water northwest of the park.[2]
From 1896 to 1928, it was anEndicott Period Coastal Fort built during theSpanish–American War era along with other outer harbor defenses atFort Howard onNorth Point in southeasternBaltimore County andFort Armistead atHawkins Point on the Baltimore City-Anne Arundel County Line of 1919. It was named for Revolutionary War Maj. Gen.William Smallwood (1732–1792), commander of the "Maryland Line" regiment in theContinental Army who later became fourth governor of Maryland (1785–1788).[citation needed]
From 1928 to 2006, it was a city park of the City ofBaltimore and was an extremely popular weekend picnicking, swimming and fishing site for city and county citizens in the 1930s to the 80s, until later eclipsed by other Chesapeake Bay resorts and eventuallyOcean City and the Delaware beaches after the construction of theChesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952. BesidesRobert E. Lee Memorial Park surroundingLake Roland, a former Baltimore City Public Works Department watershed system parcel since 1860, located just across the northern city limits inBaltimore County, Fort Smallwood was the only city park located outside the 1919 city limits.[3]
It is the location of Battery Hartshorne, named on November 18, 1902 in honor of Captain Benjamin M. Hartshorne Jr.,7th U. S. Infantry, who was killed on January 2, 1902, in action with insurgents nearLanang, Samar, Philippine Islands during thePhilippine–American War. Two six-inchdisappearing carriage guns were mounted here from 1900 to 1927.[4]
