Lafayette

Havre de Grace has a special love for America’s “Famous Fighting Frenchman.” The Marquis de Lafayette, or as he preferred to be called General Lafayette, visited Havre de Grace at least twice during his lifetime. In 1777, nineteen year-old Lafayette came to the colonies to support the American Revolution. The first time Lafayette visited here is believed to have been in July 1777 on his way to meet with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. At that time, our city was known as Susquehanna Lower Ferry. Local tradition states that on his way through the area, Lafayette noticed that the area looked much like the port city La Havre in his native France. He is purported to have said “C’est Le Havre! Le Havre de Grace!” Although this story is not confirmed, a 1799 map shows that the city’s name had been officially changed to Havre de Grace.

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General Lafayette also visited Havre de Grace while he was the “Guest of the Nation” in 1825. On that tour, he was revisiting all the places where he had been during the American Revolution. On July 29, 1825, Lafayette stopped in Port Deposit on his way from Lancaster to Baltimore. There, he met with a delegation who would escort him to Baltimore by boat. As the steamboat Norfolk made its way down the Susquehanna, the residents of Havre de Grace lined the banks of the river and called out to Lafayette to stop and visit. Always a man of the people, Lafayette did so and “remained several hours” before resuming his trip south.

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Havre de Grace honors its relationship with the legacy of Lafayette with a statue of the General in Legion Square at the intersection of Union Avenue and St. John Street. This statue was commissioned and installed in 1976 as a project for America’s bicentennial celebration. In 2020, the City installed a Pomeroy Marker in the same location to commemorate Lafayette’s return visit in 1825.