Commemorations of Benjamin Banneker
A United States postage stamp and the names of a number of recreational and cultural facilities, schools, streets and other facilities and institutions throughout the United States have commemorated Benjamin Banneker's documented and mythical accomplishments throughout the years since he lived (1731–1806) (see Mythology of Benjamin Banneker).
Among such memorializations of this free African American almanac author, surveyor, landowner and farmer who had knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and natural history was a biographical verse that Rita Dove, a future Poet Laureate of the United States, wrote in 1983 while on the faculty of Arizona State University.
On February 15, 1980, during Black History Month, the United States Postal Service issued in Annapolis, Maryland, a 15 cent commemorative postage stamp that featured a portrait of Banneker.
[a 2] The museum contains a visitors center that features a collection of Banneker's works and artifacts, a community gallery, a gift shop and a patio garden.
[16][17][a 4] Baltimore County's delegation to the Maryland General Assembly secured a $400,000 state bond for the design and construction of the cabin.
[21][a 5] A 4.7 acres (1.9 ha) urban park memorializing Benjamin Banneker is located in southwest Washington, D.C., one half mile (800 m) south of the Smithsonian Institution's "Castle" on the National Mall.
The centerpiece of the overlook's modernist plaza is a large conical fountain that projects water more than 30 feet in the air and catches it in a circular basin made from honed green granite.
[24][30] The rings of the fountain and basin in the center of the site are reiterated in the benches, double rows of London plane trees, and low concrete walls that establish the plaza's edge.
[44] The League stated that the park, "Designed by renowned landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley ... is culturally significant as the first public space in Washington named for an African American and is usually included in Black History tours".
[46] In 2012, the United States Army Corps of Engineers determined that Benjamin Banneker Park was not eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.
[47] The DC SHPO stated that additional research and coordination with the NPS would be needed before it could make a final determination of eligibility.
[48] The Plan recommended the redesign of Benjamin Banneker Park and adjacent areas to accommodate one or more new memorials, museums and/or landscaping.
"[52] In April 2017, the NCPC approved plans for a staircase and ramp that would connect the park with Washington's Southwest Waterfront and that would add lighting and trees to the area.
The NCPC and the NPS intended the project to be an interim improvement that could be in place for ten years while the area awaits redevelopment.
[54] An 11 acres (4.5 ha) park in Arlington County, Virginia, memorializes Banneker and the survey of the boundaries of the District of Columbia, in which he participated.
A unit of the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks, the facility contains ballfields, multipurpose courts and a playground.
[58][a 7] The Banneker Community Center in northwest Washington, D.C. is located near Howard University in the city's Columbia Heights neighborhood.
In 1994, the Bloomington City Council changed the community center's name to commemorate the building's history as a segregated school and to re-commemorate Benjamin Banneker.
[65][67] The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in Washington, D.C., during 2016, displays a statue of Benjamin Banneker within an exhibit entitled "The Founding of America".
