The American Civil War disrupted planting, and the area, known as Camp Hoffman, was used as an encampment for the Third Regiment Maryland Veteran Volunteers, as well as for Union troops from Delaware and New York, and as a refuge for runaway slaves.

[1][2][3] In 1869, the barracks, hospital, and other government buildings in the area dating from the Civil War were removed and landscaping completed in the park at the center of the square.

The park itself was designed in the Victorian style, with a fountain at the center (cast in Philadelphia in 1872), and eight radial paths leading to the corners, each anchored with a bronze urn on a stone pedestal.

The Ascension Church building remains, but its original congregation moved to Owings Mills and sold the property to a historic African American Episcopal congregation, St. James Episcopal Church, which moved in in 1932 and has since invested considerable money in improving the neighborhood, including helping to construct St. James Senior Apartments facing the square.

In 2011, volunteer archeologists led by Baltimore Heritage and the Archeological Society of Maryland excavated in the park, searching for Civil War encampment relics.