In the summer of 1976, Marc O鈥機arroll, a student and artist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), designed and installed the Mnemonic sculpture next to the campus鈥 Fine Arts Building. The sculpture, a collection of steel trees displayed in various stages of being chopped down, brought a unique appeal to an institution that seemed overly engrossed with rapidly expanding in size and scope at any cost necessary.
As a student at the university, Marc O鈥機arroll grew fond of a massive and ancient sycamore tree that was located behind the school鈥檚 Dining Hall. The sycamore had stood on the campus years before administrators had begun planning for the UMBC campus. However, university workers cut down the tree in 1976 to build a short driveway for trucks to pull into during the construction of the new University Center. When O鈥機arroll was commissioned by the university to construct a sculpture project, he decided to pay homage to the destroyed sycamore tree by building the Mnemonic. O鈥機arroll intended for the sculpture to stand as a memorial to all the trees that had been cut down to make way for new campus construction projects during the 1970s.
By welding his memories in steel, Marc O鈥機arroll created a dynamic sculpture that invites people to reminisce about nature and its surroundings. Although the artist is no longer at UMBC and neither is the massive sycamore tree, the Mnemonic carries on the memories of both.
The Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park was established in April 2001 as part of a larger tree-planting effort that supported projects across the Baltimore region. Designer Renee van der Stelt, project coordinator for UMBC鈥檚 Fine Arts Gallery, now the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, developed the Joseph Beuys Tree Partnership with a mission to 鈥渆xtend beyond the gallery walls [and] bring art to the people.鈥 Joseph Beuys, a German avant-garde artist who emphasized natural materials in his work, inspired the new sculpture park鈥攅specially his most famous piece: 7000 Oaks.
Between 1982 and 1987 residents of Kassel, Germany planted 7,000 oak trees in the town and installed a stone next to each tree. As the oaks grow, the stones erode, nourishing the soil around the trees. 鈥淭he intention of such a tree-planting event,鈥 Beuys explained in a 1982 interview, 鈥渋s to point up the transformation of all of life, of society, and of the whole ecological system.鈥 Beuys believed that all of nature and humanity are in relationship with one another and this inter-connectedness is represented by both the installation itself and by the collaboration necessary to bring the art into existence. He called this type of partnership 鈥渟ocial sculpture.鈥
In the fall of 2000, hundreds of children and adults pitched in to bring 鈥渟ocial sculpture鈥 to Baltimore. With help from nearly two dozen community organizations, the Joseph Beuys Tree Partnership organized volunteers to plant trees and rocks throughout the city. Annapolis-based TKF Foundation, an organization that promotes its mission of peace through the development of green space, provided funding for the Tree Partnership. The volunteers planted trees in Patterson Park, Wyman Park Dell, and Carroll Park in Baltimore. Later, stones were installed in each park to continue the Beuys model. The thirty oak trees and thirty granite stones planted on the UMBC campus in spring 2001 completed the project.
Visitors to the UMBC Sculpture Park can find a journal stored under one of the benches. The book provides an opportunity for visitors to contribute to the social sculpture by recording their thoughts and feelings. In 2011, the journal entries became source material for a music and dance program entitled 鈥淐reative Acts: Site Specific Dance & Music in Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park.鈥 UMBC students composed and performed the music for a program hosted by the UMBC Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC). Their original works expressed 鈥渁 dialogue between the human instinct to preserve and enjoy nature while also transforming and polluting it.鈥 They encouraged the audience to add to the journal during the performance, continuing the interactions that make up the social sculpture.
The Joseph Beuys Sculpture Garden, along with its sister parks throughout Baltimore, is a space in which the art is constantly changing. Its material is not just the wood and stone, but the oxygen which the trees contribute to the air to combat the car exhaust from the adjacent parking lot, the minerals slowly eroding into the soil from the granite, and the deep breath that a harried college student takes when she stops for a moment on the bench and records her frustrations in the field journal. All are in relationship, and all are participating in the social sculpture.
More than a century before UMBC situated itself on Hilltop Circle another educational institution formed here; its mission was to advance the reformation of a poor lot of "indigent boys" from Baltimore.
The Baltimore Manual Labor School for indigent boys, also known as the Arbutus Farm School, was established in 1841. The school emerged from of a larger social movement developing in urban Victorian society at the time. Amidst the energetic fervor of the Second Great Awakening, white, middle-class Americans began actively participating in a reform movement to change the lives of the poor, inner-city population. Industrialization in the early nineteenth century brought extreme population growth to urban centers. In Baltimore, the population grew six fold between the years of 1820 and 1860. Specialized private and federal institutions formed to battle a rise in young people living in poverty. They began working to relocate children from what they saw as unpromising home environments to more positive atmospheres. The school provided a, 鈥淔ree Boarding School for indigent boys, mostly sons of poor widows who are unable to feed, clothe, and train their boys during the years that they should be acquiring an education, to enable each to attain a position of self support.鈥 The School opened its doors in 1841 with fifteen 鈥渄estitute and orphaned boy[s].鈥 By 1843, the Baltimore Manual Labor School had taken into its care a total of forty-two children. By applying the boys to a rigorous program centered primarily on physical labor, the school intended to mold the character of these young men, while at the same time supplying them with applicable work skills, effectively generating productive members of society. In 1893, directors of the Baltimore Manual Labor School wrote:
鈥渢he best occupation we can train our boys up to, is that of a farmer. It is perhaps almost the only calling which is not overcrowded, and the one most likely to produce an honorable and independent livelihood for the boys who have no capital, but health and energy.鈥The types of farm work included tending to the orchards, vegetable gardens, green houses and livestock. The boys attended educational classes including writing, reading and math. They also attended the Catonsville Methodist Church on Sundays and engaged in daily religious exercises. However, education and religion took a backseat to manual labor which required of a six hour daily shift from each child, even for young boys. The school admitted boys as young as five. In 1922, Spring Grove Hospital purchased the land following a devastating fire in 1916. The Stabler family owned the property and helped to run the school. Family patriarch Edmund Stabler held the position of superintendent from 1884 to 1904. Interestingly, the hospital used the farmland for a patient agricultural rehabilitation program. The state incorporated this and adjacent tracts of land in the early 1960鈥檚 in order to create UMBC. The Stabler home was used by Dr. Albin O. Kuhn, UMBC鈥檚 first Chancellor, during the construction of the campus and the Albin O. Kuhn Library now occupies the site where the home stood.
Overlooking the Inner Harbor from Federal Hill stands the statue of Major General Samuel Smith (1752-1839). Smith's life as a Revolutionary War officer, merchant, ship-owner, and U.S. Senator earned him the experience and fortitude in the momentous crises before to successfully command Baltimore during the War of 1812 and its darkest hour: the British attack on Washington and Baltimore in 1814. The statue, funded by the city's 1914 centennial celebration of the Battle of Baltimore, is the design of sculptor Hans Schuler (1874-1951) who studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The statue was first erected at Wyman Park Dell at North Charles and 29th Streets in 1917 and dedicated on July 4, 1918. In 1953, the Recreation and Parks Department moved the sculpture to "Sam Smith Park" at the corner of Pratt and Light Streets, the future waterfront site of the 1980 Rouse Company Harborplace project. In 1970, with the Inner Harbor renewal project underway, the statue moved again to the present site on Federal Hill, where in 1814 a gun battery had been erected and the citizens of Baltimore witnessed the fiery bombardment of Fort McHenry. The inscriptions on the monument read:
MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL SMITH, 1752-1839 / UNDER HIS COMMAND THE ATTACK OF THE BRITISH UPON BALTIMORE BY LAND AND SEA SEPTEMBER 12-14, / 1814 WAS REPULSED. MEMBER OF CONGRESS FORTY SUCCESIVE YEARS, / PRESIDENT U.S. SENATE, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE. /HERO OF BOTH WARS FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 鈥 LONG ISLAND 鈥 WHITE / PLAINS 鈥 BRANDYWINE 鈥 DEFENDER OF FORT MIFFLIN 鈥 VALLEY FORCE 鈥 / MONMOUTH 鈥 BALTIMORE. / ERECTED BY THE NATIONAL STAR-SPANGLED BANNER CENTENNIAL
On Baltimore County's historic Patapsco Neck along the Old North Point Road at the intersection of Old Battle Grove Road stands the second oldest known military monument in Maryland and the third oldest known in the United States. It is one of Maryland's least visited War of 1812 sites 鈥 the Aquila Randall Monument.
On July 21, 1817, Captain Benjamin C. Howard鈥檚听First Mechanical Volunteers听formed up early in town and marched six miles to the North Point battleground. Accompanying them were wagons conveying the monument blocks to be assembled and dedicated on site that day. The monument鈥檚 construction was directed by Lt. Thomas Towson, a stone mason听鈥渨ho aimed at simplicity and neatness.鈥 With a final application of whitewash it was dedicated to honor Private Aquila Randall a member who was killed in a skirmish just before the Battle of North Point, September 12, 1814. The company was joined by other 5thMaryland Regiment officers at the monument while Captain Howard delivered a modest appropriate address:
鈥溾.I can picture to myself the sensation of those who in far distant days will contemplate this monument鈥nd the melancholy event which has caused our assemblage at this spot鈥his monument which we are now erecting, will stand as a solemn expression of the feeling of us all鈥ut I regret that the spot, which is made classic by the effusion of blood, the sport where the long line stood un-appalled by the system and advances of an experienced and disciplined foe, has been suffered to remain unnoticed. It is here where her citizens stood arrayed soldier鈥檚 garb, that honors to a soldier鈥檚 memory should have been paid. To mark the spot be then our care.鈥︹The inscriptions on the monument read:
With a gleaming black marble fa莽ade reading "Charles Fish and Sons Company" and Victorian brick arches above, the architecture of this building clearly points to a varied history. The surprising story of the building begins before the start of the American Civil War with the foundation of the nation's first dental school by local doctors Horace Hayden and Chapin Harris. The School of Medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore had rejected their efforts to start a dental school within their institution, perhaps agreeing with the many who saw early dentists as "Ignorant, incapable men whose knowledge was composed of a few secrets which they had purchased at fabulous prices from other charlatans." In 1840, Hayden and Harris turned to the Maryland State Legislature to obtain a charter for an independent dental college鈥攖he Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.
Popular from the start, over the next forty years the college outgrew four locations finally moving to the corner of Eutaw and Franklin Streets in 1881. The new building stood as a testament to the growth of the science of dentistry and the professionalization of dentists. The Baltimore College of Dentistry occupied this building until 1915, when it became part of the University of Maryland and moved operations to the main campus a few blocks south.
In 1942, Charles Fish and his family moved their furniture and clothing business to 429 Eutaw Street and etched his name on the lustrous art deco storefront. A Jewish Russian immigrant, Fish arrived in the United States as a teenager in 1909 and lived in Virginia for years before moving to Baltimore. As early as 1945, Fish and Sons were noted for their nondiscriminatory policies, which earned them a spot on the Afro-American Newspaper's list of "orchids"鈥-businesses that welcomed all shoppers, regardless of color. Unlike many of their neighbors, who held fast to "final sale" and "no returns" policies for African Americans in pre-civil rights Baltimore (and thus were listed as "onions" on the Afro-American's pages), Fish and Sons proudly served and hired all Americans, regardless of color. Fish and Sons continued to operate their business at the corner until 1980.
Immanuel Lutheran Church purchased a six-acre farm on Grindon Lane near Harford Road in 1874 for the purpose of a cemetery. This area, known as Lauraville, was a sparsely populated community of farming families. The church, which served a mostly German congregation, was located at the time on Caroline Street and is now at Loch Raven Boulevard and Belvedere Avenue.
The purchase of the cemetery was financed by selling $5 shares to the members of the congregation. These shares were redeemable, either in cash or in burial lots. The majority of the members took advantage of the latter offer.
A chapel was built in 1882 and a home for the caretaker was added in 1890. The chapel is still used for funerals, Easter Services, and other events. The caretaker鈥檚 home is now a private residence.
The cemetery became the final resting place for a few notable Baltimoreans, such as Johnny Neun, a local Major League baseball player, and John J. Thompson, a Civil War veteran who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service during that conflict.
When Baltimorean William Painter invented the bottle cap in 1891, it didn鈥檛 take long for beverage companies (beer brewers in particular) to realize its value, and for Painter to realize he needed to build significant manufacturing facilities to keep up with demand. Painter's enterprise, the Crown Cork and Seal Company, opened its first big production facility in 1897 on Guilford Avenue and not long after expanded by opening a larger complex on Eastern Avenue in Highlandtown in 1906. The Guilford Avenue complex continued as the base of operations for custom building the sealing machinery while the Highlandtown complex acted as the hub of Crown Cork and Seal鈥檚 manufacturing operations. In 1910, the Highlandtown complex expanded again to include two new buildings. Both used mill construction with brick exteriors and granite trimmings as well as new advances like fireproof elevator shafts, fire escapes and ventilators. The five story building had two massive water towers that held 15,000 gallons each to be released in case a fire broke out inside. Crown Cork and Seal鈥檚 Highlandtown complex became the base of machinery production in 1928 after the owners abandoned the Guildford Avenue plant. Despite its modern fire protections, however, the added activity at the complex and its constantly whirring electrical machines were at high risk of fire. In 1940, managers at the building made twenty-six calls to the fire department, almost all of which appeared unnecessary, until one signaled a very real five-alarm fire. Despite the loss of $500,000 in baled cork, the company minimized the damage and kept churning out bottle caps for the world鈥檚 beer brewers. In 1958, Crown Cork and Seal moved its headquarters from Baltimore to Philadelphia and the owners sold a group of thirty buildings, including the Guilford Avenue complex, to the city for $1.5 million. The Highlandtown plant continued to operate for nearly 30 more years, but finally closed in 1987 as use of aluminum and plastic containers rose and the demand for glass bottle caps waned. Today the building houses artist studios and light manufacturing and is occasionally used by movie studios.
In October 1835, Eleanora Weber, her son, Edward Weber, and her nephew, Augustus Hoen, carried pieces of lithographic machinery, lithographic stones, and ink powders from Coblenz, Germany, to America. Upon arriving in America, Weber founded the Edward Weber & Co. So began 146 years of continuous business for the company, which garnered it the title of the oldest lithographic firm in the United States. After Weber鈥檚 death in 1848, Augustus took over and renamed the business A. Hoen & Co., Lithographers and Printers. Hoen helped create an international name for the company. He patented his litho-caustic method of printing, which required citric acid and gum Arabic to be laid over the etching in order to allow the lithographer to see the progress of his work. The company became most readily known for its maps, art reproductions, medical charts, and posters. Also, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, A. Hoen & Co. printed Confederate money. In 1880, the firm operated from a building on Lexington Street next to City Hall. The six-floor building owned by A. Hoen & Co. held ten additional businesses aside from the lithographers. At around the same time that Hoen received patents for producing halftone prints, the Lexington Street building caught fire. The top three floors and the roof suffered severe damage. The fire cost the Hoen Company roughly $150,000 in machinery and building damage. It also cost the Southern Electric Company, occupying an office in the building, approximately $75,000. Immediately after the fire, the firm moved to a temporary location in order to finish their government contracts, which preceded the establishment of the Government Printing Office. In 1902, A. Hoen & Co. moved to a new location on Biddle Street. The Lexington Street building was sold to the city in 1921 and after a failed renovation plan, it was torn down in 1926. During their time in operation at the Biddle Street location, the building had four different additions constructed to give the company more space. In honor of Aloys Senefelder (inventor of the lithographic process), the Senefelder symbol and the words 鈥淪ara Loquuntur鈥 (which meant 鈥渢he stones tell鈥) adorned the entrance. In 1969, the Maryland Historical Society and A. Hoen & Co. partnered to provide an exhibition of Hoen Lithographers鈥 history. A. Hoen & Co. succumbed to bankruptcy in 1981 after the pressure of a decline in business, the failure of a merger effort, an adverse tax ruling, and a union disagreement.The building on Biddle Street, after sitting empty for years, is planned for redevelopment. A joint venture aims to turn the abandoned building into housing for nurses, office space, and a caf茅. The building鈥檚 85,000 square feet will cost roughly $17 million to renovate. The redevelopment broke ground in the spring of 2018 and is expected to be complete in 2019.
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Just around the corner from the busy shops and restaurants of Thames Street is the Robert Long House at 812 South Ann Street, the very image of a handsome eighteenth century colonial residence and one of the oldest homes in Baltimore. However, this is only the most recent chapter in a long and varied history for this architectural treasure. In 1765, Robert Long built his 28 square foot home on three plots of land purchased from Edward Fell, who first established Fell鈥檚 Point in 1731. The first two plots would hold the home and garden. The third, housed a warehouse which Long eventually sold in 1771. Two centuries later, in 1975, the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill, Montgomery Street and Fells Point (now known simply as the Preservation Society) started planning the restoration of the Robert Long House. The Robert Long House exemplifies the life of an ordinary merchant in the eighteenth century. Many of the historic houses in Baltimore belonged to wealthy landowners or public figures showing the high class culture of the time. Conversely, the Robert Long House speaks to the daily life of an ordinary merchant. The Maryland State Society Daughters of the American Revolution made the furnishing of the first floor parlor their U.S. Bicentennial project. Inside, historic objects like the beaded baseboard, molded chair rail, baluster staircase and plaster walls made with deer or cow hair reflect the period construction and design. By 1984, the Preservation Society completed most of the interior and the Perennial Garden Club finished roughly half of the garden. The club populated the grounds with 鈥渙f the era鈥 plants and herbs and ran a crushed Oyster shell walkway from the back door to the back gate. To the tune of $125,000, the renovations included an upstairs office for the Preservation Society. Unfortunately, a building fire in December 1999 caused major damage to the offices and the building鈥檚 roof. Neighbors quickly helped remove a 200-year-old grandfather clock before the ceiling collapsed. Firefighters had to destroy much of the roof to contain the blaze and left the first floor parlor with severe water damage. At the time, the society had been raising money for a maritime museum and visitors鈥 center. With the cost of the damage, those hopes had to be postponed. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of its completion in 2015, the house tells the stories of the rise of Fell's Point as a major East Coast port, the growth then decline of American industrial technologies, the diverse and multiple waves of immigration for over 180 years and now the rise of a modern, vibrant historic seaport neighborhood.
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The first Patterson Theater to occupy 3136 Eastern Avenue opened in 1910. In 1918, Harry Reddish purchased the building to renovate and redecorate it. He reopened it two years later and renamed it the 鈥淣ew Patterson鈥. The Patterson Theater housed a large second floor dancehall with a wide stage and organ that could only be turned on by climbing under the stage. In 1929, the 鈥淣ew Patterson鈥 closed. The next year saw a larger Patterson Theater, referred to as a playhouse, built in place of the old building. It opened September 26, 1930, showing Queen High with Charles Ruggles. Built by the Durkee Organization, John J. Zink designed the 85x150 ft building. He used a plain brick exterior (one of the plainest Zink ever designed). But the ornate, vertical sign appealed to the public. The interior color scheme consisted of red, orange, and gold with matching draperies and indirect lighting from crystal chandeliers. The theater鈥檚 low back chairs and spring-cushioned seats held between 900 to 1,500 people at a time. During its construction, designers took great care to ensure crisp 听acoustics for the showing of talking pictures. The Grand Theater Company, an affiliate of Durkee Enterprises, operated the Patterson Theater. In November 1958 an usher accidentally started a fire that caused considerable damage to the auditorium. By the spring of 1975 the owners twinned the theater into two 500 seat spaces, but the 听machinery remained untouched. In 1986, the old machinery proved deadly when a refrigeration company鈥檚 employee asphyxiated on Freon gas in the basement cooling system. The theater filled with firefighters who had to remove the maintenance man and set up large fans to push the colorless, odorless gas from the building. The Patterson Theater continued to operate until 1995, but by then the theater only showed discount films. It would be the last theater operated by the Durkee Organization. Creative Alliance, a community organization geared toward bringing audiences and artists together, undertook an extensive multi-million dollar renovation of the old Patterson Theater. Renovations began in 2000 when Cho Benn Holback & Associates gutted and rebuilt the building鈥檚 interior. Creative Alliance kept the fireproof concrete projection booth but turned the remainder of the space into a multi-purpose art center with galleries, artist studios, a marquee lounge and a flexible theater. While the historic vertical sign was one of the last originals in the city, extensive deterioration meant it could not be salvaged. Instead, Creative Alliance had it duplicated and replaced just before their reopening in May 2003. Work continued a few years later with the addition of a caf茅. The original concrete fireproof projection booth remained and became the focal point of the dining room. Gabriel Kroiz, Chair of Undergraduate Design for the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University, recalls when the building showed movies:
鈥淚 have been going to the building since I was a kid. I saw Star Wars there when it came out. I remember when it split in two and started showing the films two weeks after they had been released for less money and then when they closed.鈥Since the opening of the new building, Creative Alliance has hosted hundreds of new events, including live performances, exhibitions, films and workshops.
The Walters Art Museum, so named for William Walters and his son Henry, began as a private art collection. Born in 1819, William was the first of eight children. At age 21 he moved to Baltimore and entered the wholesale liquor trade. He prospered in this and in his dealings with the East Coast railroads. He married Ellen Harper and had three children. The eldest died in early childhood, leaving only Henry and Jennie. In 1861, the family moved away from the Civil War in the U.S. to Paris. There, William and Ellen began collecting European art. Shortly thereafter, Ellen died of pneumonia.
The spring of 1874 brought the family back to Baltimore. William began allowing the public into his private collection every Wednesday in April and May. He donated the 50-cent admission fee to the Baltimore Association for the Improvement in the Condition of the Poor. His collection focused heavily on modern European paintings and Asian art. Upon his death in 1894, the collection passed to his son Henry.
Henry followed in his father鈥檚 footsteps as a railway magnate and art collector. His success in business made him one of the wealthiest men in nineteenth century America. He greatly expanded his collection of art with a $1 million purchase of 1,700 pieces, the first of its kind in American art collecting, from priest Don Marcello Massarenti. The purchase contained Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities, Medieval and Renaissance bronzes, ivories and furniture, as well as a wealth of Italian paintings from the 12th through 18th centuries. This would come to be the second largest collection of Italian paintings in North America (the first being the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York).
However, the public doubted the authenticity of the collection he purchased after the self-portrait of Raphael turned out to be a forgery. Unknown to the public, Henry had purchased the collection with several forgeries he intended to resell. The purchase still held many valuable, authentic pieces of art that would serve to better complete his personal collection. He broadened the collection with Egyptian, Ancient Near Eastern, Islamic and Western Medieval art.
Later in life, Henry continued to make individual purchases for his collection, including bringing the first 鈥淢adonna鈥 by Raphael into America: Madonna of the Candelabra. After his passing in 1931, Henry bequeathed the building and his collection to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for public use. In 1934, the Walters Art Gallery opened to the public. As it added more art to its collection through purchases and gifts, it renamed itself in 2000 to the Walters Art Museum.
From 1935 until her retirement in 1970, Lillie Carroll Jackson was president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP and for much of this time her home on Eutaw Place was a hub of civil rights organizing and activism.
Born in 1889, Lillie Carroll was the seventh of eight children in her family. Her father was Methodist Minister Charles Henry Carroll. In 1935, she became the leader of the Baltimore Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She quickly grew chapter鈥檚 membership from 100 in 1935 to 17,600 in 1946, making Baltimore one of the largest chapters in the country.
Her advocacy efforts included supporting the 鈥淏uy Where You Can Work鈥 campaign to promote integrated businesses and boycott segregated ones (1931); leading efforts to register black voters and shift in city politics (1942); and pursuing the integration of Baltimore鈥檚 schools after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954). Known as Dr. Jackson after receiving an honorary degree from Morgan State University in 1958, she also served on the NAACP鈥檚 national board. For the 35 years she led the Baltimore NAACP, she never earned a paycheck, using her rental properties as her sole source of income.
Lillie M. Carroll Jackson died in 1975 at 86 years old. In her will, she left her home, often the center of operations for her chapter, to her daughter Virginia Kiah for the construction of a museum. Virginia, an artist, quickly began turning her mother鈥檚 old house into a museum of Civil Rights. The museum opened in 1978.
The house, in which Jackson lived from 1953 to 1975, holds Civil Rights Movement photos, documents and memorabilia. The house stood as the first privately owned black museum to be named after a black woman. In honor of her mother鈥檚 wishes, Virginia kept the museum free of charge to ensure that it was accessible to everyone. After the museum closed in the 1990s, Morgan State University took over the management of the building. In 2012, Morgan State University completed a beautiful restoration of Jackson鈥檚 spacious Bolton Hill home on Eutaw Place and the building is now open as the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum.
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with research support from Baltimore Architecture Foundation
Frederick Law Olmsted pastoral style, seen in Sudbrook Park, created a sense of peace and a place to restore the spirit.
Sudbrook Park is one of only three examples in the country of Frederick Law Olmsted鈥檚 鈥減erfect鈥 suburban community. The other two, Riverside in Chicago and Druid Hills in Atlanta, would make him a pioneer in landscape architecture. Frederick Law Olmsted felt a pull to make suburban communities long before it was in fashion to live in them. He used two styles of creation: pastoral and picturesque. Unlike the pastoral approach, he used a picturesque style to heighten the mysteriousness of the location with a constant play on shadow and light. Sudbrook Park鈥檚 land originally belonged to the McHenry family and passed to J. Howard McHenry by his grandfather. McHenry had a plan for a suburban community on a large portion of his land but with horse and carriage as the only means of transportation at that time, he deferred his dream. His lifetime efforts ensured the construction of a railroad through his lands. He died in 1888 and the Sudbrook Company bought part of his land. Now with rail access, the company then began planning the community he always desired. Early on, McHenry reached out to Olmsted to get some provisional layouts on Sudbrook but he focused heavily on the cost and never finalized the project. The Sudbrook Company followed suit and immediately contacted Olmsted for the design, which they immediately adopted. In 1889, the detailed construction began. Sudbrook鈥檚 main design feature focused on Olmsted鈥檚 use of curvilinear lines. The curved roads endlessly pulled visitors deeper to the heart of the community. His revolutionary methods, however, created a dilemma with laying out the stakes for the roads. No one knew how to lay out curved lines, so Olmsted made a special drawing including the radii and tangents of each curve. Olmsted favored the Sudbrook suburb as a place where the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the city gave way to clean personal and community spaces. He placed emphasis on fences to mark property lines as he blamed the lack of defined personal space as a contributor to the unsanitary practices of the city. He also preferred to have plenty of street and sidewalk space to allow for leisurely strolls or drives through the area. Unfortunately, many of the original sidewalks disappeared when the city widened the street for cars. Beautiful, park-like spaces created a sense of community and provided ample space for neighborhood activities. In the heart of Sudbrook, Olmsted left a large plot for a church or community building as an epicenter for the area. Once construction finished, Olmsted insisted on 16 deed restrictions for Sudbrook homeowners to protect his master plan and the residential character of the neighborhood.* In 1973, after years of growth and decline, the National Register officially recognized Sudbrook Park as a National Historic District. While the historic district did not cover later construction at the edges, it preserved the heart of the community. Later, the Maryland Transit Administration, against strong objections from the community, added a subway through the edge of the community which many feel destroyed the alluring entrance way. In response, the community fostered extensive landscaping to bring the area back to its former glory. Currently, the area participates in the Tree-mendous Maryland program which offers trees for public areas at reasonable prices. Sudbrook leaders have also added the 600 block of Cliveden Road and hope to make more additions in the future.
*Considered the first example of comprehensive land-use requirements in Maryland, the restrictions are as follows:
The congregation at Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church began in 1787, the first African American Methodist congregation in Baltimore. By 1802, the congregants had purchased their first building on Sharp Street between Lombard and Pratt Streets. An addition in 1811 added space to the church and allowed Rev. Daniel Coker to open a 鈥淪chool for Negroes.鈥 In 1867, leaders from Sharp Street expanded their education mission and with other prominent church leaders around the city established the Centenary Biblical Institute, now Morgan State University.
The church moved to its current building on Dolphin and Etting Streets in 1898. A week-long celebration followed the dedication of the $70,000 church. Made of gray granite, the Baltimore Sun reported at the time that the Dolphin Street church stood as one of the 鈥渉andsomest church[es] for a colored congregation in the state.鈥 In 1921, church leaders added the adjoining Community House to the church.
Along with a handsome building, Sharp Street Church has a rich history of civil rights activism. In addition to spearheading efforts to advance education for African Americans in the nineteenth century, the church was spiritual home to civil rights leader Lillie M. Carroll Jackson, president of the Baltimore NAACP from 1935 until 1970 and known as the mother of the civil rights movement. Ms. Jackson started in the church as a child, singing soprano in the choir. As an adult, she delivered fiery speeches in front of the congregation urging African Americans to do something about their rights. At Jackson鈥檚 death in 1975, the church held a three hour funeral service where over 1,200 people attended. Today the church still serves as a beacon of religious freedom and history throughout the city.
James Carey originally sold the generous country estate that became Loudon Park Cemetery in 1853. The new owner, James Primrose, built a stone wall with an ornamental railing at the cemetery entrance and enlisted an engineer to map out lots for purchase at twenty-five cents per square foot. The cemetery鈥檚 popularity grew quickly, leading to reburials from Green Mount Cemetery, Loudon鈥檚 greatest competitor. The cemetery made a series of large land purchases including William F. Primrose鈥檚 nearby 鈥淟inden鈥 estate. In 1895, the cemetery purchased the last parcel of land bordering on Wilkens Avenue to build a main entrance to the grounds. This still serves as the main entrance to this day.
Loudon Park Cemetery became the first cemetery to have its' own trolley system, opening a railway line in 1905. Baltimore City used a special trolley car named the 鈥淒olores鈥 to transport caskets and grieving family members to the cemetery gate. From there, the family transferred to the cemetery鈥檚 personal trolley and a horse-drawn hearse carried caskets to the grave. Baltimore City sold the cemetery two rail cars, later renamed 鈥淟oudon鈥 and 鈥淟inden鈥. Equipped with oak finishes and velvet lining, each car seated up to thirty.
The National Cemetery and Confederate Hill also occupy space at Loudon Park. During the Civil War, Maryland contributed around 63,000 Union forces and about 22,000 Confederate forces. As a 鈥渂order state鈥 families from both sides needed to bury their loved ones. Loudon Park sold a portion of its land (5.28 acres) on the eastern boundary to the government for the burial of Union soldiers. Lots sold at ten cents for soldiers and twenty-five cents for officers. Confederate Hill came about as lot-holders with southern sympathies donated their plots for the burial of Confederate veterans. On the southwest corner of the Loudon Park National Cemetery, a stone monument marks the burial place of twenty-nine Confederate soldiers who died at Fort McHenry as prisoners.
Cemetery monuments mark more famous plots such as the Jerome Bonaparte Monument by the remains of Napoleon鈥檚 nephew, niece-in-law, and several other members of the Bonaparte family. The family of Charles Weber, who established the Fifth Regiment Band, erected a mausoleum lined in Japanese Hollies with his likeness etched in stained glass. Richard B. Fitzgerald鈥檚 striking monument contains beautiful statues and large urns while the Weisskittels built a silver-painted, cast-iron one. Lastly, the Weissner Monument, for the family that once owned the American Brewery, stands tall with detailed angels and urns.
The Polish Home Club, known then as the Polish Home Hall, opened to six hundred members of the Polish community on August 11, 1918, in an area of Fell's Point known as 鈥淟ittle Poland.鈥 Baltimore鈥檚 Polish population grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century as Polish immigrants arrived at the port to work on the docks. By the turn of the century, the community was well-established with Polish churches, a Polish-language newspaper and financial institutions that offered loans to Polish people. By 1923, the Polish community had become large and organized enough to gain political representation through Baltimore鈥檚 first Polish city councilman, Edward Novak. The Polish Home Hall, erected at a cost of $81,000 and affectionately called Dom Polski, opened to great fanfare. Marked by a banquet and speeches by Wladislaus Urbanski and Rev. Stanislaus Wachowiak, the dedication ceremonies revealed a beautiful community hall for future events. The night followed with music by the Polish National Band and dancing. Two years after the hall opened, it hosted the Polish Falcons鈥 Alliance, an international Polish organization, for an annual convention and accompanying athletic contests in Patterson Park. When financial difficulties nearly led to the close of the Polish Home Hall, the Polish Home Club, organized in 1933 and led a community effort to raise funds for the building attracting around two thousand supporters. The Polish Home Club organized the first Polish Festival in 1973 at the Constellation Dock. The festival featured Polish food, music, dancing, and singing. In the years to follow, the festival enjoyed a long run at Rash Field, then Patterson Park, and currently, Timonium Fairgrounds. The largest draw to the Polish Home Club is its restored wood dance floor. The club hosts a dance every Friday and Saturday evening where they play traditional Polish music and pop and serve Krupnik, the house drink, at the bar. The hall is also available for community events and gatherings. The Polish population of Fell's Point has dwindled and a thriving Latino population has filled the void. As the neighborhood around the club changes, some fear that Polish traditions might be lost. However, the Polish Home Club hopes to stick around and be a cultural resource for future generations of people with Polish heritage.
The houses at 612 and 614 South Wolfe Street are two of the smallest and oldest wooden homes remaining in Fell鈥檚 Point. Ann Bond Fell Giles, widow of Edward Fell, inherited both properties following the death of her first husband. She remarried and had several more children. Upon her death, the properties ended up in the hands of her youngest daughter Susannah Giles Moore and her husband Phillip Moore. It stayed in their hands until Phillip died insolvent in 1833 or 1834. The houses were built somewhere between February 1798 and 1801, though likely closer to the later date. 612 was connected to another property at 610 South Wolfe Street in its earliest days, and both were rented to Edward Callow in 1801. 614 South Wolfe Street was also rented out by the owners to Patrick Morrison. Between 1842 and 1854, the buildings became homes to African American ship caulkers Richard Jones, Henry Scott, and John Whittington. The shipbuilding industry in Fell鈥檚 Point depended on free and enslaved black labor. Caulking, the process by which a ship is waterproofed and sealed, was dominated by black workers including Frederick Douglass who worked as a caulker in Baltimore in the 1830s.. For a time, the Black Caulker Association held a near monopoly over Baltimore's caulking industry. The Black Caulker Association lost power in the mid-nineteenth century as European immigrants arrived competing for work. The houses on Wolfe Street were named the Caulker Houses in honor of the caulkers who lived there. The houses are also known as the 鈥淭wo Sisters Houses鈥 after sisters Mary Leeke Rowe Dashiell and Eleanor Marine Dashiell, descendants of the Leeke, Marine, and Dashiell families. They owned the houses prior to the acquisition by the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell鈥檚 Point.
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713 South Ann Street is a rare wooden house surviving within a row from 711 to 715 South Ann Street. Built around 1800, the 1804 City Directory lists Patrick Travis, a sea-captain, as the resident of the house at the time. The earliest deed located for the property is from 1851 and shows the house being sold to Anna Maria White from John J. Roose on November 28th of that year.
After it was covered by formstone for a number of years, owner and construction expert Glenn Henley restored the old wood facade in 2001.
707 South Regester Street was built between 1760 and 1780 when Regester was known as Argyle Alley. Deed research tracing back to 1814 shows the house was owned by Joseph Brown until he sold it to Issac Stansbury in October of 1814. It was originally free standing and may have been an outbuilding for a main house fronting on Ann Street.
When Reverend Robert L. Young took on the restoration of the house in 1972, he found many original hand cut nails, which he reused in the rehabilitation. If Young had to replace a historic feature, he searched diligently for one that matched in both age and material. What Young found on the interior of the house was also telling. He found evidence of the original plaster in a few places, as well as the original blue paint and chair rails around the rooms. The interior woodwork has beading and backband molding typical of its era.
Aside from a careful examination of the house and a report on his rehabilitation efforts, Young also completed extensive deed research, finding all of the homeowners dating back to Issac Stansbury in 1814. Reverend Young鈥檚 work on the house was an important step in preserving this house. Today, the house is distinguished by its bright red paint and green shutters and the unpainted cypress boards on the north and south sides of the house and remains a well-preserved example of a Fell's Point wooden house.
"If you wanted the good stuff, you went to Hutzler's," said Governor William Donald Schaefer and for generations of Baltimoreans, Hutzler's represented the height of downtown shopping, simply the place to shop. Many Marylanders still have fond memories of taking a streetcar down to Howard Street to shop at Hutzler's - the grande dame of Baltimore department stores with the richly detailed 1880s Palace building the modern 1930s Tower building next door.
Founded in 1858 as a single storefront at the corner of Howard and Clay streets by German-Jewish peddler Moses Hutzler and his son Abram, the store soon expanded to two additional Howard Street storefronts. Abram welcomed his brothers Charles and David into the retail operation in 1867 and the business incorporated as the Hutzler Brothers Company in the early twentieth century. The store carefully cultivated an image as not only a purveyor of fine goods, but a destination in itself. Hutzler's prided itself on being a place where shoppers could spend an entire day, complete with lunch in The Colonial or the Quixie, a haircut in the Circle Room Beauty Salon, and a shoeshine at the Shoe Fixery on the 8th floor.
The magnificent "palace" building on Howard Street reflects the reputation for class with a ornate Nova Scotia gray stone fa莽ade designed by the firm of Baldwin and Pennington. The store continued to grow in the twentieth century with the construction of the Art Deco "tower" building in 1932 (which gained five additional stories in 1942) designed by architect James R. Edmunds, Jr.
Hutzler's claimed many innovations in Baltimore retailing including the widespread institution in 1868 of the now standard "one-price policy," which replaced a system of bargaining that favored the loudest or boldest bidder. Hutzler's offered an early liberal returns policy and was the first department store in Maryland to boast a fleet of delivery trucks. Like many department stores across the nation, Hutzler's sought to employ the latest technology; they installed Baltimore's first escalator in this building in the early 1930s.
In 1952, Hutzler's expanded to the Baltimore suburbs, opening a store in Towson, Maryland, which was quickly followed by eight additional suburban outlets. Despite their forward-looking expansion, competition from national retailers and the continued decline of downtown business forced the 132 year-old family-owned business to close in 1990.
In 1879, Charles T. Bagby and A. D. Rivers founded the Bagby and Rivers Furniture Company, the predecessor to the Bagby Furniture Company. Bagby and Rivers manufactured furniture and in their 1882 furniture catalog, the company advertises mainly cabinetry.By the turn of the century, Charles T. Bagby was the sole owner of the company which was rebranded the 鈥淏agby Furniture Company.鈥 Charles T. Bagby ran Bagby Furniture until the 1930s, when he sold the company to his distant cousin William Hugh Bagby.
William Hugh Bagby was a man full of ambition. Before becoming president of the Bagby Furniture Company, William Hugh Bagby had actually worked for the company as a salesman. From the position of salesman, William Hugh Bagby began his own business before buying out the Bagby Furniture Company. Under the management of William Hugh Bagby, the company switched from furniture manufacturing to selling wholesale furniture in the forties. William Hugh Bagby passed away in 1988 and his son William Hugh Bagby Jr. became the company president.William Hugh Bagby Jr ran the company until 1990, when Bagby Furniture permanently closed. The furniture company could not compete with the lower prices manufacturers were offering customers if customers purchased furniture directly from the manufacturer.
After the Bagby Company closed their doors, a variety of development plans came up for the property. In 1993, a Baltimore Sun article stated that the Henrietta Corporation intended to build a luxury apartment complex on the property. In 2017, the Atlas Restaurant Group redeveloped the Bagby property into a collection of four Italian restaurants including Tagliata, Italian Disco, the Elk Room, and Monarque. The Bagby building which used to produce furniture, now serves as entertainment for patrons who want dinner and a show.
Archibald Hilton Bull founded the A. H. Bull & Co. in 1902. The company originally ran steamship lines from New York to Florida. Eventually A. H. Bull & Co. expanded to include an office in Baltimore. In the early 1900s, when Baltimore鈥檚 steamship industry was booming, A. H. Bull & Co. faced opposition from competitors. Steamship companies vied for control over the Puerto Rican trade and in 1913 Bull accused his competitors of monopolizing the Puerto Rican steamship routes. According to Bull, his competitors were undercutting his steamship line in order to force the Bull Line out of the Puerto Rican trade.
In the early 1920s, Captain Duke Adams took over management of A. H. Bull鈥檚 Baltimore offices which the company then renamed 鈥淎dams & Co鈥. Although the company office name changed, 鈥淎dams & Co.鈥 remained under the management of the A. H. Bull Company. The Bull Line continued to grow and purchase other steamship lines such as the insular line in 1914, the Puerto Rico- American steamship company in 1925, and the Baltimore Carolina line in 1929. As a result of the company鈥檚 expansion, in 1929 A. H. Bull & Co. moved their Baltimore office to pier 5 in order to accommodate their increased business.
During the 1940s, the Bull Company bought one more steamship line known as the Clyde-Mallory Line before beginning to decline in the 1950s. The company remained a family-owned business until 1953 when the Bull family sold the company to American Coal Shipping. Manuel K. Kulukundis was the final owner of the A. H. Bull Steamship Company and in 1963 A. H. Bull went out of business.
Today the A. H. Bull & Co. steamship line no longer exists, but looking out in the inner harbor one can imagine the fleet of A. H. Bull steamships carrying passengers from as far north as New York to as far south as Puerto Rico.
In the twentieth century, Pier 8 in Baltimore鈥檚 Inner Harbor and then Broadway Pier in Fells Point used to be the launching point for the steamboats of the Wilson Line. The Wilson Line extended from Philadelphia to Wilmington to Baltimore and ran a line of excursion boats out of Baltimore after WWII. The 鈥淏ay Belle,鈥 one of the Baltimore excursion boats, carried passengers on day trips to places such as Betterton Beach.听
Although the Wilson Line steamboat company advertised sunny trips to the beach and fun at resorts, this was overshadowed by the company鈥檚 practice of segregation. In July of 1944, a group of African American teenagers from Philadelphia were separated from white passengers on the Wilson Line ship the Maybelle. According to an article from the Baltimore Afro American, Wilson Line employees placed a rope across the dance floor to separate white and black passengers, and even went so far as to close their game room to prevent integration. In 1950, the company continued discriminatory practices by refusing to sell tickets to four African American patrons: Helena Haley, Charles Haley, Loncie Malloy, and Prunella Norwood. The four patrons sued the Wilson Line and as a result the company was ordered to end its discriminatory practices by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1951.The shadow of segregation extended from the steamboat line to the beaches. For example Ocean City, one of the most popular beach attractions today, once banned African Americans from enjoying its sunny shores. Elizabeth Carr Smith and Florence Carr Sparrow, two African American sisters, fought back against segregation by founding Carr鈥檚 Beach in 1926 and Sparrow鈥檚 Beach in 1931. Both sisters inherited pieces of land from their father on the Annapolis coast facing the Chesapeake Bay. Carr鈥檚 and Sparrow鈥檚 beaches were known for ample entertainment and hosted many famous African American performers such as Billie Holiday, James Brown, and Ray Charles. For many African Americans along the east coast, Carr鈥檚 and Sparrow鈥檚 Beaches provided a safe vacation spot.In the face of discrimination, the African American community rallied in order to fight for their civil rights. As a result of the power of the black community, the ICC forced the Wilson Line to adopt integration and beaches desegregated.In 1894, William G. Scarlett founded the William G. Scarlett Seed Company. Born in Baltimore in 1873, George D. Scarlett was a true entrepreneur who chased the American dream. At twenty-one, George Scarlett began working in the seed industry by 鈥渋mporting seeds from various parts of the world and exporting dried apples." Under the management of George Scarlett, the company expanded its inventory; selling grass, grain, and bird seeds. A Baltimore Sun article stated that 鈥渉is [George Scarlett鈥檚] business mushroomed principally through his own efforts and at one time was the largest east of the Mississippi River." Although the William G. Scarlett Seed Company expanded opening branches in other cities, Baltimore remained the company headquarters.
The Scarlett Seed Company remained in the family as George D. Scarlett passed over the company reins to his sons Raymond G. Scarlett and William G. Scarlett. As eccentric as his father, Raymond Scarlett was not only the company president, but also a badminton champion. An adamant badminton enthusiast, Raymond Scarlett founded the junior national badminton championship tournament. William George Scarlett succeeded his brother Raymond in running the company. Following in the unique footsteps of his father and brother, in addition to managing the family business, William Scarlett joined the Army Counter Intelligence Corps, also known as the CIC, during WWII.After the company vacated the property, in the 1980s, the site was developed into retail space, office space, and condominiums. Today, the Scarlett Seed Company Property is now known as Scarlett Place, paying tribute to the bird-seed businessmen.Edward J. Codd founded the E. J. Codd Company in the 1850s. The E. J. Codd听 Company focused on industrial machinery and aided Baltimore鈥檚 booming shipbuilding industry by assembling boilers, propellers, and engines. At the turn of the century, Baltimore workers went on strike demanding the nine-hour work day. The E. J. Codd strikers proved victorious when in 1899, the company agreed to give workers the nine-hour work day with their former pay. Edward Codd, like other captains of industry in Gilded Age America, was not only a man of business, but a philanthropist. According to a Baltimore Sun article published on Christmas Eve in 1905, Edward Codd gave 460 children of east Baltimore each a nickel on Christmas Eve. In addition to handing out nickels each Christmas Eve, Edward Codd reportedly gave children each a penny every other day of the year. Back in the early twentieth-century, a nickel could buy children a goodly amount of candy and one reporter even reported that children鈥檚 鈥渂right red wheelbarrows鈥 filled with 鈥減ainted candies鈥 dotted the street on Christmas Eve. Needless to say, Edward Codd was well-liked by the children of east Baltimore.听 After World War II, the Codd family sold the company to Ray Kauffman. Kauffman expanded the company to include 鈥淐odd Fabricators and Boiler Co.鈥 and 鈥淏altimore Lead Burning.鈥 Under Kauffman, the E. J. Codd Company served many local Baltimore businesses such as Bethlehem Steel, Allied Chemical, and even the American Visionary Arts Museum located right down the road from the Baltimore Museum of Industry.听听
Today, real estate agents are leasing the once mighty machine shop as office spaces.Formerly located on Boston Street in east Baltimore, Gibbs Preserving Company canned and packaged everything from oysters to jelly to candy to vegetables. The Gibbs Preserving Company exemplified typical working conditions in factories at the turn of the century. Employees worked long hours, doing monotonous tasks, all while earning little pay. and facing safety hazards. In addition, cannery employees worked in hazardous environments. At least two fires broke out at the Gibbs cannery; one fire starting in the labeling room and the other in the jelly department.听听
听A large percentage of cannery employees came from east Baltimore鈥檚 Polish community. Populating most of Fells Point, Polish families looked to canneries for work. Polish women and children worked at canneries alongside men in order to earn increased wages. Workers鈥 wages played a vital role in the debate for the ten-hour work day. Cannery workers in favor of the ten-hour work day argued that canning companies overworked their employees. By contrast, cannery workers against the ten-hour day argued that workers should be allowed to work however many hours it takes to make a liveable wage. Workers against the ten-hour law stated in one Baltimore Sun article, 鈥渢hat restricting the hours of labor would deprive the women of an opportunity to earn a living; that the season was short and must, therefore, yield them the largest possible earnings鈥︹听
While Polish cannery workers lived in Fells Point, the Polish community did not remain in east Baltimore for the entire year, but rather moved according to the seasons. At the end of the Baltimore City canning season in August, the Polish community in east Baltimore temporarily relocated to the Maryland countryside in search of employment from corn and tomato canneries. Working conditions in the country varied, but overall were still undesirable. In one particular camp, workers had to make their own kitchens from wooden planks and cloth; in another camp cannery waste covered the floor of the employee鈥檚 sleeping quarters.听 At the end of the countryside canning season, Polish workers returned to east Baltimore to enjoy a meager one week of rest before leaving for the oyster canneries in the south.
Walking along Boston Street, people will run into a small store called 鈥淐anton Market.鈥 Acting as both a convenient store and sandwich shop, Canton Market serves up a variety of sandwiches such as their cheese steak sub and their turkey club. Canton Market is not the first locally owned casual dining spot in this location. Before Canton Market, this lot was home to the Blue Top Diner.听
Bill Tangires, former owner of the Blue Top Diner, started his career working for his father鈥檚 business called 鈥淛im鈥檚 Lunch.鈥 Bill Tangires continued to work in the food industry and prepared meals for industrial plants. Afterwards in the mid 1960s, Bill Tangires founded the Blue Top Diner.听 The Blue Top Diner served diner classics from burgers and vegetable-beef soup, to coffee and chocolate meringue pie. The Blue Top Diner was even recommended in a Baltimore Sun Article alongside the famous Double-T Diner.听
The Blue Top Diner served a variety of people until the year it closed, including 鈥渇actory workers, truck drivers, dock hands, business people鈥 and even then Maryland senator Barbara Ann Mikulski. In the late eighties, Bill Tangires sold the diner property to Alan Katz, a restaurant chain owner. A Baltimore Sun article detailing the closing of the Blue Top Diner stated, 鈥淎n avid investor, he [Bill Tangires] hopes to become a stock analyst with a discount brokerage house, perhaps with the First National Bank company.鈥 Although Bill Tangires left the restaurant business to pursue finance, the property of the diner still remains a part of the food business today.
At the corner of Saratoga and Liberty Streets, people will find an unassuming parking lot. While this parking lot does not appear interesting at first glance, this lot used to be the center of political life as well as a ritzy tourist attraction.听 In 1885, Robert Rennert founded the enormous Rennert hotel which boasted six stories and 150 personal rooms. Inside, Rennert filled the hotel with elaborate decoration adding everything from marble and fresco, to the use of Edison鈥檚 electricity. The construction of the Rennert Hotel filled Baltimore city officials with hope and pride; through the opening of the hotel, Rennert sought to promote the growth of the city. Even up to the year the hotel closed in 1939, the Rennert continued to serve their staple traditional Maryland dishes such as听 the essential Maryland crab cake and the Chesapeake Bay diamond-back terrapin.听 While the Rennert Hotel鈥檚 dazzling decor is impressive, it is important to remember the workers which made the hotel operate smoothly. Henry Cummings, the Rennert Hotel鈥檚 head chef during the late nineteenth century, helped to upkeep the hotel鈥檚 culinary reputation.听Henry Cummings was a self-made man. The son of former slaves, Cummings went on to be the head chef at the Rennert and ran a catering business. Mr. Cummings specialized in the cooking and preparation of terrapin. In Mr. Cummings鈥 obituary published in the Baltimore Afro American in late 1906, Mr. Cummings鈥 culinary notoriety is highlighted: 鈥淗e prepared, dressed and shipped terrapins to Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and to different parts of Europe.鈥
H&S Bakery began first as the vision of Isidore Paterakis, an immigrant from Chios, Greece. In 1943, Isidore Paterakis turned H&S Bakery into a reality by going into business with his son-in-law Harry Tsakalos. What began as a small family-owned bakery morphed into a bread-making powerhouse. H&S Bakery expanded throughout the twentieth century to include Northeast Foods and the Schmidt Baking Company. Following in his father鈥檚 entrepreneurial spirit, John Paterakis, struck a deal with the fast food giant McDonald鈥檚 in the seventies. Based in Baltimore, Northeast Foods, under the management of H & S bakery, is now a supplier of sandwich buns and English muffins for McDonald鈥檚 restaurants on the east coast.听
The company remained an active part of the Harbor East community in the nineties. According to one Baltimore Sun article published in 1993, H&S Bakery 鈥減roduce[d] 370,000 rolls. Every hour.鈥 While continued growth led to H&S Bakeries opening in seven states, the Paterakis family chose to remain in Baltimore. H&S Bakeries continued to work within the food industry and in the nineties, John Paterakis expanded the company to include property development with the formation of H&S Properties Development Corporation. The H & S Property Development Corporation, along with the Bozzuto family, is responsible for the creation of Liberty Harbor East. The Paterakis and Bozzuto families鈥 combined efforts have resulted in a revitalized Harbor East complete with new, luxurious residential areas and retail stores.Today, the Paterakis family continues to remain an integral part of the east Baltimore community and is the 鈥渓argest family-owned variety baker in the U.S.鈥 according to H&S Bakery鈥檚 website.听