Today, Roosevelt Park is a quiet, green space with mature trees, playing fields, gardens, a recreation center, and a community skate park. The park dates back to the late nineteenth century when it was known as West Park. In 1920, a year after it was incorporated into the Baltimore City Recreation and Parks system, the site was rededicated as Roosevelt Park.
A large part of the park was for many years completely under water and served as an important reservoir for North Baltimore. When the Jones Falls Expressway was built during the 1960s and 1970s, the extra dirt was used to fill in the reservoir. Initially the city planned to turn the filled in reservoir into a department of Aviation heliport, but public outcry forced them to retract the project.
In 1997, it was rumored that Mayor Kurt Schmoke planned to sell the eighteen acre Roosevelt Park to developers to build luxury condominiums and turn the recreation center鈥攁n important community meeting space for residents since 1911鈥攊nto a PAL (Police Athletic League). The mayor himself would not comment on the plan, but many Hampden residents were nevertheless worried about the future of the park and its aging recreation center.
In response, Hampden resident Allen Hicks founded a community action group called the Friends of Roosevelt Park (FRP). During a media event in 2001, more than 500 Hampden residents held hands in a giant circle around the park, protesting the city鈥檚 intentions. Additionally, the FRP gathered 1,000 signatures for a petition and reached out to the 42nd Maryland District representatives for assistance in the campaign. Additionally, the Knott Foundation provided the initial funding for a monthly newsletter.
Over the next several years the Friends of Roosevelt Park held many public meetings to determine what the people liked and did not like about Roosevelt Park. They also met with city officials, budget experts, outside consultants and the Baltimore Development Corporations (through its participation in the Baltimore Main Street program). These meetings led to the creation of a master plan for Roosevelt Park in 2003, including expanded public gardens, new playing fields, a skate park, a $700,000 renovation of the Roosevelt Park recreation center, a $2 million swimming pool complex, $100,000 for a new children鈥檚 playground, and a $500,000 bond issue on the election ballot.
One of a few (possibly the only!) fully intact late-nineteenth-century urban mansions designed almost exclusively by acclaimed by New York architect, Standford White of McKim, Mead & White, the Ross Winans House at 1217 Saint Paul Street is the epitome of cosmopolitan living in Baltimore.
Commissioned by Baltimore millionaire Ross R. Winans, heir to a fortune made by his father in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the forty-six-room, brick and brownstone French Renaissance Revival style mansion was built in 1882. The house features fine oak paneling, parquet, leaded glass, Tiffany designed tile and other fine materials throughout.
The Winans Mansion has remained a dominant architectural symbol of the neighborhood and has been used as a preparatory school for girls, a funeral parlor, and a doctors鈥 offices. 糖心影视 identified the building as a threatened landmark in 2000, after it sat unoccupied for many years. Not long after, Agora Inc. took control of the building and, in 2005, completed a multi-million dollar historic renovation that gained distinction by winning a 糖心影视 preservation honor award that year. Agora continues to own the building and uses it as offices.
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 former Royer's Hill Methodist Episcopal Church at 400 West 24th Street is a small stone building with a gable roof used in 2010 as a garage. Despite several modern additions and changes, the building retains original window openings, original roof framing, and pressed tin ceiling panels. Constructed under the supervision of Rev. Edward L. Watson around 1891 as the 24th Street Methodist Episcopal Church, the building remained in use as a church until it was converted to use as a motor freight station sometime prior to 1951.
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.
Designed by early Baltimore architect Robert Cary Long in 1845, the St. Alphonsus Church has been called "the German cathedral" for its Southern German neo-Gothic style. The church was originally established with a large German congregation and the attached rectory functioned as provincial headquarters for the Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers.
By 1917, the German congregation had largely left the neighborhoods around the church and the building was acquired by the Roman Catholic Lithuanian Parish of Saint John the Baptist. The new congregation took on the historic name of the church and reopened the school in St. Alphonsus Hall, which had been established in l847.
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.
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The origins of this two-story frame church on Jefferson Avenue began in 1861 when a group of Black Baltimore County residents established the Saint James African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church. Today, the church is known as the St. James African Union Methodist Protestant Church and the building has stood on this site for over a century. Saint James is the second-oldest church operating in Towson and the oldest of the area鈥檚 Black congregations.
The original church members lived in East Towson鈥攁 small settlement founded by Black men and women who were held in slavery on Hampton estate before their emancipation in Maryland in 1864. Before the community had a dedicated church for worship, they held services in the homes of congregation members James Garrett and Frank and Ida Scovens. On October 17, 1881, the church building opened and for twenty-five years members gathered for regular worship in a modest one-story building. In 1906, a growing membership led to the addition of a second story to the building.
Immediately to the right of the church building sits a 173-year-old church bell鈥攁 relic from a church originally located in Govans. Today, Govans is a neighborhood in north Baltimore City that initially developed as a crossroads on the York-town Turnpike (built in 1810 to connect Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania). Cast in 1845, the bell was donated to the Govans church in 1875. For some period, the bell was used not only to remind worshipers of services but also to notify residents about the departure of the trolley cars on York Road.
For the members of St. James Church, the bell is an iconic symbol of the church鈥檚 long history of 10:00 am services鈥攍ed for over two decades by Reverend Joseph McManus. Rev. McManus presided over the church from 1961 to 1983. Every Sunday morning, he rang the bell twelve times in reference to the twelve tribes of Israel.
The church was temporarily renamed the St. James Methodist Community Church in the 1980s, but the church has since reverted to being called St. James A.U.M.P. Church. The building and congregation still holds services today under current Pastor Osborne Robinson, Jr.
Founded in 1824, St. James鈥 Episcopal Church is the nation鈥檚 second oldest African Episcopal congregation and the first Episcopal church organized by African Americans south of the Mason-Dixon line. Since 1932, the congregation has occupied a historic sanctuary at the northeast corner of Lafayette Square Park in West Baltimore.
Built for the Episcopal Church of the Ascension from quarry-faced, white, Beaver Dam marble, the building was designed by the Baltimore architecture firm of Hutton & Murdoch. In 1866, the church left their original 1840 building on Lexington Street near Pine for a corner lot in what was then one of Baltimore鈥檚 emerging, fashionable neighborhoods. The structure is sparingly ornamented on the exterior, relying mostly on texture, repetition, a limited repertory of Gothic revival architectural motifs (buttresses, pointed arches, a rose or 鈥渨heel鈥 window, and stained glass), and a massive gable roof to communicate a sense of religiosity and permanence. The building originally featured a wood-framed spire atop its northwest tower rising to a height of 120 feet. In 1876, the church added on a parish house designed by architect Frank E. Davis which shows a keen sensitivity to Hutton & Murdoch鈥檚 1867 Gothic revival design.
In 1932, the Church of the Ascension sold the building and St. James鈥 Episcopal Church, then led by Rev. George Bragg, moved to Lafayette Square. Rev. Bragg may be little-known by most Baltimoreans today, but he served as pastor of St. James Church for over forty years. His visionary leadership of St. James is matched by his legacy as a co-founder of the Afro-American newspaper, as well as an historian and a political advocate. His life and work reflected the growing strength of Baltimore鈥檚 black community in the early 1900s.
Born in North Carolina on January 25, 1863, George Freeman Bragg's early years were shaped by the Civil War and Reconstruction. Ordained as a deacon in Virginia in 1887, Bragg entered the priesthood in 1888 and arrived in Baltimore in 1891 with a passion for fostering independent leadership within the black church. He joined the 66-year old St. James鈥 Church that was then located downtown at Saratoga Street and Guilford Avenue.
In 1901, Bragg led his church to a new building in northwest Baltimore at Park Avenue and Preston Street. When middle-class African Americans in his congregation continued to move even farther west, Bragg moved St. James again to Lafayette Square in 1932 where they celebrated their first service on Easter morning. The move reflected a major change in the neighborhood as four African American congregations moved to Lafayette Square between 1928 and 1934. Rev. Bragg lived on the Square and remained active in the city鈥檚 political and civic life until his death in 1940.
The Episcopalian congregation of Saint John's Church has worshiped together on the same site in Waverly since 1843. At that time the area was the small village of Huntingdon, Maryland: a collection of about seventeen large estates, and the more modest homes of a new and emerging middle class.
The village extended from Huntingdon Avenue (present day Remington) on the west to Harford Road on the east; from Huntingdon Avenue (25th Street) on the south to Boundary Avenue (42nd Street) on the north. In 1888, Baltimore City annexed the area from Baltimore County and the post office was renamed Waverly, after Sir Walter Scott's popular Waverly novels.
In November 1843, the Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, William Rollinson Whittingham, sent Reverend W. A. Hewitt to Huntingdon. Local resident Thomas Hart requested the appointment because he wanted his grandchildren baptized but did not want to travel to the parish church, Saint Paul's, in Baltimore City. The bishop happily obliged since he was eager to establish new congregations in Maryland embodying the ideals of the Oxford Movement, which sought to reinstate older Christian traditions in the Anglican Church.
The congregation at Saint John's Church held their first service the 鈥渂arracks鈥: a powder magazine and post for federal troops located a short distance southwest of the present church building. On July 10, 1844, Saint John's Church was legally incorporated as a diocesan mission church within the bounds of Saint Paul's parish and by 1845 became an independent congregation. The congregation laid the cornerstone for its first church in April 1846, and was consecrated by Bishop Whittingham on November 11, 1847. The church opened as a 鈥渇ree church鈥濃攔ejecting the then-common practice among Anglican, Catholic, and Presbyterian churches of raising money by charging parishioners "pew rents".
For the first two years the rector returned his stipend to the treasurer as his offering toward the building expenses. He also installed a furnace at his own expense, assuring the warm devotion and gratitude of his flock. However, on May 15, 1858, just eleven years after its consecration, the church caught fire and burned to the ground.
Poorer but undaunted, the congregation worked to rebuild and Bishop Whittingham laid cornerstone of the present church on September 11, 1858. The first service in this building was held on May 22, 1859, and its consecration was on All Saints' Day in 1860. The congregation prospered and the church added a Parish House (1866) and a Rectory (1868) in a matching Gothic style. In 1885, the church built an orphanage for boys but the institution closed in 1912 and the building has been demolished. An 1850s cemetery still survives on the property.
The design of the church was influenced to the principles of the Cambridge Camden Society (later known as the Ecclesiological Society) which promoted revival of the Gothic style in architecture. The church was enlarged in 1875 with the addition of transepts (creating the classic cruciform shape visible today), a baptistery (the present Lady Chapel), sacristy, enlarged sanctuary, and a bell tower and spire. The interior decoration was completed in 1895 in the same Gothic Revival style.
After several modernizations of the decor, a whitewash, and years of neglect, the restoration of much of the original decoration was undertaken from 1983 to 1985 by the Reverend R. Douglas Pitt, the eleventh rector. This work was resumed in 1994 under the Reverend Jesse L. A. Parker, twelfth rector. All of the restoration work has been accomplished by the well-known decorative artist Janet Pope, of J. Pope Studios, Baltimore, which specializes in historic decorative restoration.
The Seminary Chapel at the St. Mary's Spiritual Center is a historic gem. Completed in 1808, the chapel was designed by Maximilian Godefroy, the architect of many historically important structures in Baltimore including the Battle Monument and First Unitarian Church. Godefroy boasted that the chapel was the first Gothic building in the United States. The great hoop shape of the interior is similar to the interior of the chapel at Versailles, and its use of Georgian details reflects the complexities of early American architecture.
Founded in 1791, St. Mary's Seminary and University was the first Catholic seminary in the United States. It was granted a civil charter by the State of Maryland in 1805 and in 1822, Pope Pius VII established it as the first seminary in the U.S. to grant ecclesiastical degrees, which it still does to this day. Originally on Paca Street, the seminary moved to its present location on Roland Avenue and Northern Parkway in Roland Park in 1929.
This massive building, designed by Boston architects Maginnis and Walsh, has a classical entrance. Immediately inside stands a statue of Mary, the patroness of the seminary, called Sedes Sapientiae, or Our Lady Seat of Wisdom. The main chapel, fitted in marble and oak, contains a Casavant pipe organ and stained glass windows imported from Paris. Today the seminary is cared for by the Sulpician Fathers and the building still houses seminarians following their calling.
St. Peter the Apostle Church served southwest Baltimore's large Irish Catholic community for over 160 years. From its dedication in September 1844 through its final service in January 2008, the church earned a reputation as "The Mother Church of West Baltimore" for its role in the growth of the Catholic church.
Built from 1843 to 1844, the handsome Greek Revival building was designed by prominent Baltimore architect Robert Cary Long, Jr. who modeled the church on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, Greece. The building is now owned by nearby Carter Memorial Church.
School 33 Art Center was established in 1979 as a center for contemporary art in South Baltimore. Formerly known as Public School 33, Baltimore City erected the brick and brownstone building in 1890. It operated as an elementary school up until 1975 when a new school opened just a few blocks away. The South Baltimore Community Committee sought help from then Mayor William Donald Schaefer in revitalizing the vacant and vandalized building. Based on the success of Long Island City's P.S. 1 in New York and the strong national presence of alternative space programs in the late 1970s, Mayor Schaefer proposed a similar program for Baltimore, thus creating School 33 Art Center.
As this building represented a significant component of Baltimore's architectural heritage, the renovation exemplified the City's belief in the revitalization of unused urban resources. The renovations were made possible with federal funds from the United States Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration and through the City's Public Works Improvement Program.
After an extensive two-year restoration to allow for the creation of adequate gallery, studio and classroom spaces, School 33 opened its doors in July 1979, becoming Baltimore's original alternative space for contemporary art. The program offerings included one gallery exhibition space (today expanded to three), studio facilities for professional artists, and classrooms for ceramics and printmaking workshops.
For thirty-eight years, School 33 Art Center has been a bridge between contemporary artists and the public. Through exhibitions, studios for artists, classes for adults and children, as well as special events and workshops, the center works to insure a vibrant future for contemporary art and artists in Baltimore. The three gallery spaces, multi-use classrooms, permanent, on-site collaborative installations, and an environmentally-friendly outdoor garden fed by a rainwater collection system are examples of School 33's commitment to maintaining and expanding the potential of our historic building.
Today, as a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, the center's goal is to remain an engaging and relevant center for the arts, by showcasing and sustaining emerging and established contemporary artists, and training budding artists from Baltimore and beyond, well into the future.
Baltimore is a city known for its sculptures. John Quincy Adams famously toasted "Baltimore鈥攖he monumental city" during a visit in 1823. The moniker is well deserved. Baltimore possess the first monument to George Washington in the United States. And during a time when Washington DC was recovering from the devastation of the War of 1812, Baltimore was erecting monuments to its triumph. Baltimore was also home to great sculptors. William Rinehart got his start in Baltimore owing to the patronage of William Walters. After an illustrious career, Rinehart endowed his estate to the Maryland Institute College of Art for the teaching of sculpture. Hans Schuler attended the Rinehart School of Sculpture, having emigrated to the United States at a young age from Germany with his parents. Upon graduation, he moved to Paris to study at the Julian Academy on a scholarship. In 1901, he became the first U.S.-based sculptor to win the Salon Gold Medal for his sculpture "Ariadne." It was in Paris that Schuler met William Lucas, an agent of Henry Walters, son of William Walters. Walters, a collector of fine art, purchased "Ariadne" for his gallery, now the Walters Art Museum. In 1906, Schuler returned to Baltimore and established a studio at 7 E. Lafayette Avenue, where he would become the city's leading sculptor and contribute to Baltimore's legacy as the Monumental City. Schuler's studio was designed by architect Howard Sill in an eclectic style, combining elements of several architectural styles and including architectural elements sculpted by Schuler himself. Sill designed the interior to accommodate the large scale of Schuler's work. The studio had one floor with a 24-foot ceiling. Large double doors allowed for the moving of large monuments. In 1922, a crane was installed inside. For six years, Schuler lived in an apartment near the studio with his wife, Paula, and daughter, Charlotte. By 1912, Schuler was established enough to hire Sill's apprentice, Gordon Beecher, to design a two bay wide, three bay deep, and two stories tall residence attached to the studio and capped with a mansard roof. As with the studio, Schuler sculpted architectural elements for the residence. Schuler received many commissions during his lifetime. One important patron was Theodore Marburg, a diplomat who, when he was not advocating for the League of Nations, was advocating for city parks and public art in Baltimore. Marburg founded the Municipal Art Society and would go on to save Schuler's career after nearly ruining him. His commision for a figure of Johns Hopkins hit a dead end after the university refused to take it. Schuler's compensation covered materials and little more, and the loss of income almost led to him selling his house. Schuler recovered and commissions came regularly until the United States entered World War I. Schuler considered working in a munitions factory, but Marburg intervened and provided more commissions, saving Schuler's career. Schuler became director of the Maryland Institute of Art in 1925. During his tenure he continued to work on commissions in his personal studio. He died in 1951 at the age of 77. His son, Hans, Jr., had been his full-time assistant, and like his father, worked at the Maryland Institute of Art. In the years that followed, the Institute began to lean more towards modern art in its teaching. A firm believer in the traditional techniques passed down from his father, Hans, along with his wife Ann, also a teacher at the Institute, formed the Schuler School of Fine Arts in 1959. The school trains students in the techniques of the Old Masters and offers courses in drawing, painting and sculpture and is located in the Schuler studio and residence that Hans Schuler, Sr. built. Both buildings remain historically intact with few changes.
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The Scottish Rite of Freemasons began construction of the temple building on North Charles Street in 1930, and the building was opened in 1932. The building was designed by noted architect (and Scottish Rite Mason) Clyde N. Friz and renowned architect John Russell Pope. Friz鈥檚 other works in Baltimore include Enoch Pratt Free Library and Standard Oil Building. A nationally renowned architect, Pope designed the Jefferson Memorial, National Archives, National Gallery of Art, and the Masonic Temple of the Scottish Rite in Washington, as well as the Baltimore Museum of Art here in Baltimore. The Scottish Rite Temple on Charles Street is both Italian Renaissance and Beaux Arts Classical in style, with a columned portico based on the Pantheon in Rome. Eight 34-foot columns with Corinthian capitals provide the entrance facing Charles Street, and the entry consists of two massive bronze doors. The Scottish Rite Masonic order continues to occupy the building. After considering selling the building for demolition, the Masons are reconsidering options. The building was added to the city鈥檚 list of historic landmarks in 2009 with the support of 糖心影视 and any future plans for the buildings must meet the city鈥檚 strong preservation guidelines.
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Second Chance was founded in 2001 to develop solutions to sustainable employment and environmental issues. In 2003, a training and employment program was created to address the pressing needs of Baltimore City residents who were facing multiple challenges to employment, good wages, and progressive skills
.
Today, Second Chance trains and hires unemployed individuals in deconstruction, salvage, warehousing, retail, operations, and customer service. Second Chance works with local and regional architects, builders, developers, and property owners to identify residential and commercial buildings entering the demolition phase and remove all reusable elements through deconstruction for waste diversion and resale to consumers.
Built in 1868, the Sellers Mansion (801 North Arlington Street) is a three-story Second Empire brick house with a mansard roof that rivaled its outer suburban contemporaries in size, quality of craftsmanship, and attention to detail. Its carved stone lintels, patterned slate roof, original roof cresting, and its two classically detailed porticoes (one of which still retains its elegantly carved wooden columns and capitals) identified this household as one of taste and affluence. Although carefully restored in the 1960s and adapted to a variety of community uses through the early 1990s, the mansion currently stands vacant and in an advanced state of deterioration. The windows are missing, wood trim is rotting, and exterior masonry is deteriorating. The roof has failed in a number of places. The mansion occupies a prominent corner of Lafayette Square in West Baltimore and is at the center the Old West Baltimore National Register Historic District. This district, with over 5000 contributing structures, is one of the largest predominately African American historic districts in the country. The mansion is the only remaining detached private residence on the Square, and one of the first residences constructed there. It is owned by St. James Episcopal Church, also located on Lafayette Square. The Church has expressed an interest in restoring the building. The building was included on the 2006 inventory of endangered buildings by Preservation Maryland. With advanced deterioration, work will need to begin soon if the building is to be preserved.
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Seven Foot Knoll lighthouse takes its name from its original location鈥攖he rocky shoals where the mouth of the Patapsco River meets the Chesapeake Bay. The sandy, soft bottom of these shoals necessitated the construction of a screwpile-style lighthouse (as opposed to a straightpile model) where a hexagon-shaped building perches on pilings that are screwed into the bottom of the waterway. Built in 1856, Seven Foot Knoll is one of the oldest Chesapeake lighthouses still in existence and the oldest screwpile lighthouse in Maryland.
Managed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, and later the U.S. Coast Guard, Seven Foot Knoll lighthouse served as a general aid for the navigation of ships. Keepers, therefore, had the crucial job of making sure the lighthouse was constantly functioning. Every night at sundown, keepers were responsible for lighting the beacon lamp and keeping it lit until sunrise the next morning, which required vigilance, as well as regular maintenance. Each morning, keepers cleaned the beacon lens and lamp thoroughly, so that they were ready for use in the evening. When there was fog, the fog bell had to be sounded continuously. This required winding the station's bell machine every 45 minutes until the fog lifted.
Although the Lighthouse Service did not officially permit keepers to bring their families to live in the lighthouse, at least two families did live there during the 1870s. Eva Marie 鈥淜nolie鈥 Bowling, who was born in the lighthouse in 1875, recalled life in the lighthouse in an interview for a 1936 article in the Baltimore News. The lighthouse itself contained five rooms with space for both a library (the children were homeschooled by their mother) and a piano, she recalled. The small space underneath the lighthouse contained a hog pen and a chicken yard. During severe weather, the animals were transferred to the house for their safety. Storms also provided additional food, she added, when the family took advantage of the wildfowl who got caught in heavy winds and were dashed into the side of the lighthouse.
Conditions at Seven Foot Knoll were tough. Life in a lighthouse was isolating, and during winter months, it was challenging to heat the structure due to weather conditions and limited coal rations. In early 1900s, staff changed six times over a three-year period. In the 1970s, a report revealed that the lighthouse keeper鈥檚 position went vacant for over a year because of the remote location.
In the 1930s, the US Coast Guard considered automating Seven Foot Knoll. The shipping and maritime world protested, citing the heroic work of a lighthouse keeper who had rescued five people from drowning after a barge sank. Ultimately, however, the lighthouse was automated in 1949.
In 1997, the lighthouse was moved to Pier 5 on the Baltimore Harbor as one of the Baltimore Maritime Museum鈥檚 exhibits. Today Seven Foot Knoll lighthouse is operated by Historic Ships in Baltimore who oversee several ships in the harbor including the USS Constellation and USS Torsk.
The Severn Teackle Wallis Statue by French sculptor Laurent-Honor茅 Marqueste was dedicated on January 9, 1906 in the south square of Mount Vernon Place in front of the new building of the Walters Art Gallery. Today, the statue stands in the east park facing Saint Paul Street.
Wallis was born in Baltimore to a wealthy slaveholding family in 1816. He trained to become a lawyer as a young man and joined the bar in 1837. At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Wallis was elected to the Maryland State Legislature but, on September 12, he was arrested by Union troops due to his support for the secession of Southern states. Wallis was held at Fort Monroe along with several other elected officials from Baltimore for fourteen months before his release.
In 1900, six years after Wallis' death, the city's Municipal Art Society launched a campaign to erect new statues of both Wallis and John Eager Howard. S. Davies Warfield, a railroad executive and banker, originally proposed the idea of the Wallis statue and chaired the committee to direct the project. At the recommendation of George A. Lucas, a Parisian art critic and former Baltimorean, the committee selected French sculptor Laurent-Honor茅 Marqueste.聽Warfield collected photographs and items of clothing owned by Wallis then sent the materials to Paris as a source for the sculptor's design. At the dedication in January 1906, Mayor E. Clay Timanus accepted the statue on the city's behalf and Arthur George Brown delivered an address recalling Wallis as an "ideal Baltimorean."
By 1919, however, the city had decided to relocate the Wallis statue to the park's east square to make way for a monument to Revolutionary war hero Marquis de Lafayette. One resident wrote to the Sun the protest the move, presenting Wallis as "one of the greatest legal figures Maryland ever produced,鈥 who should not be relegated to an 鈥渙bscure piece of lawn.鈥 Despite the critics, the statue moved east to join the George Peabody Statue in the east square of Mount Vernon Place where it continues to sit today.
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.
During the War of 1812, Fell Street ran down a narrow stretch of land, with valuable water on both sides. William Price, who owned a shipyard at the east end of Thames, lived on Fell Street at 912 (built by 1802) and owned 903 to 907 (built 1779 -1781). One of the city's largest slaveholders with 25 enslaved workers, Price also employed 100 men at his shipyard. He built a dozen letter of marque schooners (more than any other ship builder in Baltimore) and also invests in three cruises. In 1814, Price's tenants at 903-907 Fell Street included Peter Weary, a wood measurer, and widow Sarah Day. Price鈥檚 son and partner, John, lives at 913 Fell (built ca.1790). In the spring of 1813, Price helped to move 56 heavy cannon from his warehouse to Fort McHenry and nearby batteries. Salvaged from a French warship, the 10,000-pound cannon are loaned to Baltimore by the French Consul鈥攖hey later played a crucial role in the fort's defense. Another Fell Street resident who played a role in the War of 1812 is George Stiles who became General Sam Smith鈥檚 most trusted aide. Stiles owned substantial property in Fell's Point, including 910 Fell (built ca. 1810). A skilled sea captain, Stiles was a risk taker who acquired four letter of marque schooners. His Nonesuch received the nation鈥檚 first commission in 1812. The much admired Stiles, whom Niles鈥 Weekly Register called the savior of Baltimore was later elected mayor in 1816. Farther down, at 931 Fell (built ca.1790), was the home of Elizabeth Steele, widow of shipbuilder John Steele, a carefully restored example of the fine townhouses that once dominated this street.
Sid鈥檚 Ranch House Tavern occupied a building that had been converted into a movie theater during the first part of the twentieth century. It had been the Teddy Bear Parlor ca. 1908 鈥 1919, and the Mickey until 1920 or 鈥21. Sidney Silverman, a retired boxer turned bartender, opened his tavern in the late 1950s. It became a popular neighborhood hangout for people of different races, and it had a reputation for racial trouble. According to one Lumbee patron, Mr. Silverman 鈥渉ad a habit of every time the Indians would get in fights there, he would bar 鈥榚m from the bar for a while. Wouldn鈥檛 let no Indians come in his bar鈥 He鈥檇 do it for a while and then he鈥檇 open up. I guess he missed our business, and he鈥檇 open up and let 鈥榚m back.鈥 Mr. Silverman likely sold the property at 1741 E. Baltimore Street to the City during Urban Renewal and it was razed.
Of the many repurposed industrial buildings in Baltimore鈥檚 urban landscape, perhaps none is as extraordinary as Silo Point. Looming high above the brick rowhomes of Locust Point, Silo Point luxury condominiums began life as a mammoth grain elevator built by the B&O Railroad in 1924. At that time, it was both the largest and the fastest grain elevator in the world and reflected Baltimore鈥檚 important position in the grain export industry in the early to mid-twentieth century.
Designed by the engineering firm of John S. Metcalf Co. of Chicago and Montreal, the building is made up of two interconnected structures: a concrete workhouse which stands 220 feet tall and a concrete grain bin structure that rises to 105 feet. Additional structures were added later. During the grain elevator鈥檚 heyday, ten miles of conveyor belts carried 3.8 billion bushels of grain from train cars onto cargo ships annually.
The grain elevator ceased operations in 2002 and sat vacant until its conversion to Silo Point by Turner Development Group in 2009. The residential tower is now home to 24 floors of 228 condominiums. The Baltimore Sun described the new building as having 鈥渂rutalist concrete walls,鈥 in addition to a fitness center where basement catacombs used to be, outdoor sculptures constructed out of grain extracting machines, recycled circular gears given new life as lobby coffee tables. It also has commanding views of the harbor.
The B&O grain elevator was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
Barnum鈥檚 City Hotel, located where the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. Courthouse stands today, was a common meeting place for all manner of transactions, such as buying, selling, or trading of products. It was common to see advertisements for the sale or purchase of enslaved people in which interested parties could meet at a specific hotel or tavern. Barnum鈥檚 was a common meeting place. Also, Lewis F. Scott, one of the most prolific dealers in human flesh, operated his General Slave Agency* from the basement level of the hotel for a period in the 1840s.There was also a sale that took place at the City Hotel that resulted in freedom for the person being purchased. The following is from the Baltimore Sunpaper, February 28, 1855. Arthur Burns, the fugitive slave whose trial excited so much attention in Massachusetts about six months ago, was yesterday in this city, and took the cars last evening for Philadelphia, with the intention of proceeding North as far as Massachusetts. It appears that his master did not wish to part with him, but finally agreed to do so, whereupon he was purchased by Mr. McDaniel for $900. The gentleman yesterday reached here, and effected a sale of Burns to Rev. Lloyd A. Grimes, of Massachusetts, for the sum of $1,325. The transaction took place at Barnum鈥檚 Hotel, and was evidenced by Colonel Houston, one of the clerks. Burns excited by considerable attention during the few hours he was here. Upon his arrival North a grand demonstration will be made.聽 * See also entry on General Intelligence Office.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
Bernard Moore Campbell and his brother Lewis operated a slave pen at this location, 26 Conway Street, from 1844 to 1848. Like most successful traders of enslaved people at the time, the Campbells relied on agents working the region to supply them with 鈥渋nventory.鈥 One of them, John G. Campbell, worked the area around Port Tobacco in Southern Maryland, where he specialized in acquiring 鈥渟laves for life,鈥 which would be more appealing to buyers in the New Orleans market. The brothers鈥 business at this location on Conway Street was modest, but when they purchased the more infamous Slatter jail at Howard and Pratt Streets, the numbers of people they shipped south increased dramatically.
Though the pen is long gone, at least one building dating from this era still stands a block away, Old Otterbein Church. One can only imagine what the congregants thought of this neighbor.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
This was one of two locations where John N. Denning operated as a slave trader. He was here at 104 N. Exeter Street in the early 1840s. (Street numbers were changed in 1887, making this 264 N. Exeter today.) He later moved in 1849 to a pen at 18 S. Frederick Street, which he noted was the house "with trees in front." He always made a point in his ads that he was ready to pay "cash for Negroes," often repeating the declaration in each ad.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
John Denning moved his operation in 1849 to a pen at this location, 18 S. Frederick Street, which he noted was the house 鈥渨ith trees in front.鈥 He always made a point in his ads that he was ready to pay 鈥渃ash for Negroes,鈥 often repeating the declaration in each ad. His previous location was on Exeter Street near Fayette Street.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
After several years buying and selling human beings, Joseph S. Donovan started operating a slave pen here at 13 Camden Street in 1846. He had been operating from a slave pen he purchased from Austin Woolfolk, but decided to move closer to the transportation available in the center of Baltimore. This proximity to transportation was information he started including in his advertisements to entice prospective sellers. He moved to his fourth and final location, Eutaw and Camden Streets, to take advantage of the new B&O Railroad station.
His trading accelerated in just a few years after purchasing the Woolfolk jail in 1843. While his business is not well documented earlier, it is likely he had been building it from his first base on Light Street beginning in the 1830s.
While nothing remains to indicate what once transpired here, we pinpoint this location to memorialize the victims of enslavement in America.
This was the fourth and last base of operations for Joseph S. Donovan, which he opened here in 1858 at the SW corner of Eutaw and Camden Streets. It is likely he chose this location because, across Eutaw Street, the B&O Railroad had recently opened a new passenger terminal and headquarters. (Camden Station was begun in 1856 and completed in 1865.) Like his previous operation a few blocks east on Camden Street, this location was near a transportation hub, a fact he could use in his advertisements to entice buyers and sellers for the convenience. He started operating as a slave trader from a location on Light Street before purchasing a slave pen from Austin Woolfolk at Pratt and Cove Streets.
The location of the pen was behind where the Babe Ruth Statue now stands between Camden Station and the baseball stadium. Looking at a photo of the area taken c. 1911 (see photo), one can see in the right-foreground a walled enclosure containing a yard and two long, low buildings with small windows near the roof line. That is the location of Donovan鈥檚 pen. Since this photo was taken in the early 20th century, it is conceivable that it is the actual jail repurposed for another use, but that is conjecture.
Donovan had sold thousands of people South by the time he died at his home on this location April 16, 1861, just a few days after the outbreak of the Civil War.
His widow, Caroline Donovan, used the money she inherited from her husband鈥檚 slave trade to build a fortune that enabled her to donate heavily to the fledgling Johns Hopkins University. The 鈥淐aroline Donovan Professorship in English Literature,鈥 established in 1889, is the first endowed chair at JHU. Also, a room in McCoy Hall carries the Donovan name.