Below this summit the whole of Baltimore's Inner Harbor opens out, a natural high point that has drawn crowds here since the city's earliest days. Federal Hill got its current name on May 1, 1788, when Baltimore held a grand celebration of Maryland's ratification of the new federal Constitution — a parade ended with the crowd climbing this hill and raising a flag, and the name stuck. The hill offered a commanding view of the entire harbor, and a signal station was established here in the early nineteenth century to alert merchants of incoming ships — using the view from this summit, merchants could identify a ship flying company colors miles away and have their wagons ready at the docks hours before the vessel arrived.
During the Civil War, Union forces occupied Federal Hill and installed artillery on its summit, aimed directly at the city below. Baltimore was a city deeply divided between Union and Confederate sympathies, and the Union Army intended the guns as a warning: any pro-Confederate uprising would be met with force. The batteries remained in place for the duration of the war.
Today Federal Hill Park offers the most photographed view in Baltimore — the skyline, the harbor, Camden Yards, and the downtown towers spread before you. The neighborhood below, once a working-class maritime community, has become one of Baltimore's most desirable residential areas.