The Stafford was once an elegant hotel serving the elite of Baltimore and the many high-profile figures visiting the city. The hotel was designed by founding member of the Baltimore AIA chapter Charles E. Cassell and when it opened in 1894, it was the tallest building in Mt. Vernon. The entrance opened up to a highly ornamented hallway tiled with Romanesque designs. According to the Baltimore Sun, the ceilings were relieved with elaborate friezes and bordered with flecks of gold. The hotel also had a specified ladies parlor on the second floor for women traveling alone complete with a writing room and a cafe.
Over time, the Stafford Hotel was visited by dignitaries, movie stars, musicians, and famous writers. It was a favorite hotel of Katharine Hepburn and opera star Rosa Ponselle who would come to the hotel to get fitted by traveling English tailors. The Stafford was also the last place where F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in Baltimore before moving to Hollywood.
Perhaps the most interesting place in the Stafford Hotel was the bar overlooking the statue of Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard. The bar was known across town as being highly exclusive. Only the most esteemed guests were served drinks and even then they had to woo the bartender. On one particular night on December 26, 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald got the attention of many of the bar's patrons after racking up a $22.36 tab, a figure that would amount to about $370 today.
The Stafford Hotel fell on hard times after it closed in 1973 and was turned into federally subsidized apartments. By the turn of the twenty-first century it had become a seedy center for prostitution and drugs. Johns Hopkins University acquired the building in 2002 thanks to legislation that made it possible to turn federally subsidized housing into student housing. Now the Stafford Hotel serves as apartments exclusively for Johns Hopkins and Peabody students.
The American Building was home to Baltimore News-American, a newspaper that traces its lineage back to 1773.
As opposed to the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore News-American was an afternoon newspaper targeted to working class and blue-collar districts. One of the newspaper鈥檚 many editors was John L. Carey. He was deeply interested in the question of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War and felt that the two races could never live in peace and offered up the solution to re-settle all enslaved people in Africa. The Baltimore News-American would survive for two hundred years, until its final issue on May 27th, 1986.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the buildings of the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore-News American faced each other at the intersection of South Gay Street and East Baltimore Street. It was one of the most bustling areas of the city, filled with newsies passing out papers and bulletin boards posting the latest news. During elections, the intersection would be packed with massive crowds of people, all waiting to hear the results.
The original Baltimore News-American Building was destroyed by the Great Baltimore Fire and a new towering office, designed by Baltimore native Louis Levi, was built in 1905 by the George A. Fuller Company. The main contractor for the News American Building was Paul Starrett who later went on to be take a leading role in the erection of the Empire State Building.
The Vickers Building represents a shift in downtown Baltimore architectural design that occurred directly after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 and is one of the largest buildings to utilize brick as a primary material in the Central Business District. Most of the other buildings rebuilt in the area were made of stone. Masonry was popular after the Great Fire because of fireproofing concerns. Before the Great Fire, many buildings (including the old Vickers Building the new one replaced) were built in the ornate Second Empire style and featured sloping Mansard roofs and complex architectural details. This changed after the Great Fire. Architects took a more pragmatic approach to rebuilding the Central Business district and were pressured to create buildings that were cost-efficient, fire safe, and could be erected quickly. Because of all the national attention after the Fire, the city wanted to show the rest of the country its stability and they wanted to do it quickly. The permit for the Vickers Building was issued on May 19, 1904, only three months after the fire. Many of the building鈥檚 properties indicate fire-conscious planning: it鈥檚 made of brick; it has a flat roof because people believed spacious Mansard roof attics contributed to the spread of the Fire; and the bay windows recede into the building rather than protrude outwards. Not all ornamentation was eschewed from the construction of the Vickers Building. Stone lion heads adorn the topmost bay windows and a band of terra cotta runs along the street facing side of the roof. The interior is home to Werner鈥檚 Restaurant: a mainstay in the area since 1951.
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Robert Garrett was the original owner of the thirteen-story Garrett Building. Among other things, Garrett was a banker, Olympian, collector of medieval manuscripts, and a leader in the development of recreational facilities in Baltimore. He was a participant in the first modern Olympic games in 1896. He paid for three of his Princeton classmates to make the trip and they all took home medals, much to the displeasure of the Greeks. Garrett in particular specialized in the shot put but also decided to try the discus throw for fun after realizing the discus only weighed five pounds. Unlike the Greek discus throwers who implemented the graceful throwing techniques of antiquity, Garrett appropriated the crude, brute force style of shot put throwing to the sport. Despite narrowly missing audience members on his first two throws, his final throw was spot-on and won him the gold. He also took home the gold in shot put. Garrett built 233 East Redwood Street in 1913 with the Baltimore architecture firm Wyatt and Nolting. The limestone faced skyscraper is as striking on the inside as the outside. The lobby is donned with marble walls and columns. Garrett could never turn away from his love of athletics, not even at work. He commissioned a swimming pool and gymnasium for the upper floors. The building is now home to the Gordon Feinblatt law firm.
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The Zion Lutheran Church is a piece of German-American history that dates back to 1755. Originally known as the German Lutheran Reformed Church, it served Lutheran immigrants coming from Germany. The congregation held services in private residences for the first seven years.
The original church was erected in 1762 on Fish Street (now Saratoga Street), a block away from their current site. The number of worshipers grew rapidly over the years and by 1808 the first building on the current church grounds was completed. It is one of only a few buildings standing that predates the War of 1812 and is the oldest Neo-Gothic style church in the United States. Between 1912 and 1913, the church completed several additions including the Parish House, bell tower, parsonage, and garden.
The church possesses a number of historical artifacts including a piece of the Berlin Wall and plaques dedicated to the members of the church who died in WWI and WWII. The church boasts an impressive collection of stained glass. A number of the windows celebrate German heritage and achievements. The Industry Window in the Sanctuary Entrance has an image of the linotype in the bottom-right corner, a device invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler in Baltimore.
The Zion Lutheran Church currently provides services in both German and English, making it the oldest church in the United States that has maintained uninterrupted services in German and the only church in Maryland to offer a service in German.
A slice of English architecture, the Furness House was built in 1917 by architect Edward H. Glidden. Glidden also designed the Washington Place Apartments in Mount Vernon and the Marlboro Apartments on Eutaw Place (home to the famed art-collecting Cone sisters). The Furness House was built as offices for an English steamship line and named after shipping entrepreneur Christopher Furness. The building is an example of the English Palladian style, which has roots in Italian architecture, particularly the works of Andrea Palladio. It features a large Venetian window and looks like many commercial building built in England built around the same time. The Furness House was renovated in the 1990s and operates today as a conference center.
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Dashiell Hammett found inspiration for his great detective novels like "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man" by working at the Pinkerton Detective Agency in what was then known as the Continental Trust Building. He experienced the seedy underbelly of Baltimore city and was stabbed at least once on the job. He was inspired by his intransigent co-workers who served as the foundation for many of his cherished characters. Continental Op, the main character of his first novel, "Red Harvest," was named after the eponymous building. It is also speculated that the falcons that don the Continental Trust Building served as the inspiration for "The Maltese Falcon." "Red Harvest" was a milestone in the detective novel genre. It introduced the world to the hard-nosed detective who lives by his own code. The gritty streets of Baltimore served as the setting for Hammett's personal favorite novel, "The Glass Key," as well as "The Assistant Murderer." Unfortunately, many of the locations described in Hammett's novels no longer exist. The lavish Rennert Hotel, which served as the home base for the corrupt political boss in "The Glass Key" was razed in 1941. Continental Op in "Red Harvest" dreams about a tumbling fountain in Harlem Square Park that was filled in long ago. Hammett was born in Saint Mary's County, Maryland and spent his childhood bouncing between Baltimore and Philadelphia. He started working at Pinkertons in 1915 before serving in World War I in the Motor Ambulance Corps. He soon contracted tuberculosis and was moved to a hospital in Tacoma, Washington. Throughout the 1920's, Hammett lived in San Francisco where he wrote most of his novels, including "The Maltese Falcon." He never forgot his Baltimore roots working for Pinkertons, and his precise memory of streets and locations added a layer of authenticity and realism to his work. Later in life, Hammett got involved with the American Communist Party and was eventually jailed as a result of McCarthyism in 1951 for six months. Jail time took its toll on Hammett, who was already in bad health due to the effect his heavy smoking and drinking had on his tuberculosis. He died in New York in 1961. Today, the Continental Trust Building that housed the Pinkerton Detective Agency is known as One Calvert Plaza. A prominent survivor of the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, One Calvert Plaza stands as a monument to skyscraper architecture at the turn of the twentieth century.
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The John H.B. Latrobe House is the only surviving site associated with the "Saturday Morning Visiter" writing contest that launched Edgar Allan Poe's literary career. On an evening in October 1833, Latrobe, along with John Pendleton Kennedy and James H. Miller, read Poe's "Ms. Found in a Bottle" and unanimously declared him the winner. Poe, who was at the time a penniless unknown author, received a $50 cash prize. Perhaps more importantly, Poe struck up a friendship with Kennedy who would help jump-start his literary career.
John Pendleton Kennedy was already a moderately successful author when he met Poe. His first major romance about the agrarian South, "Swallow Barn," was published a year before and helped established the Southern gentleman archetype we have today. In 1838, Kennedy published "Rob of the Bowl"鈥攁 tale about religious and political rivalries in seventeenth century Maryland. Kennedy gave up writing when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives later that year. The peak of his political career was in 1852 when served as Secretary of the Navy.
Poe got his job at "The Southern Literary Messenger" because of a reference from Kennedy; a job Poe was fired from only weeks later when he was caught drinking on the job. Despite Poe's missteps, Kennedy believed in the young writer. Poe would often write to him for favors, money, and reassurance and considered Kennedy to be his friend when no one else was. The relationship became strained once Kennedy got into politics. The loans and favors stopped coming, leaving Poe feeling abandoned by his old friend.
For many years, the Latrobe House held the offices of furniture manufacturing company Fallon & Hellen. Today, it is a private residence and signifies a milestone in Poe's career as an author.
After a brief stint in New York, Ogden Nash returned to Baltimore in 1934 and wrote: "I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more."
After a brief stint in New York, Ogden Nash returned to Baltimore in 1934 and wrote: "I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more." Nash grew up in Rye, New York and first came to Baltimore for love. On a trip to the Elkridge Hunt Ball in Maryland in 1928, Nash met Frances Rider Leonard, a granddaughter of Maryland Governor Elihu Jackson and the woman he would come to marry.
Nash married Frances at the chapel of the Church of the Redeemer in 1931. By this time, Nash was already a national celebrity, known for his witty light verse. He spent his time bouncing between New York and Baltimore before settling down at 4205 Underwood Road-鈥揳 handsome stone house in Guilford-鈥搃n 1934 where he started a family and began his love affair with Baltimore sports. He enjoyed gambling at Pimlico and became an avid fan of the Baltimore Colts and Orioles. He soon moved with his wife and two daughters to his in-law's home at 4300 Rugby Road where they lived until the 1960s.
Nash published numerous poems about Baltimore sports teams. The December 13, 1968, issue of Life magazine had a cover feature on Nash's love of the Colts complete with poems. In the collection, Nash wrote that "Colt Fever" is "the disease fate holds in store / For the population of Baltimore / A disease more virulent than rabies / Felling men and women and even babies." In 1958, Nash wrote "You Can't Kill an Oriole" when the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore for the 1954 season. Present day Orioles manager Buck Showalter has a copy of the poem hanging in his office.
Nash lived in Baltimore for 37 years and led a happy and successful life with his wife, two daughters, and, of course, his dog. Nash adored animals and is credited with coining the phrase: "The dog is man's best friend." He died on May 19, 1971 at Johns Hopkins Hospital of Crohn's Disease. A memorial service was held at the Church of the Redeemer, 40 years after the date he was married there. His old home at 4300 Rugby Road remains a private residence, nestled away in Guilford.
The construction of the Rotunda in 1921, designed by architects Simonson & Pietsch in the neo-Georgian style, marked a radical change in the design of business campuses in the twentieth century. Traditionally, businesses in the banking industry were located in dense downtown financial districts. The Maryland Casualty Company changed this notion after outgrowing its Tower Building at 222 E. Baltimore Street and moving to the more residential Hampden neighborhood. It set the example for future suburban business campuses and helped rein in an era of pastoral capitalism.
The Maryland Casualty Company purchased the Dulin Estate in 1919 and established on the twenty-five acres an extensive business campus that included a number of impressive amenities, including a clubhouse with a dining room, an auditorium that could seat 1,500 guests, a landscaped park, tennis courts, and a baseball diamond. The idea was to provide workers with an idyllic business campus removed from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. What is now known as the Rotunda was the company's administration building. The H-shaped building features a distinct bell tower and clock that exists today as a landmark of the Hampden community.
The Rotunda was nearly demolished in 1969 after the Maryland Casualty Company outgrew the four-story building. They considered erecting a larger office building in its place, but developer Bernard Manekin convinced the company to turn it into a retail and office space. The result was one of Baltimore's first adaptive reuse projects and grew to include a shopping mall, movie theater, office spaces, and a grocery store.
In 2005, the shopping center had already fallen into decline and New Jersey based developer Hekemian and Company bought the property. They began planning a mixed-use redevelopment project on the site that would transform the historic location into an upscale residential/commercial campus. The project stayed in the planning phase for eight years due to a national recession and community concerns. A coalition of neighborhood councils formed the Mill Valley Community Council to push back against the new development. Amongst a number of concerns, community leaders felt that the new Rotunda was not being designed to serve neighborhood residents and that new retail stores would take business away from the local establishments on Hampden鈥檚 "Avenue."
In September 2013, Hekemian and Co. broke ground on the site. The construction will bring new retail and living spaces to the Rotunda, as well as parking garages. Supporters argue that the development will breathe new life into the Rotunda and revitalize the struggling shopping mall inside, and according to the project鈥檚 website, "will mark the return of a Baltimore landmark."
William Donald Schaeffer approached Tom Kerr, head of the old Hampden Business Association, in 1972 to organize the Mayor's Christmas Parade. The parade would be Schaeffer's answer to the Hochschild-Kohn Toytown Parade which drew thousands of spectators for thirty years on Thanksgiving Day, but stopped running in 1966. Schaeffer wanted the parade to be held downtown but Kerr insisted on having it in Hampden.
Kerr hoped the parade would bring positive attention to Hampden. Mt. Vernon Mill Company closed its last remaining mill in Hampden-Woodberry that year, marking the end of the textile industry in the area. The first parade was far more modest than the department store extravagance of the Toytown parade, and Kerr was only able to secure a single Santa Claus float and six marching bands. Nonetheless, the parade drew a large crowd and was considered a success. As of 2013, Kerr has been organizing the event for forty-one years.
Every year the parade elects a Grand Marshall. Past prominent figures to hold the title include baseball legend Brooks Robinson in 1978, and more recently, John Astin, famous for his role as Gomez in The Addams Family. Schaeffer made a number of appearances as mayor and came back as Grand Marshall after becoming governor. In 1980, spectators were baffled to see his yellow Cadillac moving toward Thirty-sixth Street without him. The convertible left while he was giving a speech and he quickly darted across the street, ran through an alley, and ducked under a police barrier to cut off the ride for his own parade.
Today, the two-and-a-half mile long parade attracts nearly 25,000 spectators, 160 marching units, and a variety of eclectic floats. Although the parade has grown, it continues to be a community effort. Ninety-five percent of Hampden businesses donate money to the parade. Kerr, who is locally known as the unofficial mayor of Hampden, has recently expressed interest in stepping down from his position, but doubts he will ever be completely detached from the parade.
Enoch Pratt Free Library Branch No. 7 opened its doors on July 2, 1900, 17 years after industrialist Robert Poole and fellow businessmen established Woodberry鈥檚 first community library. In 1899, Poole donated the land, the books from the old library, and $25,000 towards erecting the new branch of Enoch Pratt Free Library on Falls Road.
The doors at Branch No. 7 of the Enoch Pratt Free Library opened to patrons on July 2, 1900, seventeen years after industrialist Robert Poole and fellow businessmen established Woodberry鈥檚 first community library. In 1899, Poole donated land across the street from his Maple Hill estate, the books from the old library, and $25,000 towards the construction of the new building on Falls Road.
The library鈥檚 architect Joseph Evans Sperry designed a number of significant buildings along with partner John Wyatt. The firm鈥檚 work including the Bromo Seltzer Tower and the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Building. The neoclassical design of the library was a departure from the Romanesque style of the original six library branches, designed by Sperry's former boss, architect Charles Carson. Poole's foundry located down the hill in Woodberry provided the ionic columns for the library. More famously, in the 1850s, the foundry cast the columns of the peristyle of the U.S. Capitol Building dome.
In order to increase circulation in the busy mill town, the library advertised the new branch with slips placed in workers' pay envelopes. The library also carried reference books on textile manufacturing as requested by residents. When the mills were at their busiest, the library had to find new ways to attract visitors. The library also faced competition from new sources of entertainment to Hampden such as a bowling alley, pool room, and movie theater. Up until 1915, the library shared the building with Provident Savings Bank. When the bank moved to 36th Street, the library tore down the wall that had separated the the reading room from the bank to create a new auditorium for lectures.
One of the more elaborate ways the library attracted visitors was the 1917 Garden Exhibit and Harvest Exhibition. During the Garden Exhibit in the spring, librarians handed out packets of seeds to patrons and nurtured a garden of their own behind the library. In an annual report, the branch manager noted that the staff found gardening surprisingly interesting. They were taken in by the excitement of coming to work and seeing plants that had grown as much as an inch taller overnight. The Harvest Exhibition took place in the fall, offering residents a miniature county fair with lectures on canning and gardening and contests for the best crops.
In 1936, Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds were used to double the size of the Hampden Library. Today, the library remains both an architectural landmark and community resource for area residents.
Meadow Mill was built by industrialist William E. Hooper in 1877 during one of the most prosperous periods for industry in the Jones Falls Valley. Designed by architect Reuben Gladfelter, it represented the finest of Baltimore mill design. A striking belfry, landscaped paths, and tidy gardens signaled Hooper鈥檚 prominence among business leaders.
Baltimore industrialist William E. Hooper built Meadow Mill in 1877 during one of the most prosperous periods for industry in the Jones Falls Valley. Designed by architect Reuben Gladfelter, the structure represents the finest of Baltimore mill design. The striking belfry, landscaped paths, and tidy gardens all signaled Hooper鈥檚 prominence among business leaders.
Over the next century, workers at Meadow Mill manufactured twine, lamp wicks, cotton duck (a heavy canvas used primarily for ship sails), and, when during the building鈥檚 time as a London Fog factory, raincoats. When the building was new, Meadow Mill was one of four factories comprising Hooper鈥檚 Woodberry Manufacturing Company, including Mt. Washington Mill, Woodberry Mill, Clipper Mill and Park Mill. In 1899, the mill became part of the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company, a textile empire that manufactured as much as eighty percent of the world's cotton duck.
Entire families worked long hours to make ends meet. In 1880, children under the age of fifteen made up a quarter of the mill鈥檚 workforce. After 1900, the state began to enforce child labor laws that required permits for children under fifteen years old, but children could still expect to work twelve hour shifts for little pay, and at the sacrifice of an education. In 1906, thirty-five girls with no union leader or organization walked out of Meadow Mill demanding a pay increase. Fifty bobbin boys followed the girls out on strike. In the end, the girls' received a raise from fourteen dollars to sixteen dollars a month. The boys received nothing. Their fathers, seeing their boys out of work and not making any money, scolded them and sent them back to work.
By 1915, the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company broke apart and was reestablished as Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Mills. The new company controlled mills in Hampden-Woodberry, South Carolina and Alabama. Production boomed during World War I but, by the 1920s, the company began shifting its operations to the South where wages were low and workers less organized. Meadow Mill continued operations through the Depression then boosted production again during World War II to fill military commissions for canvas. Following the war, the company converted the mill for synthetic textile production, which required sealing the windows and installing air conditioning to regulate temperature and humidity.
In 1960, Meadow Mill was sold to Londontown Manufacturing Company, the makers of London Fog Raincoats. Company founder Israel Meyers started in the outerwear business in the 1920s and popularized military-style trench coats for civilians. London Fog went on to become the leading men's raincoat manufacturer of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978, the Sun referred to Baltimore as the 鈥渘ation's raincoat capital,鈥 reporting that Londontown employed 1,500 people in the city including 600 at the Meadow Mill plant. Londontown also continued the textile manufacturing tradition in the building, making proprietary polyester-cotton blends.
In 1972, Hurricane Agnes hit and flooded the factory causing $148,000 in damages. The company's signature raincoats could be found floating down the torrent of the Jones Falls. In 1976, the company was bought by Interco, a conglomerate based in St. Louis. In 1988, the Baltimore Economic Development Corp. struck a deal to move the London Fog factory from Meadow Mill to the Park Circle Business Park in northwest Baltimore. The company closed the Meadow Mill factory and sold the building to developer Himmelrich Associates. The new owners adapted the building for a wide mix of uses including offices, a gym, a restaurant, and a bakery.
As for London Fog, the company struggled through the 1990s. Interco filed for bankruptcy in 1991. The company renamed London Fog Inc. and tried opening its own retail locations, which ended up angering the company's biggest customers鈥攄epartment stores. By 1995, London Fog had shuttered five of its Baltimore area factories and shifted production overseas. In 1997, London Fog announced plans to close its last U.S. factory in northwest Baltimore, citing competition from cheaper overseas labor. Two years later, London Fog filed for bankruptcy protection. Founder Israel Meyers died the same year.
Mount Vernon Mill No. 3, renamed Mill Centre in the 1980s, represented in 1853 an important expansion to Mt.Vernon Company. Led by president and former sailor Captain William Kennedy, both were among fourteen U.S. mills that鈥攁s part of a huge textile conglomerate鈥攚ould capture up to 80% of the world鈥檚 demand for cotton duck in the early 1900s.
Mount Vernon Mill No. 3 was once part of the network of mills owned by the Mount Vernon Mill Company. The village of Stone Hill, adjacent to Mill No. 3, was built around 1845 to house the growing workforce. Families housed in the cottage-like stone duplexes were brought in from surrounding rural areas by mill owners, who also built a company store, churches, a boarding house, and a school.
By the 1880s, the combined mills employed 1,600 workers. Originally erected in 1853, Mill No. 3 was expanded in 1880 as demand for cotton duck increased. More housing followed, so much so that by 1888鈥攚hen Hampden and Woodberry were annexed by Baltimore City 鈥 development had exceeded well beyond the original boundaries of the mill villages.
A 1923 strike against an increase in hours with little increase in pay proved devastating for workers. Soon after, what was once Hampden鈥檚 major employer moved much of the mills鈥 operations to the South. The company began selling off properties, and Stone Hill families in turn were able to buy their homes from their former employers. A new generation of manufacturers moved in and repurposed the old textile mills. In 1974, Rockland Industries bought Mill No. 3, installed new looms, and produced assorted synthetic textiles.
By 1986, the mill was once again sold and redeveloped into a complex of artist studios, galleries, and commercial office space. Today, the site is home to more than seventy tenants of various occupations.
Mt. Washington Mill鈥攈istorically Washington Mill, part of Washington Cotton Manufacturing Company鈥攊s one of Maryland鈥檚 earliest purpose-built cotton mills. In the early nineteenth century, the Napoleonic Wars and the Embargo Act disrupted imports and created new demand for locally-made cotton goods. When the nearly four stories tall stone Mt. Washington Mill began operation in 1810, it could fill this new market. Located near the center of the complex, the mill was first powered by the current of the Jones Falls. Indentured servants, primarily young boys, worked to make fabrics like ginghams and calicos. The operation grew and the mill began hiring more men, women and children as workers. Most lived nearby in Washingtonville, a company town that, by 1847, included a company store and nearly forty homes between the factory and the railroad tracks. Workers were called to their shifts by the sound of the bell ringing in the mill's cupola. The mill passed through several hands before 1853 when industrialists Horatio Gambrill and David Carroll acquired the facility. The pair had been quickly erecting textile mills in the Jones Falls Valley for the production of cotton duck, a heavy canvas used primarily for ship sails. By 1899, it had become part of the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company 鈥 a large conglomerate of textile mills comprising fourteen sites in Maryland and beyond 鈥 which would eventually control as much as 80% of the world鈥檚 cotton duck production until 1915, when the conglomerate split apart. Washingtonville the mill village was soon overshadowed by the residential suburb of Mt. Washington, established in 1854 on the other side of the tracks. Mt. Washington became a fashionable neighborhood for middle-class Baltimoreans looking to get out of the city鈥擝altimore remained easily accessible by train. Life in Mt. Washington was much different than life in Washingtonville. Children were under little pressure to drop out of school to work in the mills to support their families, homes were spacious and built to fine standards, and residents had access to plenty of leisure activities and entertainment, such as at the "Casino" where all sorts of exhibitions and games and held. In 1923, Washington Cotton Mill was purchased by the Maryland Bolt and Nut Company and repurposed for the production of metal fasteners like bolts, nuts, screws, and rivets. Industrial buildings were added to the campus and existing ones were outfitted for working steel. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes wrecked much of the industrial campus and in response, the factory was sold to Leonard Jed Company, a manufacturer of industrial supplies. It was sold again in 1984 to Don L. Byrne, a manager at the plant, before being redeveloped by Himmelrich Associates in the 1990s for office and commercial use. Washingtonville never underwent the same revitalization. The village was largely razed in 1958 to make way for the Jones Falls Expressway leaving only a single duplex house still standing today.
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Before the rise of textile mills, the fast-flowing water of the Jones Falls instead powered gristmills supplying Baltimore's lucrative flour trade. Whitehall Mill was established as a gristmill in the late 1700s and owned by James Ellicott, a member of the same family that settled Ellicott City. In 1839, David Carroll, Horatio Gambrill, and their associates purchased the mill from Ellicott and converted it to a textile mill for weaving cotton duck, a tightly woven canvas used to make ship sails. Over the years, the mill was expanded, burned, rebuilt, renamed, and converted to a number of different commercial uses. To house their workers, Carroll and Gambrill built Clipper Village, a cluster of homes located across from Whitehall for the mill's workers. The capacity of the mill was doubled in 1845 and the mill was converted to steam power to keep up with manufacturing demand. By 1850, forty men and sixty-five women were working at Whitehall Mill with an output of 220,000 yards of cotton duck. Carroll and Gambrill quickly expanded by converting other gristmills along the Jones Falls to textile mills. The three-story granite factory burned in 1854 and, after it was rebuilt, renamed Clipper Mill in recognition of the ships that used the cotton duck cloth for sails. By this point, William E. Hooper, a sailmaker who expanded his business to selling raw cotton to the textile mills, had joined as a partner. In the 1860s, Gambrill sold his shares in the company to Hooper and opened Druid Mill. After another fire in 1868, Clipper Mill was rebuilt at twice its size. The mill was sold in 1899 to the Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company, a national conglomerate. In 1902, the mill manufactured the cotton duck for Kaiser Wilhelm's yacht, which was christened by Alice Roosevelt as the Meteor III. In addition to ship sails, the mill manufactured other heavy canvas items such as mail bags for the U.S. government. In 1925, the mill was sold to Purity Paper Vessels, a firm that manufactured paper containers that could hold semi-liquid foods. The mill's cotton manufacturing machinery was shipped to Mount-Vernon-Woodberry Company's Southern mills in Tallassee, Alabama and Columbia, South Carolina. During the year of the sale, several elegiac articles appeared in the Baltimore Sun that looked back on the time when Baltimore's cotton duck manufacturing was at its peak and its clipper ships dominated international trade. Purity Paper Vessels later sub-leased part of the building to the Shapiro Waste Paper Company. In 1941, half the building was leased by the Army Quartermaster Office to be used as a warehouse for the Third Corps Area. By the 1940s, the I. Sekine Brush Company, a maker of men's grooming products and toothbrushes, occupied the mill. The company was founded in 1906 and had been operating plants in Baltimore since 1928. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, H.H. Sekine, who had been living in the United States for over twenty years, was arrested and interrogated, along with dozens of foreign-born Baltimoreans connected to nations on the Axis side. At the time, Sekine was operating a factory in Reservoir Hill that the government shut down for two weeks. When it reopened shortly before Christmas, Sekine paid all his employees in full for the time they lost during the closure. Over time, portions of the Clipper Mill property were leased to other companies, including Penguin Books, The Maryland Venetian Blind Manufacturing Corporation, and Star Built Kitchen Units. Sekine maintained operations at the Whitehall mill location until 1992 when it was sold to Komar Industries. Most recently, developer Terra Nova Ventures transformed the building into a mixed use development with a planned market. Architects Alexander Design Studio restored much of the long neglected mill, bringing new life to the historic structure. Numerous improvements were made for flood prevention, including the construction of a pedestrian bridge over Clipper Mill Road.
The 82,000 square-foot Reginald F. Lewis Museum opened in 2005 and immediately made history as the first major building in downtown Baltimore designed by African American architects鈥攁 joint effort between Philip Freelon of a North Carolina firm, the Freelon Group, and Gary Bowden of a Baltimore firm, RTKL Associates. Both architects are fellows of the American Institute of Architects, rare achievements considering that in 2016 African Americans make up just 2% of registered architects in the United States. The museum represents the character, pride, struggle, and accomplishments of Maryland African Americans, and was the second largest African American museum in the United States at the time of construction. The museums took the name of Baltimore businessman Reginald Lewis, the first African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company, TLC Beatrice International. Lewis grew up in West Baltimore and, before his death in 1993, he expressed interest in building a museum to African American culture. The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, which Lewis established in 1987, provided a $5 million grant for the construction of the museum in Baltimore. The museum board turned down an offer to reuse the Blaustein City Exhibition Center on President Street after focus groups showed that people were not interested in taking over the site of an old museum. "African Americans are tired of left-over seconds," museum board vice chairman Aris Allen Jr. told the Baltimore Sun in 2005. Architects Freelon and Bowden sought to design a distinct building that evokes the spirit of African American culture. The black, red and yellow facade takes its colors from the Maryland flag. A bold red wall slices through the facade, representing the journey of African Americans and the duality of accomplishment and struggle. The building won several awards from local and state American Institute of Architects chapter. The museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute and along with permanent exhibits, includes space for special exhibits, an oral history and recording studio, a 200 seat auditorium, and a classroom and resource center.
Workers laid the cornerstone of the Hampden Presbyterian Church in 1875 and dedicated the building two years later. The sturdy structure is made of Texas Limestone, named for the unincorporated town in Baltimore County where the quarry is located. The church originally housed a Sunday school on the first floor and a sanctuary on the second floor.
In the 1970s, after experiencing a steady decline in parishioners and financial difficulties, the Hampden Presbyterian Church merged with nearby Waverly Presbyterian Church. The newly merged congregations used the Waverly church for services and the Hampden building served other purposes including as a community center, clinic, offices, and apartments.
In 2011, the congregation sold the building and Church & Company moved in. Owners Alex Fox and Joey Rubulata removed the old paint, paneling and ceiling tiles that accumulated from years of different uses and restored the sanctuary to its original layout. Church and Co. rent the sanctuary out for weddings, large gatherings, and music performances, and a vintage clothing store now occupies the old Sunday school portion of the building.
Family-owned since 1930, Zissimos lays claim to being the oldest business in operation on the Avenue.
In Charles Barton's 1948 romp, The Noose Hangs High, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello argue over shrimp cocktails. Abbott tells Costello to imagine he's in Grand Central station with a ticket in his pocket. Where is he going? Costello doesn't understand why he should be going anywhere, but Abbott presses him:
"I'll go to Baltimore," Costello says.Lou Costello's connection to Baltimore was more than casual. His aunt, Eva Zissimos, owned Zissimos Bar with her husband, Atha. Eva would host Costello when he was passing through town. His exploits at Zissimos became a riotous neighborhood event. He was known to tapdance on the bar and hand out autographed one-dollar bills to children. Costello was fond of his Baltimore family. During a show at the Hippodrome, he invited Eva's four year old granddaughter, Leiloni Pardue, to perform on stage with him. The last time Lou Costello came to Baltimore was in 1957 on his way to Washington D.C. to perform at President Eisenhower's second Inauguration. He died two years later of a heart attack. Lou Costello's antics at Zissimos are just a small part of the bar's legacy. Zissimos lays claim to being the oldest business in operation on the Avenue. It has been family owned since 1930. Atha and Eva chose the Thirty-Sixth street location because of Hampden's sizeable Greek population. The biggest Greek name in Hampden was Theodore Cavacos. He was the unofficial mayor of Hampden and owned vast swaths of property in the area, including the lucrative Cavacos Drugstore. By the end of the 1950s, there were over a dozen Greek owned establishments in Hampden, several of which were owned by members of the Zissimos family, including a dry cleaners and a restaurant. The history of Zissimos is long and eclectic. Before the building's renovation in 2014, Zissimos looked like a bunker鈥揳 fortified brick facade with a sliver of an opening for a window. The facade replaced a large picture window from which Atha sold hamburgers and hotdogs. The window met a violent end after William Zissimos and his brother Louis took over in 1955. Louis was an undefeated heavyweight boxer in the Navy and took a no-nonsense approach to running the bar. Rowdy patrons who picked a fight with him were thrown out the window, and after shattering the glass too many times, the window became irreparable. Zissimos is a much warmer place today, in large part due to the efforts of its current owner, Geli Ioannou, who married into the Zissimos family. Geli renovated Zissimos and opened the upstairs, once the home where Eva served Lou Costello hot meals, and turned it into the space for the bar's comedy night, "Who's on First?"."Of all the towns in the United States, why did you have to pick Baltimore?"
"I got friends in Baltimore!"
Stretching along Calvert Street between Madison and Monument Streets, stands a massive Italianate palace, built for the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order. Decorating the facade are arched windows with elaborate moldings, and a heavy Italianate cornice that tie together the St. Ignatius Church on the northern half (designed by Louis L. Long and completed in 1856) with Loyola College and Loyola High School on the southern half (designed by O鈥機onnor and Delaney of New York and finished in 1899).
During the 1850s, a wave of anti-Catholic sentiment swept American politics. The populist Know-Nothing Party emerged as a powerful political party characterized by xenophobia and skepticism of wealthy and intellectual elites鈥攁nd only open to Protestant men. The Know-Nothing agenda called for barring public funding of Catholic schools and reinforcing Protestant values in public schools. In response, Archbishop of Baltimore Francis Kendrick asked the Jesuit Provincial to open a Catholic college. Loyola College opened in 1852 in two adjoining buildings near City Hall on Holliday Street. The college quickly outgrew the space and a new building was commissioned at Calvert and Madison streets. Classes began on February 22, 1855 and St. Ignatius Church opened its doors eighteen months later.
Architect Louis Long modeled the design of the church after the late Renaissance/Baroque Gesu in Rome, mother church of the Jesuits. The interior features an elaborate cornice and pilasters and vivid stained glass windows installed during the 1870s. The early church congregation was a cross-section of the city's Catholic population: native Baltimoreans, Irish and German immigrants, poor and wealthy. Church leaders set aside the basement of the building for African American parishioners, many of whom went on to found St. Francis Xavier, the first all African American Catholic Church in the United States.
Loyola College moved north to the Evergreen Campus in 1922. The southern section remained mostly vacant for decades until it was repurposed in the 1970s for Center Stage鈥檚 two theaters. The design was by James Grieves and the firm of Ziger, Hoopes, and Snead.
The St. Ignatius congregation shrank dramatically after World War II as a result of many Catholics moving from the city to the suburbs. In spite of declining numbers, the church remained in the core of the city and expanded its involvement in local communities, offering the building as a shelter for homeless people and starting a middle school for Baltimore City youth. In the 1990s, the church worked to lure suburban Catholics back to the church and doubled its congregation. The decade ended with a massive restoration led by Murphy & Dittenhafer Architects. The work included the restoration of the plasterwork, rich gilding, historic interior colors, and even some of the church鈥檚 nineteenth century paintings.
A fire erupted on the morning of February 7, 1904, in the dry goods firm of John E. Hurst & Co., on what is now Redwood Street. The blaze spread wildly out of control, consuming central Baltimore. In a panic and with few options, city engineers recommended demolishing buildings in the path of the fire to create an artificial firebreak. One building on the fire's path was Thomas O'Neill's department store at Lexington and Charles Streets. The Baltimore Sun reported how O'Neill, a devout Catholic, went to a Carmelite Convent on Biddle Street to pray for the safety of his building. He then rushed back to his store to stop the firefighters from setting the charges. Fortunately, the wind shifted so the fire and firefighters spared O'Neill's store from destruction. Thomas O'Neill was convinced that God had answered his prayers. When he died in 1919, he left two-thirds of his estate to the construction of a new cathedral in Baltimore. The Archdiocese of Baltimore selected the prominent architecture firm Maginnis, Walsh, and Kennedy to design the cathedral on a twenty-five acre lot in Homewood. The firm specialized in architecture for the Catholic Church. Their work in Baltimore included the main administration building for Saint Mary's Seminary and University, which is in the Beaux-Arts style. In 1948, Charles Donagh Maginnis, an Irish immigrant, received the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for outstanding service to the profession, the institute's highest award. The architects were asked to come up with three designs: traditional, modified and modern. The Archdiocese chose the modified design which combined the traditional Gothic style with modern Art Deco elements. Workers broke ground in 1954, and completed the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in 1959. The massive cathedral is 163 feet tall and can seat up to 1,900 people. The cathedral is outfitted with two organs created by the M.P. Moeller Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. Today, the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen serves as the cathedral church of the Primary See, the first archdiocese of the United States and, together with the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, serves as one of two main centers of Catholic liturgical life in Baltimore. It is the third largest cathedral in the U.S. and has hosted several dignitaries over the years, including Pope John Paul II.
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In the mid-nineteenth century, Catholic residents of Hampden belonged to the St. Mary of the Assumption parish in Govans, a distant walk from the burgeoning neighborhood. Since the industrial mill village had been built by the owners of the mills for their predominantly white Protestant workers, they had made no accommodations for Catholics to worship in the area. At least until an Irish-Catholic immigrant named Martin Kelly started a small Catholic community. Kelly erected the first non-company housing along Falls Road east of the mills, which grew into the Hampden we know today. Kelly鈥檚 extended family occupied many of the sixteen homes Kelly erected in the 1850s. Others were likely owned by mill employees who could afford to leave the mill villages or by shopkeepers selling goods to other residents in the mill villages. Kelly built a large home for himself on Hickory Avenue, known colloquially as the Kelly Mansion. Fellow Catholics likely knew the house well. Seeking a place to worship closer to home, Kelly persuaded a priest to hold services in his home's parlor, using the piano as an altar. After Kelly's death, his son John donated the land and funds for a new Catholic church in Hampden called St. Thomas Aquinas. Rev. Thomas Foley laid the cornerstone of St. Thomas Aquinas Church on May 12, 1867. The building, designed by famed local architect George Frederick and constructed at the cost of $20,000, was completed on June 18, 1871. Archbishop Martin John Spalding attended the dedication. Today, the church complex consists of the church, rectory, school, and convent. The school was founded in 1873 and the current building went up in 1937. At the time, the school had 320 pupils and a staff of eight, hired from the School Sisters of Notre Dame. In 1973, St. Thomas Aquinas clustered with nearby parishes. Grades one to five attended St. Thomas Aquinas, while middle school students attended St. Bernard's in Waverly. Middle schoolers returned to St. Thomas Aquinas in 1996, seven years after St. Bernard's had become a Korean National Parish (which closed just a year later in 1997). The school reached a crisis point in 2010 when the archdiocese closed thirteen of sixty-four parochial schools in Baltimore. St. Thomas Aquinas avoided closure due to the leadership of its principal, Sister Marie Rose Gusatus. The school took in students from surrounding parishes. However, the school only remained open for another six years. In 2016, the Archdiocese closed St. Thomas Aquinas School along with Seton Keough High School in Southwest Baltimore and John Paul Regional School in Woodlawn. While the archdiocese claimed enrollment in Catholic schools had begun to stabilize after decades of declining enrollment, funding remained low as enrollment costs were kept low to make the schools more affordable. Also, in response to the need for costly improvements, the archdiocese decided it would be best to consolidate the schools.
Hampden Falls, now known as Round Falls, was once part of a dam servicing Rock Mill. Completed in the early nineteenth century and rebuilt several times, it became a popular subject for local artists.
The mill was razed in 1930 by Baltimore City as part of flood control efforts along the Jones Falls but the dam remained. In 2001, Baltimore-area developers Bill Struever and Ted Rouse led efforts to build a stairway and platform from which to view the falls.
The Woodberry Factory and Park Mill were built near the site of an eighteenth-century gristmill. An active industrial area for nearly two centuries, buildings here have been replaced and repurposed to meet changing demands for production of everything from textiles and netting in the nineteenth century to rubber tires and ice cream cones in the twentieth century.
John Payne, in his comprehensive 1798 tome, A New and Complete System of Universal Geography, noted the flouring mills along the Jones Falls near Baltimore. At the time, wealthy abolitionist Elisha Tyson owned two of the ten documented mills: one at the location of what is now Mill No. 1, and another in Woodberry. The Woodberry mill is described as a "handsome three story building, the first of stone and the other two of brick" that "can grind at least eighty-thousand bushels a year." Tyson's Woodberry gristmill sold to Horatio Gambrill, David Carroll, and their associates who expanded the structure into a textile mill they called the Woodberry Factory. It was the partnership鈥檚 second venture in the area after buying and converting Whitehall gristmill (just south of their new factory) for textile production in 1839. The mills manufactured cotton duck, a fabric primarily used for ship sails during a time when clipper sailing ships dominated local trade. Through the low cost of raw cotton cultivated with enslaved labor and an ability to attract workers despite lower wages than competing mills in the North, the mills along the Jones Falls cornered the market. Their largest buyers were in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. They also found markets overseas in British provinces, South America, and England. The Woodberry Factory was a purely functional building: a long, three story building designed to maximize daylight and accommodate the machinery powered by horizontal line shafts. A clerestory roof provided more light. Each floor housed machinery for a different step in the manufacturing process. A central stair tower was topped with a dome shaped bell tower. The bell rang on a schedule to call nearby workers to the factory for their shifts. The new textile mills required a large workforce and this large workforce needed homes. To this end, owners erected mill villages close to their factories. Woodberry began as a string of Gothic Revival duplexes built of locally quarried stone and resembling country cottages. The homes included yards for growing produce, raising livestock, and planting flower beds. Gambrill erected a church in the village. A school was also built, although it was common for children of mill workers to drop out early to work in the mills and help support their families. In 1850, an all-in-one general store, post-office, and social hall was constructed near the railroad tracks. Additional structures went up as operations grew and new technologies emerged. When the factory started using steam power in 1846, a boiler house was built on the side facing the Jones Falls. The factory acquired a fire engine some time before 1854; a shrewd acquisition considering the tendency for factories full of 鈥渃otton-flyings鈥 (or fuzz) to catch fire and burn. The most significant addition to the site was Park Mill, built in 1855 to produce seine netting for fishing boats. By the turn of the twentieth century, most of the mills in the Jones Falls Valley were brought under a national textile conglomerate, the Mount Vernon-Woodberry Mills. In the 1920s, the company began shuttering the mills in favor of its plants in the South. The Woodberry Factory was sold to Frank G. Schenuit Rubber Co. in 1924. In 1929, a six-alarm fire destroyed the building. Residents across the tracks had to evacuate their homes and the blaze was large enough to attract a reported crowd of 10,000 people. Schenuit manufactured truck and automobile tires, and later manufactured aircraft tires for the military during World War II. The company became dependent on government contracts and nearly went bankrupt after the war. By the 1960s, the company began expanding into the home and garden industry by buying out smaller manufacturers that made wheelbarrows, industrial wood products, lawn equipment, exercise equipment, and lawn and patio furniture. By the 1970s, Schenuit had moved out of the tire business. In 1972, after Hurricane Agnes, Schenuit sold the Woodberry plant to McCreary Tire and Rubber Company. McCreary closed down just three years later when the company laid off all of the plant鈥檚 three hundred workers. Park Mill sold in 1925, and over the next four decades, the mill was used by a variety of companies including the Commercial Envelope Company and Bes-Cone, an ice-cream cone manufacturing company established by Mitchell Glassner, who invented one of the early machines for that purpose. Today, Park Mill is leased to a number of small businesses. The Schenuit factory remains empty after yet another fire, one of the only major industrial buildings in the Jones Falls Valley awaiting redevelopment.
In this small brick house on East Pratt Street, Mary Young Pickersgill designed and fabricated the Star-Spangled Banner. Pickersgill was assisted by her mother, niece and a Black indentured servent, Grace Wisher. Grace had been indentured as an apprentice in 1809, when she was about 10 years old, by her mother, Jenny Wisher, who was a free African American. What happened to Grace after her indenture remains unknown, but what is known, is that Grace Wisher鈥檚 contribution to the creation of the Star-Spangled Banner flag deserves to be highlighted as part of its history.
This fifteen star, fifteen stripe flag flew over the ramparts of Fort McHenry while it was attacked by the British during the War of 1812. The mammoth flag, thirty by forty-two feet, withstood the British secret weapon of rockets, and was "still there" in the "dawn's early light" of September 14, 1814. From an American sloop within the enemy fleet, Francis Scott Key, inspired by the sight of this flag as it withstood heavy bombardment from the British, wrote the poem that today is known as the National Anthem of the United States of America.
This National Historic Landmark, now called the Flag House or Star-Spangled Banner House, was built in 1793. Mary Pickersgill lived here from 1807 until her death in 1857. The City of Baltimore purchased the building in 1929 and maintains it as a museum. In addition to maintaining the house, the City built a public museum with artifacts from the War of 1812 that connects physically and thematically with the Flag House, including Mary's $405.90 invoice for her work. The Smithsonian Institution continues to protect and exhibit Mary's flag, which was the world's largest when it was completed.
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USCGC (United States Coast Guard Cutter) TANEY, a National Historic Landmark, is the last surviving warship that was present and fought at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941. Named for former Secretary of the Treasury, Roger B. Taney, the ship was one of seven cutters named for Secretaries of the Treasury.
The Treasury Class cutters represented the ultimate development of pre-World War II patrol gunboats. They were large, powerful warships designed to provide maritime law enforcement, search and rescue services, and communication and weather services on the high seas. Treasury class cutters served as convoy escorts, amphibious force flagships, shore bombardment vessels, and maritime patrol ships in World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Crisis, and the Vietnam War. TANEY was built in 1936.
Following Pearl Harbor, TANEY steamed into the Atlantic for convoy duty in 1944, then returned to the Pacific in 1945 to participate in the Okinawa campaign and the occupation of Japan. After service in Vietnam she was decommissioned in 1986.
For more than 200 years artisans here have hammered out practical and ornamental ironwork that still graces local landmarks as Otterbein Methodist Church, the Basilica of the Assumption, Baltimore's Washington Monument, Zion Church, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Baltimore Zoo.
"There is hardly a building in Baltimore that doesn't contain something we made, even if it is only a nail," boasts Theodore Krug, heir to the oldest continuously working iron shop in the country. G. Krug & Son is one of the oldest companies in Baltimore, and the oldest ironworks factory in the country. These ironworks have been in operation without interruption, at the same location, since 1810. At that time, it was operated by Augustus Schwatka who was listed in the Baltimore Directory of 1810 as Schwatka, Augustus, blacksmith, corner of Saratoga St. and Short Alley. The firm changed hands in 1830, when it was sold to Andrew Merker. It was then listed as Merker, A., Locksmith and Bell Hanger, Eutaw St. and Saratoga. Today, the profession of "bell hanger" combined with "locksmith" may sound strange; however, in the year 1831 it made sense as more and more churches were being built. Gustav Krug came to Baltimore in 1848 and worked under Merker, but quickly advanced to foreman, then partner of the company. Upon the death of Andrew Merker in 1871, Gustav Krug became the sole proprietor, and "A. Merker & Krug" became "G. Krug & Son" in 1875. By the late nineteenth century, the company records listed the most important jobs as Johns Hopkins Hospital, Emanuel Church, Otterbein Church, and one of Baltimore's most famous landmarks, "The Fountain Inn." The bill for the Fountain Inn at the time was $524.00 for 262 feet of plain railing and $475.65 for 151 feet of fancy railing. The Krugs' signature "Otterbein Style" has become synonymous with Baltimore history and can be seen on many buildings throughout the city. While the company keeps a steady flow of new work, it also restores the work made by its predecessors. G. Krug & Son is one of the few companies left in Baltimore that can state it helped in building the city. Today, the company is run by 5th generation Peter Krug.
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During World War II, the SS John W. Brown belonged to a fleet of 2,700 Liberty Ships transporting war materiel and allied troops across dangerous waters. Today, the ship is one of just two Liberty Ships still sailing and serves as a unique memorial museum ship based out of Baltimore.
During World War II, the SS John W. Brown belonged to a fleet of 2,700 Liberty Ships transporting war materiel and allied troops across dangerous waters. Today, the ship is one of just two Liberty Ships still sailing and serves as a unique memorial museum ship based out of Baltimore.
Liberty Ships were born in 1941 out of a an urgent need for cargo ships that could be built quickly during the war. Originally designed by the British, the U.S Maritime Commission modified the design to meet U.S shipbuilding standards, accommodate the shortage of ship-building supplies, and build as quickly and cheaply as possible. What was the result? A fleet of ships commonly known as 鈥渆mergency ships鈥 or 鈥渦gly ducklings鈥 because of their basic appearance. Their name changed, however, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the nation that the fleet of ships would bring liberty to Europe. From then on, everyone called them Liberty Ships.
On September 7, 1942, Labor Day, the SS John W. Brown launched at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard. The Brown was one of six Liberty ships launched that day鈥攅ach named after a different labor leader. The Brown is named after John W. Brown, a labor leader and union organizer from Maine who had died in an accident in 1941. Despite over 200 ships being lost to enemy combat, fire, collision, or other disasters, the ability of American shipyards could build Liberty Ships cheaply and at a large scale made it possible for supplies to continue reaching the allied forces fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Between the beginning and end of the Emergency Shipbuilding Plan, an average of 52 Liberty Ships were constructed per month at ports all over the United States.
SS John W. Brown made thirteen voyages over the course of four years in support of the Allied war effort. She pulled into ports in Iran, Central America, Tunisia, the Caribbean, and Brazil. In 1944, she directly participated in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France. Her cargo included U.S. troops going to and from Europe, prisoners of war, and a variety of raw materials, such as bauxite (an aluminum ore).
In 1946, the government loaned the Brown to the City of New York, where she became a floating maritime high school, the only one in the United States. For 36 years, thousands of students received training that prepared them to begin careers in the Merchant Marine. Students learned about maintenance and cargo handling in the Deck Department; how to operate the steam plant and auxiliary machinery in the engine department; and how to cook for their classmates and keep the galley stocked and clean in the Stewards Department. Students and instructors lovingly cared for the ship up until the school closed in 1982.
The careful maintenance eased the way for a group of volunteers, who formed Project Liberty Ship in 1988, to restore the SS John W. Brown to sailing condition. The SS John W. Brown returned to her home in Baltimore and was rededicated as a memorial museum ship. She honors the memory of the shipyard workers, merchant seamen, and Naval Armed Guard who built, sailed, and defended the Liberty fleet. Though usually docked in Canton, she shifts to the Inner Harbor and Canton occasionally. She also makes several Living History Cruises per year.
Fort Carroll is a 3.4 acre artificial island and abandoned fort located within the shadow of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The fort was designed by then Brevet-Colonel Robert E. Lee, and construction was started in 1848 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Lee鈥檚 supervision. The fort was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. Before it was created, the only military defensive structure between Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay was Fort McHenry. Additionally, a lighthouse (now abandoned) was built to aid navigation into Baltimore鈥檚 harbor.
Though never completed and never used as a fort, the architecture is quite amazing, featuring curved granite stairs, brick archways, etc. It originally had 350 cannon ports, a blacksmith shop, carpentry shop, and a caretaker's House. In 1864, it was flooded by torrential rains and declared vulnerable and obsolete. Subsequent uses of the fort included storing mines during the Spanish-American War, holding seamen, and as a pistol range. Most of the steel was salvaged for the war effort and the government abandoned the fort in 1920.
While there have been plans over the past ninety years to redevelop the site, nothing was able to come to fruition and it has fallen into extreme disrepair.
South Bond Street features a handful of nineteenth century wooden houses, including several built before the War of 1812. A relatively diverse population of European descent made up the neighborhood during the early 1800s. Martin Breitenoder, a German, owned a bakery at 820-22 S. Bond (c.1802). His neighbors included a French cabinetmaker, an Italian named S. Belli, who manufactured 鈥減hilosophical apparatus and other works in pewter and lead,鈥 and an Irishman who ran a tavern at the 鈥淪ign of the Revenue Barge.鈥 Irish, English, and Scottish boot and shoemakers are nearby, one of whom, Edward Hagthorp, made fine shoes at 816 S. Bond.
The street鈥檚 finest house, 830 S. Bond (c. 1783) passed from builder Thomas Winning to his daughter in the 1790s before Thames Street innkeeper Daniel James acquired the house after the War of 1812.
809 South Bond Street is a good example of the simple wooden houses that filled Fells Point at that time. Deed research has only identified the owners as far back as 1851, when the property was sold to John Fernandis and Maria Locke.