The Marlborough Apartments is an eleven-story landmark well-known for its architecture and as the home to the famous Baltimore art-collecting Cone Sisters. Before the construction of the Marlborough, the property was the site of a large mansion owned by the wealthy Popplein family. In 1880, only three years after Eutaw Place was extended up to North Avenue, Nicholas Popplein commissioned a massive 24-room brick mansion on Eutaw Place. Popplein was a wealthy paint manufacturer and a local leader in the area's development who owned Eutaw Place from McMechen all the way to Laurens Street. Unfortunately, Popplein died at home in 1885, shortly after construction of the new mansion was complete. His estate sold the mansion in the spring of 1901 to Dr. Thomas Shearer, a local specialist in homeopathy. An adjoining lot at the corner of Eutaw Place and Wilson Street sold to William Cochran in 1905. The two proposed to combine their investments and construct the Marlborough Apartment House, designed by architect Edward Glidden. Glidden designed an eleven-story apartment house, the largest in the city at the time. It was 141 feet wide on Eutaw Place and extended 130 feet back along Wilson Street. One of the first new buildings in Baltimore to be completely wired for electricity, the Marlborough even featured a rooftop garden. Among the 96 suites, a few apartments included as many as ten rooms. Among the many wealthy locals who moved in during the first few years were Dr. Claribel Cone (1864-1929) on the sixth floor and Miss Etta Cone (1870-1949) on the eighth. The sisters were born to Herman and Helen Cone, a German-Jewish family who immigrated to Baltimore in 1871. The family's wholesale grocery business, H. Cone and Sons, prospered and the sisters' older brothers relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina, where they started a successful textile business. While inheritances from their parents kept them comfortable, the profits from their brother's mills during WWI grew their wealth considerably. Etta was the first to start purchasing art, in 1898. She met both Picasso and Matisse while visiting friends Gertrude and Leo Stein in Paris, and was inspired to become Matisse's life-long patron. Claribel was a more experimental art buyer who sought out avant-garde works at high prices, like Matisse's Blue Nude for 120,760 francs. Eventually, the sisters covered nearly every space on every wall in their apartments with their collection. After Etta's death in 1949, the Cone Collection was donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art. It included over 3,000 works, 500 of which are by Matisse, with an estimated value of one billion dollars. The decades following the Cone Sisters were not kind the Marlborough. Absentee owners allowed the building to deteriorate severely by the early 1970s. A substantial renovation that converted the building apartments started in 1973.
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When the first official World鈥檚 Fair in the United States 鈥 the Centennial Exhibition 鈥 closed in Philadelphia in November 1876, the Maryland delegation chose not to abandon their state exhibit hall. Instead, the wooden building (described as 鈥渁 cross between English Tudor and Swiss Chalet鈥) was disassembled piece by piece, transported to Baltimore, and then reassembled on a shady hillside in Druid Hill Park. The structure was well received in its new incarnation. 鈥淚t is the opinion of those who have seen the building at Philadelphia, and since its re-erection here,鈥 wrote a correspondent for The Sun on April 17, 1877, 鈥渢hat it is far prettier in the present situation than among so many other buildings at the centennial.鈥 The Maryland Building is one of only two buildings to survive the exhibition; the other is the Ohio Building. By recommendation of Baltimore鈥檚 Park Commission, it became a museum 鈥渙f interest and attraction to the public鈥 that housed 鈥渃uriosities that have been gradually collecting in one of the basement rooms鈥 of the adjacent Mansion House. The museum opened in April 1877 with Otto Lugger, a trained naturalist, in charge. For the next many years, Professor Lugger presided over an increasingly eclectic collection that included the basement curiosities as well as assorted donations from eager citizens and the Maryland Academy of Sciences. Thus, visitors could browse 鈥渁 handsome and increasing ornithological collection鈥 in one room, costumes and ceramics in another room, and a center hall full of fire-fighting equipment (including an elaborately decorated hand pumper donated by General George Washington to the Friendship Fire Company of Alexandria, Virginia.) When the Park Board granted use of the Maryland Building to the Natural History Society of Maryland in 1936, most of the curiosities were removed and distributed around town to the Baltimore Fire Department, the Fort McHenry Museum, and the Maryland Historical Society. In their place came exhibits dedicated to local flora, fauna, geology, and archaeology. Inside the walls of the old wooden building a new museum took shape, one that showcased rocks, minerals, and fossils; birds, butterflies, reptiles, and mammals; and, most amazingly, the thirty-foot-long reconstructed skeleton of a baby blue whale that had washed ashore in Crisfield, Maryland in 1876. In the 1970s, after a 40-year run, the Natural History Society moved out of the Maryland Building so that the operating arm of the Zoo, the Baltimore Zoological Society (BZS), could move in. By this time, the Zoo had fenced in its campus and since the Maryland Building was on the inside of the fence, it made sense for it to become part of the Zoo. A 1978 renovation outfitted the building with offices and an auditorium, allowing it to function as both BZS headquarters and a public education space. Ever since, the Maryland Building has served as a busy work space for Zoo staff. The Maryland Building underwent a second major renovation in 2009. With great care and attention paid to the structure鈥檚 historic restoration, it was given a new lease on life, and, in 2010, the project earned a prestigious Maryland Preservation Award from the Maryland Historical Trust.
The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) collects, preserves, and interprets the history, art, and culture of Maryland. Originally founded as the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, MCHC inspires critical thinking, creativity, and community by exploring multiple perspectives and sharing national stories through the lens of Maryland.
As the oldest continuously operating nonprofit cultural institution in the state, MCHC houses a collection of 7 million books, documents, manuscripts, and photographs, and 350,000 objects in its museum and library located in Baltimore. MCHC also serves as a leading center of Maryland history education for people of all ages.
In January 1844, a group of Maryland residents gathered in the offices of the Maryland Colonization Society at the Baltimore City Post Office and established the Maryland Historical Society. They proposed collecting the "remnants of the state鈥檚 history" and preserving their heritage through research, writing, and publications. By the end of the first year, the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) had 150 members. The group quickly outgrew their rooms at the post office and their fireproof safe at the Franklin Street Bank could not hold the growing number of documents and artifacts donated to the institution.
The new committee started work on a grand home for Baltimore鈥檚 new cultural institution, including space for an art gallery. They hired Robert Carey Long, Jr., who designed the Athenaeum, a four-story "Italian palazzo" style building with a unique feature for the preservation-minded historical society: fireproof closets.
Membership and donations increased during the 1850s after the society settled in the Athenaeum. Visitors came out for art exhibitions and donated paintings and statues to the society collections. Baltimore philanthropist, George Peabody donated to support the creation of an index of Maryland records in the London Public Record Office and, in 1867, established the society鈥檚 first publications fund. Additionally, the MdHS continued its work protecting state history and late in the nineteenth century the state transferred government records into their care.
Like many historical societies around the country, the Maryland Historical Society saw major changes around the turn of the century. Education became an important part of the group鈥檚 mission in many historical societies and women gained full membership. Annie Leakin Sioussat and Lucy Harwood Harrison were among the first female members of the Maryland Historical Society and spent decades volunteering their time and services. In 1906, the MdHS launched the Maryland Historical Magazine, a quarterly journal featuring new research and writing on Maryland history.
MdHS moved into its current home at 201 West Monument Street in 1919 soon after the end of World War I. The new building, the former residence of Baltimore philanthropist Enoch Pratt with a state-of-the-art fireproof addition, came as a gift from Mary Washington Keyser, whose husband, H. Irvine Keyser, had been an active member of the society for forty-three years.
As their predecessors had done after the Civil War, MdHS leaders started an effort to collect "the relics" of the recent Great War. In 1920, the state legislature formed a committee including former governor and historical society president Edwin Warfield. This group comprised the Historical Division of the state鈥檚 War Records Commission and served as the "official organ" of the federal government in collecting and compiling the military records of those Marylanders who served in World War I. The society initiated a similar agreement during World War II.
The society began expanding the Monument Street facility in 1953 and, in 1968, added the Thomas and Hugg building named after William and John Thomas. Designed by a local firm, Meyer, Ayers & Saint, the new building includes exhibition space, an auditorium, work rooms, storage space, and "to supplement the present Confederate Room--a Civil War Union Room." In 1981, the society added the France-Merrick Wing to the Thomas and Hugg Building.
Perhaps no other object in the holdings of the Maryland Historical Society attracts more visitors than the original manuscript of Francis Scott Key鈥檚 Star-Spangled Banner. In 1953, Mrs. Thomas C. Jenkins purchased the document from the Walters Art Gallery for $26,400, the same price the gallery had paid for it in 1933 at a New York auction. Jenkins provided additional funding for its display in a carved marble niche. She had previously donated Key family portraits and a room for their display. One hundred forty years after Key penned his famous verse, state and local dignitaries gathered to rededicate this American icon on September 14, 1954.
A newly renovated and expanded Maryland Historical Society opened in November 2003, amidst much fanfare and publicity. The facility now includes the Beard Pavilion and the Carey Center for Maryland Life which features nearly generous exhibition space for museum and library exhibitions, and new storage space for museum collections. In keeping with the founders鈥 passion for telling Maryland鈥檚 story, the society鈥檚 leadership, staff, and volunteers carry out today鈥檚 mission, securing the institution鈥檚 respected place among contemporary cultural organizations. As it has for the past 164 years, the Maryland Historical Society remains the one of the premier institutions for Maryland history.
In 2020, the Maryland Historical Society changed its name to the Maryland Center for History and Culture.
How the National Aquarium came to be in Baltimore is the story of three different aquariums that, over time, became one.
Our story begins in the middle. In the 1970s, Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer and his Commissioner of the city Department of Housing and Community Development, Robert C. Embry, visited Boston and became entranced with the city鈥檚 waterfront New England Aquarium. Returning home to Baltimore, Schaefer was determined to include an aquarium as part of the forthcoming inner harbor development.
In 1976, Baltimoreans voted to fund the aquarium, and ground was broken in 1978. But construction of the aquarium, with its distinctive glass pavilion and concrete turret lit with neon waves, experienced a series of setbacks, and Mayor William Donald Schaefer promised to take a swim in the new aquarium if it didn鈥檛 open on July 1, 1981. It didn鈥檛. And on July 15, as promised, the mayor took the plunge. The Sun reported that before of a crowd of around 300 spectators:
鈥淭he Honorable William Donald Schaefer, wearing a turnoff the century bathing costume in place of his dignity, clutched a large rubber duck and stepped into the seal pool, disappearing up to the brim of his straw boater.鈥
The mayor chatted with three seals and reclined on a rock with a woman dressed as a mermaid. Frank A. Gunther, Jr., the chair of the aquarium board, joined him.
The cost of a ticket to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, as it became known when it opened to the public in August 1981, was $4.50鈥攎ore than twice it was promised to be (and approximately a tenth of what a youth ticket costs over 40 years later).
About that somewhat confusing name. Although Congress granted the aquarium in Baltimore the right to use the title 鈥淣ational Aquarium,鈥 there was already a 鈥淣ational Aquarium鈥 in Washington, D.C.. Located in the basement of the Department of Commerce Building (later known as the Herbert C. Hoover Building) since the 1930s, this aquarium traced its history to the first national aquarium, founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1873. The Woods Hole aquarium moved to Washington in 1878 and remained there until 2013, first under the auspices of the federal government, then under the National Aquarium Society, before the National Aquarium in Baltimore took over the management in 2003. When the federal government decided to renovate the Hoover Building in 2013, 1,700 animals were moved to the National Aquarium in Baltimore (now known as the National Aquarium), and the National Aquarium in DC quietly closed its doors.
Today, the National Aquarium is the largest paid tourist attraction in Maryland; over 50 million people have visited since its opening in 1981. The aquarium is home to 20,000 different animals, including sloths, reptiles, and tropical birds. Its tanks hold over 2.2 million gallons of water. Over the decades, the aquarium鈥檚 footprint has expanded to include the Pavilion on Pier 4 (1990) and the Australia: Wild Extremes exhibit (2005). In 2024, the National Aquarium Harbor Wetland Project opened with plantings of over 130 shrubs and 39,000 grasses designed to attract and protect wildlife like diamondback terrapins, jellyfish, oysters, blue crabs, and river otters. This project echoes the National Aquarium鈥檚 mission to research and conservation and helps give the public a glimpse into what Baltimore looked like two hundred years ago, as well as what it might look like a few years from now.
From the humblest of beginnings, John H. Murphy Sr. rose to become the founder of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, which had an office here at 1336 N Carey St in the 1910鈥檚. Murphy was born enslaved in Baltimore on Christmas Day, 1840. He was the son of Benjamin Murphy III, a whitewasher, and Susan Coby Murphy. Not much is known about his youth. In March, 1864 Murphy joined the 30th Regiment Infantry of the U.S. Colored Troops, Maryland Volunteers. In the army, he rose to the rank of first sergeant. Murphy fought in General Grant鈥檚 Wilderness campaign. Later, he was with General Sherman in North Carolina when the Union Army captured Confederate General Johnston鈥檚 troops. Murphy later wrote of the war:
I went in a slave and came out a freedman. I went in a chattel and came out with the blue uniform of my country as a guarantee of freedom, and a sergeant鈥檚 stripes on my arms to prove that there is a promotion for those who can earn it. After the war, Murphy returned to Baltimore a free man. Soon after he married Martha Elizabeth Howard in 1868. He went on to work for the Sunday school at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Baltimore. In the late 1880s, Murphy became the superintendent of the District Sunday School and moved to Hagerstown, Maryland.听 As superintendent he began to publish a Sunday school newspaper called Sunday School Helper to realize his dream of uniting all Maryland A.M.E Sunday schools. In 1892, Reverend William M. Alexander started a rival paper, the Afro-American, to promote his church, the Sharon Baptist Church. In 1897, Murphy purchased the Afro-American for $200 and merged it with the Sunday School Helper to create one paper. In its early years, unpaid family members staffed the paper. The popularity of the publication gave Murphy the opportunity to expand the paper鈥檚 paid employees to nearly 100 workers by the 1920s. He was also able to expand into multiple offices, including the Uptown office located at 1336 N Carey Street. By 1922, the Afro-American had grown large enough to become the biggest African American-owned newspaper on the East Coast and the third largest in the nation. Within its pages Murphy was an outspoken advocate for justice and exposing racism in areas such as housing, education, jobs, and public accommodations. In 1913, he was elected president of the National Negro Press Association. He also served as the president of the National Negro Publishers Association. Until his death in 1922, Murphy used the paper as a platform to advocate for the African American community.听 At the time of his death, Murphy Sr left to his five sons what was then the largest black newspaper plant in the nation, operated and manned by 138 employees, with a circulation of 14,000 subscriptions. Out of all the brothers, Carl J. Murphy was selected to serve as chairman and publisher of the Afro-American. For 45 years, Carl Murphy worked tirelessly to grow the publication from a local weekly newspaper to a national daily chain. Under Carl Murphy the paper reached a peak weekly circulation of 235,000 newspapers in 1945.听
Today, John Murphy鈥檚 family continues to uphold his legacy. The Baltimore Afro-American remains one of the oldest operating black family-owned newspapers in the United States. And although the original office was torn down, the Uptown office remains a poignant reminder of Murphy Sr.鈥檚 legacy as the first African-American newspaper magnate.听The research and writing of this article was funded by two grants: one from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and one from the Baltimore National Heritage Area.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.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County shares in a unique American college phenomenon of open or green spaces. Campus open spaces鈥攑laces set aside for students, faculty and staff to gather informally or formally鈥攈elp to shape a sense of community for universities across the country. These areas are a unique part of American college culture, something that cannot be seen in the tight and rigorous design of European universities which often have academic buildings spanning for blocks on end with few open spaces in sight.
UMBC鈥檚 most important public greenspace, the Quad, is bordered by Academic Row, the Commons, and the Retriever Athletic Center. The Quad provides the campus with a space for campus related or recreational activities, relaxation, and even class space in good weather. Having been used over the years for student protest, social celebrations, and more, the Quad has been a place where students can congregate outside of the academic buildings and structures on campus.
Throughout UMBC鈥檚 history, students have often used the Quad as a gathering place for celebrations. UMBC held the first graduation commencement on the in 1970. Involvement Fest, a day which gives students a chance to meet and learn about the various student clubs and organizations at UMBC, is held on the Quad every year. Most notably, Quadmania, an annual event in the spring featuring musical concerts, food, and other activities was first held on the Quad on September 19, 1981. The event was, and still is, intended to celebrate the campus, the coming of spring, and the nearing end of the school year.
The Quad is not only used for celebrations鈥攊t has also served as a meeting space for students to express their concerns or rally together in opposition to various proposals or events. In the late 1970s, students gathered on the Quad to express their disapproval of the Maryland Higher Education Commission proposing to merge UMBC with University of Maryland, College Park. The rally, organized by the Student Government Association (SGA) and other student organizations, included more than 1,000 students and was the largest in UMBC history at the time.
The Quad is just one of several open spaces on campus. Others include the library pond and Erickson Field, east of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery. Open and green spaces across the UMBC campus, provide the university with a unique way for students to come together as a community. Students can, as they have in the past, use these spaces as they see fit鈥攆or gathering, learning, rallying, or relaxing.
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
The construction of the Rotunda in 1921, designed by architects Simonson & Pietsch in the neo-Georgian style, marked a radical change in the design of business campuses in the twentieth century. Traditionally, businesses in the banking industry were located in dense downtown financial districts. The Maryland Casualty Company changed this notion after outgrowing its Tower Building at 222 E. Baltimore Street and moving to the more residential Hampden neighborhood. It set the example for future suburban business campuses and helped rein in an era of pastoral capitalism.
The Maryland Casualty Company purchased the Dulin Estate in 1919 and established on the twenty-five acres an extensive business campus that included a number of impressive amenities, including a clubhouse with a dining room, an auditorium that could seat 1,500 guests, a landscaped park, tennis courts, and a baseball diamond. The idea was to provide workers with an idyllic business campus removed from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. What is now known as the Rotunda was the company's administration building. The H-shaped building features a distinct bell tower and clock that exists today as a landmark of the Hampden community.
The Rotunda was nearly demolished in 1969 after the Maryland Casualty Company outgrew the four-story building. They considered erecting a larger office building in its place, but developer Bernard Manekin convinced the company to turn it into a retail and office space. The result was one of Baltimore's first adaptive reuse projects and grew to include a shopping mall, movie theater, office spaces, and a grocery store.
In 2005, the shopping center had already fallen into decline and New Jersey based developer Hekemian and Company bought the property. They began planning a mixed-use redevelopment project on the site that would transform the historic location into an upscale residential/commercial campus. The project stayed in the planning phase for eight years due to a national recession and community concerns. A coalition of neighborhood councils formed the Mill Valley Community Council to push back against the new development. Amongst a number of concerns, community leaders felt that the new Rotunda was not being designed to serve neighborhood residents and that new retail stores would take business away from the local establishments on Hampden鈥檚 "Avenue."
In September 2013, Hekemian and Co. broke ground on the site. The construction will bring new retail and living spaces to the Rotunda, as well as parking garages. Supporters argue that the development will breathe new life into the Rotunda and revitalize the struggling shopping mall inside, and according to the project鈥檚 website, "will mark the return of a Baltimore landmark."
"Huge and, alas! we must say ungainly," is how the Baltimore Sun described The Severn in 1907. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972, few locals would still dismiss the grand Severn Apartment House as an intrusion on Mt. Vernon Place, but in the 1890s the construction of the building created a real controversy among Mount Vernon's wealthy residents.
Baltimore builder Joseph M. Cone and architect Charles E. Cassell unveiled plans for a new ten-story apartment house in September 1895 at the northeast corner of Mt. Vernon Place and Cathedral Street. The new building would rise to a height of 122 feet, just 7 feet shy of the 1894 Hotel Stafford, a Richardsonian Romanesque landmark around the corner facing the north garden of Washington Place. Known as "The Severn," the proposed apartment house included twenty apartment suites for families and nine bachelor apartments, along with a drug store and a kitchen for room service.
The corner had been occupied by a beautiful townhouse first built as the home of Chancellor John Johnson, Jr., a notable Baltimore lawyer (whose portrait still hangs at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse) and brother of well-known Maryland politician Reverdy Johnson. One of the last owners, Henry W. Rogers was a well-established real estate investor and, after his death in 1901, his son, himself a well known real-estate agent, sold the property to Joseph Cone.
Neighbors objected to the prospect of replacing the old house with the still unfamiliar form of an apartment house. Building came to a stop in the fall of 1895 as a group of area residents approached Joseph Cone to try to buy back the property. Their effort ultimately failed when they could not raise the necessary amount to buy out the builder. However, the Severn did motivate residents to successfully lobby the state legislature to pass a bill prohibiting development in Mt. Vernon taller than seventy feet.
By the 1970s, when The Severn was designated a National Historic Landmark, Mt. Vernon was not quite as grand as it had been in the past and the apartment building sold to developer Caswell J. Caplan for the modest sum of $250,000. Over the next several years, Caplan worked to modernize the apartments, preserving the original wood floors and tile while renovating the kitchens and other elements. The Severn continues to be owned by members of the Caplan family and is now appreciated more than scorned as one of Mt. Vernon's grandest historic apartment houses.
At the edge of the Disc Golf Course in Druid Hill Park where the greens give way to weeds and woods, you might notice a set of stone steps that lead nowhere. Trace their path downward through the wild overgrowth and you can pick out remnants of a stone foundation wall and a rusted iron fence. This abandoned spot used to be a popular destination. Under the vines and overgrowth are the Three Sisters Ponds, all now empty. There were originally five of these man-made basins, created in 1875 to stock trout, shad, and other local species bred in a nearby fish hatchery house. The picturesque little building, also completed in 1875, was designed by George A. Frederick, the same architect who designed Baltimore鈥檚 City Hall and several other Druid Hill Park landmarks. Early on, the building was described as 鈥渁 two-story Gothic structure of blue stone, with white marble trimmings, the main building projecting from octagonal wings on either side.鈥 By 1925, the building was abandoned and ultimately destroyed by vandals, who broke windows, stripped it of its bronze fittings, and set it on fire in 1940. The city demolished the charred ruins for safety reasons. At least one of the ponds stocked fish well into the twentieth century, but, in 1884, the center pond became a sea lion exhibit. The pond鈥檚 first occupant arrived by train from California in the middle of the night after an eight-day journey. The sea lion 鈥渟lipped out upon the bank鈥 of Pond No. 2, 鈥済ave a plunge headforemost, and was out of sight,鈥 reported the Baltimore Sun. In 1896, Captain Cassells, superintendent of Druid Hill Park, declared that the sea lions were 鈥渢he show attraction of the park, particularly to every child who comes here.鈥 To give the sleek celebrities more space, the center pond was enlarged, merging five basins into three, but it would still prove to be only a temporary home for such large animals. In 1910, the sea lions relocated to a new exhibit on the main campus of the Zoo a short distance away. Despite the loss of the sea lions, Three Sisters Ponds remained beautiful, well-tended, and popular for several more decades. The name 鈥淭hree Sisters Ponds鈥 dates to at least the 1920s. Its origin is unknown but may reference the Native American use of the term to describe three staple crops 鈥 corn, beans, and squash 鈥 traditionally grown in close proximity and for mutual benefit. One of the three became a casting pond where anglers could practice their sport inaugurated in 1928 for the Maryland Open Bait Casting Tournament. Another of the ponds, around the same time, became a favorite destination of the Baltimore Model Yacht Club. On weekends, those who sailed model yachts and those who enjoyed watching them flocked to the pond. In winter, ice skaters came. As the decades passed and recreational use of Druid Hill Park changed, Three Sisters Ponds became a quieter spot. One police officer who occasionally patrolled the park in the late 1960s and early 1970s remembered the place fondly. 鈥淭he ponds gave the occasional visitor like me a sense of privacy, escape, and personal oasis,鈥 wrote Philip B.J. Reid, who later became an FBI agent. 鈥淓ncircled by an array of multicolored plants and trees and well-manicured lawns and shrubs, and home to various species of birds and the occasional deer, the setting was beautiful, serene, and majestic.鈥 The City cut off water to the ponds in the 1960s and since then, nature has slowly reclaimed the site. A master plan for Druid Hill Park published in 1995 recommended their renovation, but nothing has happened there yet.
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When the University Center, known on campus as 鈥渢he UC,鈥 opened its doors in 1982 it definitively moved student life to the academic center of UMBC鈥檚 campus with a goal of cultivating a cohesive, unified community for students, faculty, and staff.
The UC, located between academic buildings Meyerhoff Hall and Sherman Hall, provided the campus community with a variety of amenities, including the campus bookstore, a dining room, a ballroom, and lounge space. Students who commuted and those who lived on campus enjoyed meals in the UC Pub or congregated outside on the patio. The UC provided office space for some student organizations, such as the Student Government Association and the Retriever, UMBC鈥檚 student newspaper, and storage space for others.
UMBC began to outgrow the UC within the first decade of its operation as the result of increased student enrollment and already limited student space. In 2002, the university completed construction of a new student center, the Commons, that took on many of the student centered functions of the old UC in a larger space, including housing the campus bookstore, dining amenities, and lounge space. The UC is still used by UMBC students. On a nice sunny day, visitors might see students congregating on the outdoor patio, drinking coffee, or eating lunch on the first floor of the building. The UC ballroom remains a popular venue for banquets and performances by student organizations. The Retriever Weekly newspaper and WMBC, UMBC鈥檚 radio station, have their offices in the UC.
Home to the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, the Psychology Center for Community Collaboration, and the English Language Institute, the UC is indeed changing its function over time. In 2009, campus administration announced plans for a full renovation of the UC intended to provide space for new traditional classrooms and active learning spaces, transforming into the aptly named University Learning Center.
The white two-story house at 2702 Elsinore Ave was once the home of Violet Hill Whyte, the first African-American police officer in the Baltimore City Police Force. It was through her service as an officer and a social worker that Whyte became a beloved and well-respected pillar of her community. Violet Whyte (born Violet Hill) was born in Washington, D.C. on November 18th, 1897 and moved to Baltimore as a young girl. After graduating from Douglass High School and Coppin State College, Hill became a public school teacher. She taught grammar for 6 years until she got married and had children with George Sumner Whyte, who was the principal of Public School No. 111 at the time. In the following years, Violet Whyte became a prominent social worker in her community. She became a member of the Women鈥檚 Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1931 and continued to serve in many different roles with the WCTU until 1976. Before becoming an officer, she was also a member of the Civic League advisory board and the Negro State Republican League, the executive secretary of the Parent-Teacher Federation, and president of the Intercity Child Study Association. On December 3, 1937, Whyte was appointed an officer of the Baltimore Northwestern District Police Force. At the time, the Baltimore Police Department had never allowed an African American to become a police officer. However, on June 1st, 1937, William P. Lawson replaced Charles D. Gaither as Baltimore Police Commissioner. In his first six months, Lawson decided to end the BPD鈥檚 policy of barring African Americans from becoming police officers.听 The station where Whyte was assigned to work served one of the largest police districts in Baltimore. Two days after her appointment, she arrested murder suspect Violet Key. The next day, over 100 Baltimoreans crowded into the station to celebrate her induction as an officer. The crowd showered her with floral arrangements and congratulations as she formally accepted her post.
Whyte worked incredibly hard. She handled homicide, abuse, assault, narcotics and robbery cases. Once, she went undercover in order to arrest the members of a narcotics gang. She even worked up to 20 hours on some days. She handed out food and gifts during holidays, and inspired local children to stop skipping school. This dedication to helping the community through both law enforcement and charity led her to be described as a 鈥渙ne-woman-police-force and a one-woman-social-worker combined.鈥 In 1965, she was promoted to sergeant. Two years later in October 1967, she was promoted again to the rank of Lieutenant, a first for both African Americans and women in the BPD. Finally, on December 3rd, 1967, Whyte retired from the police force 30 years to the day after she was appointed. She never missed a day of work.听 Even after retiring, she volunteered at the Western District Station to organize charity events. She also continued to be involved in many other community and charity organizations. On July 17th, 1980, after a lifetime of service, Violet Hill Whyte passed away at the age of 82.听 A historical sign at the corner of N Payson St and W Franklin St honors the massive impact Whyte had on the city of Baltimore. Violet Hill Whyte Way near the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus was also named after her.
In 1939 sociologist, activist, author, and cofounder of the NAACP, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois, had a house built at 2302 Montebello Terrace in the neighborhood of Morgan Park. Barred from many neighborhoods by Jim Crow laws and redlining, Black people could build and own their homes in Morgan Park, a few blocks away from Morgan State University (which was called Morgan College until 1975). Other notable residents of the neighborhood included the musical giants Eubie Blake and Cab Calloway, and the founder of the Afro-American newspapers, Carl Murphy. According to Murphy鈥檚 daughter, he and Du Bois would discuss civil rights on walks around the neighborhood. Du Bois鈥 house was designated as a Baltimore Landmark by the City Council in 2008.
W.E.B. Du Bois was arguably the most important Black scholar, author, and activist of the first half of the 20th century. He was born in 1868, just three years after the end of the Civil War, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the son of a working class Haitian father and a Black American mother. The first Black graduate of his high school, Du Bois received his first undergraduate degree from Fisk University. He completed his studies at Harvard University, where he became the first Black student to earn a PhD. He then taught at several universities including Wilberforce University and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1899 he published a groundbreaking study of African Americans in Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. During his tenure at Atlanta University, his young son died after Du Bois spent the night looking for one of the three Black doctors, as no white doctor in the city would treat the sick child.
In 1903 he published The Souls of Black Folk, a pioneering work in sociology and African-American literature. The same year, Du Bois wrote his influential essay, "The Talented Tenth," in which he argued for the development of a small group of educated Black people, as well as agitation and protest, as the path to racial equality. In 1905 he helped organize the Niagara Movement, a civil rights group that demanded political and social equality for Black Americans, and was a forerunner of the NAACP. The group split in 1908, partially due to disagreements about accepting women members, which Du Bois supported. In 1909 he retired from teaching to co-found the NAACP, and edit its magazine, The Crisis. Du Bois was active in the NAACP until 1948 when he left over ideological differences.
Du Bois lived in the two-story white shingle home with a detached garage from 1939 until the death of his first wife, Nina, in 1950. They moved to Baltimore to be closer to their daughter, Yolande, a city school teacher. While living in Baltimore, Du Bois wrote Dusk of Dawn (1940), Color and Democracy (1945), and The World and Africa (1947). During this period Dr. Du Bois also maintained a home in New York City.
Du Bois continued his political activism through the Pan-African, anti-colonial, and peace movements. Although not a member of the Communist Party at the time, he had socialist ideals, and worked with organizations and individuals connected to it. This resulted in punitive measures by the U.S. Departments of Justice and State, which revoked his passport from 1952 until 1958. Increasingly disillusioned with the United States, he moved to Ghana to work on the . He officially joined the Communist Party in 1961. Du Bois died in 1963, at the age of 95, in Ghana. His daughter, Yolande Du Bois Williams taught in Baltimore City Public Schools, including Paul Laurence Dunbar and Booker T. Washington High Schools, for forty years. When she died in 1961, her funeral was held at Morgan Christian Center at Morgan College, just blocks away from her parents鈥 former home on Montebello Terrace.
The research and writing of this article was funded by two grants: one from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and one from the Baltimore National Heritage Area.听
The Walbert building stands out in the Station North skyline with a bright coat of paint and rich Beaux Arts details.
The story of this landmark begins in 1907, when Charles J. Bonaparte鈥攁 great-nephew to Emperor Napoleon I of France, a prominent local lawyer and, at the time, attorney general under President Theodore Roosevelt鈥攆irst announced plans for the building.
Acting as the trustee for the Walter R. Abell estate, which owned the property, Bonaparte commissioned the construction of an eight-story fireproof apartment house at the northwest corner of Charles Street and Lafayette Avenue. Working from a design by Baltimore architects Wyatt & Nolting, builder James Stewart & Co. soon completed the building at a cost of $190,000, with a fire-proof steel frame, pressed brick, and ornamental terra cotta details. The first floor featured several offices, designed for physicians or dentists, along with a large dining room. The largest and most luxurious apartments in the new building rented for as much as $900 or $1,000 per year (equivalent to over $23,000 today).
Baltimore native James B.N. Wyatt and William G. Nolting organized their partnership of Wyatt & Nolting in 1887. Wyatt was a close neighbor to The Walbert since 1876, when he designed and built a home for himself and his mother at Maryland and North Avenue across from the contemporary MICA Graduate Studio building. Charles Bonaparte also commissioned the firm to design his own home鈥揃ella Vista鈥揵uilt in 1896 in Baltimore County. Wyatt & Nolting went on from the Walbert to design the Algonquin Apartments at St. Paul and Chase in 1914, along with scores of other projects across the city.
The Walbert was later converted into an office building and remained in the ownership of Crane and Crane for years while falling into some disrepair. Fortunately, the building underwent a substantial renovation in the mid-1980s through a partnership led by Howard Brown of David S. Brown Enterprises and it remains in good condition today.
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.Built around 1800, 1706 Lancaster Street was home to Thomas Kemp, a 24-year-old shipbuilder from St. Michaels on Maryland鈥檚 Eastern Shore, from 1803 to 1805 on the eve of the War of 1812. During the war, many regarded Kemp as the most skilled builder of privateer schooners. The Rossie, Comet, and Chasseur schooners seized an astounding 80 prizes鈥Rossie under Joshua Barney鈥檚 command, the other two under the celebrated Captain Tom Boyle. Like other shipbuilders, Kemp also repaired, altered, and outfitted vessels, sometimes investing in the ships that came out of his yard. Kemp鈥檚 Fountain Street shipyard, several blocks to the north, also produced two sloops of war for the U.S. Navy鈥Ontario and Erie. His payroll during construction in 1813 reached $1,000 a week, which was quite a sum considering that even skilled workmen earned only $3 a day.
with research support from
Tochterman鈥檚 ostensibly sells fishing tackle but owners Tony and Dee Tochterman鈥攖he third generation of the Tochterman family to run this Eastern Avenue institution鈥攁re part of a hundred year long history of customer service that few other businesses could match. In the mid-1990s, a customer came into the shop carrying a gift certificate he found in his late father鈥檚 desk鈥攄ating all the way back to 1947. Tony honored it anyway. Tony even recalled sending fishing rods to a customer in Nicaragua (a delivery that had to be carried on horseback for the last few miles of the trip). Tochterman鈥檚 Fishing Tackle got started on February 8, 1916, when Baltimore fishmonger Thomas Tochtermann, brought a load of leftover peeler crabs and spoiled fish from the Fish Market by the harbor to his house at 1925 Eastern Avenue. While the fish wasn鈥檛 good enough to cook for dinner, local fishermen heading to the harbor were happy to buy it for bait. Soon, people passing by on the Eastern Avenue trolley line started stopping by the house regularly to buy bait and home-made crab cakes from Anna Tochtermann, Thomas鈥 wife. Anna managed the shop during the day while Thomas worked at the fish market. The business thrived and Tochtermann鈥檚 son, Thomas, Jr. or Tommy, took over in 1936. Thomas鈥 own son, Tony, started working at the shop in 1958鈥攚hen he was just three and a half years old. In the 1980s, Tony took over and, along with his wife and business partner, Dee Taylor, continues to run the shop today. Tommy hasn鈥檛 left entirely, however. After his father鈥檚 death in 1998, Tony installed a small container of his father鈥檚 ashes near the front of the store in a display case featuring vintage fishing reels and a signed baseball from famed Boston Red Sox player (and Tochterman鈥檚 customer) Ted Williams. Dee and Tony live right across the street from the store which has lured in customers with a classic neon sign of a jumping large-mouth bass since the 1930s. The store sells over seven hundred different reels and is packed full of fishing rods. In addition to听bunker chum (ground Menhaden fish), chicken necks, and clam snouts, the store's live bait offerings include night crawlers, and the ever-popular bloodworms.
The bloodworms are a prized bait for sport fishing in the United States and Europe and, among Dee鈥檚 many contributions to the business, is maintaining the shop鈥檚 stock of bloodworms that she orders from diggers in Maine and Canada. Known to customers as the 鈥淲orm Lady,鈥 Dee counts each delivery by hand and washes the thousands of worms in salt-water (shipped in to match the salinity of their native habitat). Her painstaking work is appreciated, as fishing aficionados go out of their way to get their bait and gear at Tochterman鈥檚. This business has always been an integral part of the lives of the family for three generations鈥攁nd touched the lives of countless people heading to the water prepared with the best fishing tackle and advice in Baltimore.
Trinity Baptist Church at the corner of Druid Hill Avenue and McMechen Street tells the story of Baltimore's connections to the national civil rights movement and radical Black activism in the early twentieth century. One of the church's influential early activist leaders was Reverend Garnett Russell Waller. In July 1905, Waller joined fellow activists W.E.B. Du Bois, William Monroe Trotter at the Erie Beach Hotel in Ontario, Canada in founding the Niagara Movement鈥攁 new civil rights organization that ultimately developed into the NAACP. Trinity Baptist Church was then located at Charles and 20th Streets and Waller, who served as the Niagara Movement鈥檚 Maryland secretary, lived nearby at 325 E. 23rd Street. James Robert Lincoln Diggs, educator and succeeded Waller as pastor of Trinity Baptist Church beginning around early 1915. Diggs shared Waller's commitment to activism and was also a participant in the 1905 founding of the Niagara Movement. In 1918, Diggs helped to establish the Baltimore chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) in 1918. The UNIA-ACL was first established in Ohio in 1914 by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born activist. Diggs was close with Garvey and presided over his marriage to Amy Jacques Garvey in 1922. In May 1920, Diggs led the congregation's move to Druid Hill Avenue after the congregation purchased the 1872 St. Paul's English Evangelical Lutheran Church for $40,000. The church quickly put their new building to work鈥攈osting the 1920 annual convention for the National Equal Rights League in October. The conference was presided over by Rev. J. H. Taylor, secretary of the Maryland Association for Social Service, with speakers including founding member Monroe Trotter, lawyer Nathan S. Taylor from Chicago, and Trinity鈥檚 own Rev. Diggs. The church also served as a center for local activism. For example, on February 1, 1921, 500 people gathered at Trinity Baptist Church at Druid Hill Avenue and Mosher Street to protest the release of a white man, Harry Feldenheimer, on a $500 bail soon after police arrested him for an attempted assault on a 10-year-old black girl named Esther Short. The Afro-American reported that participants in the meeting criticized the 鈥渂rutality of the local police, exclusion of qualified men from the police force and from juries in the city, and the Jim Crow arrangements for colored people in the Criminal and Juvenile Courts.鈥 Regrettably, Diggs health began to decline around the fall of 1922 and he soon entered a hospital. On April 14, 1923, he died at home and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. Rev. Garnett R. Waller died in Baltimore in 1941 but the church both individuals supported continues to this day.
On a blustery winter day in December 1987, a small crowd of spectators gathered around the Field House at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). They had assembled for the unveiling of a life-size bronze sculpture of the young university鈥檚 mascot. The Retriever statue, aka the True Grit statue, currently located in the plaza in front of the Retriever Activities Center (RAC) continues to stand as a reminder of the student body鈥檚 pride in their university.
The Retriever was chosen as the school mascot in 1966 by the first class of UMBC. A competition was held and forty different suggestions were presented. After a university-wide vote, administrators selected the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a dog breed native to Maryland, as the school鈥檚 official mascot. The Retriever has since gone on to become the name of the student newspaper, yearbook, and athletic teams.
In 1986, Alumna Paulette Raye, philosophy major and self-proclaimed dog-lover, was commissioned by UMBC administrators to construct a statue for the school鈥檚 20th anniversary, based on the university鈥檚 beloved mascot. Raye took several studio art classes during her time at UMBC, even earning three credits towards her degree, for creating the life-size bronze model of the Retriever. Raye鈥檚 鈥渃onception was that the dog should represent the study body鈥攁lert, intelligent, eager to learn and friendly.鈥 To capture this 鈥渁lertness,鈥 Raye designed a statue of True Grit that would stand upright and gaze straight ahead with his ears cocked.
Raye worked on the statue for almost two years, using a local five year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Nitty Gritty as her model. True Grit was the name of Nitty Gritty鈥檚 father, and in an interview with UMBC Magazine Raye recalled that she wasn鈥檛 exactly sure 鈥渨hy the mascot received that name [True Grit instead of Nitty Gritty]鈥 other than it sounded bold and strong鈥攍ike the [school鈥檚] team.鈥 Nitty Gritty later had the honor of pulling a black cloth off the statue of himself at the statue鈥檚 inauguration.
During the unveiling ceremony on December 7, 1987, UMBC Chancellor Michael Hooker instituted a new tradition for the young university: rubbing True Grit鈥檚 nose for good luck. At the unveiling, Hooker remarked, 鈥淭radition is exceedingly important. We used to be young [but] we are adults now. It is appropriate that we begin a new tradition.鈥 Since its unveiling, the Retriever statue has remained a beloved campus landmark, often greeting students with a student newspaper in its mouth or bedecked with a cap and gown during graduation. Students continue to stop by during finals to rub True Grit鈥檚 nose, now discolored due to almost thirty years of UMBC students and faculty taking part in a campus-wide tradition.
Tudor Arms Apartments on University Parkway is one of the few cooperative housing apartments in Baltimore. It is composed of two buildings, which sit within the Roland Park Historic District. The first of the two apartment buildings, which is five-stories tall, replaced a popular tavern at the site known as Biddy Rice鈥檚 Saloon. After purchasing the site from the Roland Park Company in January 1911, the Wentworth Apartment Company would begin constructing the first building, at a cost of $100,000 at the time. The company鈥檚 secretary, J.G. Valiant, would be the building鈥檚 renting agent.
Two renowned architects, Clyde Nelson Friz and Edward Hughes Glidden, worked together on the building鈥檚 architecture, with brick and stone in the style of Tudor Revival, and terra cotta trimmings. The building opened to residents in 1912 with the name Tudor Hall. This 鈥渉igh-class apartment,鈥 as it was described at the time, had a working elevator (which remains in operation), steam heat, hardwood floors, and other amenities. The nearby concrete bridge over Stony Run had only been built four years earlier, which is still intact. A train, part of the Maryland and Pennsylvania railroad, would run underneath the bridge until January 1958 when it stopped operating there.
Friz and Glidden partnered again for the second building, named Essex Arms, which had the same architectural style as the first building. It opened to residents in 1922. The building鈥檚 landlord, Guilford Realty Company, later purchased the building from the Wentworth Apartment Company. The apartments were available to rent on a month-to-month basis. On February 25, 1929, the Baltimore City Council unanimously voted to rename the dirt road to the south of the apartment building from 鈥淭udor Hall Avenue鈥 to 鈥淭udor Arms Avenue.鈥 The name is still used to this day.
In May 1947, three residents, Marie Codd, Nora Quillen, and Ralph Quillen purchased the buildings from the landlord, planning to make Essex Arms and Tudor Hall into a cooperative housing corporation, naming it Tudor Arms Apartments. This came to pass in October 1947.
Some residents challenged this and sued the newly-established cooperative. However, the highest court in Maryland, the Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of the cooperative, and against the tenant challengers, in the case of Tudor Arms Apartments v. Shaffer. The ruling, which reversed a circuit court decision, held that those who bought cooperative apartment units were the owners indefinitely, as long as they exercised 鈥済ood behavior.鈥 Their decision would later be cited by courts in Maryland, Illinois and Massachusetts in cases involving other housing cooperatives, such as Greenbelt Homes and Village Green Mutual Homes.
Sometime after the founding of the Tudor Arms housing cooperative, likely in either the late 1940s or 1950s, a bridge connecting Essex Arms and Tudor Hall would be constructed, signifying that both buildings were one community. Specific building names would later be dropped. The terms 鈥淣orth Building鈥 and 鈥淪outh Building鈥 would be used in their place. Over the years, Tudor Arms has been the home to many prominent residents. This has included epidemiologist Wade Hampton Frost, historical scholar Kent Roberts Greenfield, sculptor Ephraim Keyser (and his wife Fannie), music educators Grace Harriet Spofford and Elizabeth Coulson, Theo Lippman (father of Baltimore writer Laura Lippman), and former Maryland State Senator Jill P. Carter.
In the late 1960s, the Tudor Arms Board opposed plans by the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks to change neighboring Wyman Park into a recreation space, wanting it to be 鈥渘atural,鈥 instead. To justify their decision, they cited their support for Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 purchase of 31 acres of the park for university development in 1961, which included the creation of San Martin Drive.
In recent years, residents have honored the apartment community鈥檚 history with 鈥淭udor Arms Day鈥 in August 2024 and 鈥淭udor Arms Day 2鈥 in April of this year. This included a guided tour to historical spots of note, multiple tri-fold historic display boards, a self-guided scavenger hunt, an unveiling of a painting commissioned by residents of the North Building, and other activities.
Tucked away in the southeastern corner of Baltimore County, and separated from the rest of Sparrow鈥檚 Point by a creek, Turner Station is where many African American workers at Bethlehem Steel and nearby factories lived with their families from the 1800s up through the present. New housing was constructed around World War I in Dundalk for white factory workers, but it excluded black workers. Partially as a result, African Americans focused on building their own community. According to local historian and cosmetologist , Turner Station takes its name from Joshua Turner who first purchased the property in the 1800s:
鈥淚t started with a man named Joshua Turner who had purchased this land back in the 1800s and he had purchased it for guano, which is pigeon droppings, and this was [what] fertilized land... There was a lot of farmland near so the fertilizer was to be used for the different orchard farms. I understand there were apple farms and different vegetable farms not too far from here. So Joshua Turner, as I understand, from the records that we had read, had set up a station for the employees that were employed at Sparrows Point and thus this is how the name came about, Turner Station after Joshua Turner.鈥While Bethlehem Steel built housing for white workers in Dundalk after WWI, they made no investments in housing for black workers in Turner Station. Instead, residents built their own homes and businesses, growing a community outside the oversight of company officials. Beginning around 1920, development started in the neighborhoods of Steelton Park and Carnegie. Turner Station soon became one of the largest African American communities in Baltimore County. The town reached a peak around WWII when wartime workers at Bethlehem Steel moved to the area. According to local historian Louis Diggs, credit for the self-sufficient community鈥檚 development belongs largely to Mr. Anthony Thomas (1857-1931) and Dr. Joseph Thomas (1885-1963), Anthony Thomas鈥 son.
For over sixty years, tall broadcasting towers have stood high above the old homes in Baltimore鈥檚 Woodberry neighborhood. The two tallest towers now standing on听Television Hill beam out the signals of four television stations and three radio stations across the city and surrounding area. A third smaller tower relays municipal police, fire and rescue personnel communications. Of course, this area wasn鈥檛 always called TV Hill. It may be hard to believe but there wasn鈥檛 always television. Before test patterns and Saturday morning cartoons, the area was known as Malden Hill. In the summer of 1948, only twenty thousand or so Baltimore families (and only one in ten households in the United States) owned televisions. The first two stations in the city鈥 WMAR-TV and WBAL-TV鈥攐ffered fuzzy reception at best for most local viewers. By the end of 1948, however, WAAM鈥揟V (Channel 13),听owned by Baltimore businessmen and Brothers Ben and Herman Cohen, had started construction on a new station and new transmission tower. The station picked Malden Hill, 334 feet above the surrounding landscape, to give their signal a better chance of reaching Baltimore televisions. With this advantage, the station's new 530-foot tower stood 864 feet above sea level and听WAAM鈥揟V had the first television studio in Baltimore designed specifically for this still new technology. On November 1, 1948, the station went on the air and the next day stayed on the air for twenty-three hours straight covering incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman surprise win over Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election. Flash forward nine years and WAAM-TV had changed both call letters and ownership. In May 1957, the station sold to Westinghouse Broadcasting Company and was renamed WJZ-TV. The competing WBAL-TV鈥檚 studios and broadcast tower had already relocated to Malden Hill several years earlier. Still, despite being home to two of Baltimore鈥檚 three television stations, only a few folks called it TV Hill until 1958 when a new tower began to rise. TV reception could be a bit tricky in those pre-cable and satellite days of rooftop antennas or set top 鈥渞abbit ears.鈥 WJZ and WBAL chose the elevated ground in Woodberry for their transmitter towers as a partial solution, but broadcast engineers knew that even higher towers could improve both reception and station coverage. Though air traffic concerns imposed an upper limti on how high a station could build, both stations had room to grow.
But neither WJZ nor WBAL could afford the expense of a new tower on their own, especially when the stations sought to go as high as the law allowed. The solution was a partnership between the neighboring stations to build one gigantic tower topped with two separate transmitter masts. When Baltimore鈥檚 oldest TV station, WMAR, heard of this plan, station managers decided they wanted in. WMAR worried that if viewers could get two stations by pointing their antennas in one direction they wouldn鈥檛 bother making adjustments to tune in to WMAR鈥攅specially if their broadcast looked worse than the competition coming from the new tower. Baltimore鈥檚 three TV stations struck a unique deal to share one gigantic tower, a tower topped with three separate transmitter masts, a first at the time. The stations would all have improved coverage and picture quality at a cost they couldn鈥檛 have borne alone. Baltimore area television viewers could take a 鈥渟et it and forget it鈥 approach to their antennas. Construction began in October of 1958 and continued through the spring. In 1997, Fred Rasmussen recalled on the history of the tower for the Baltimore Sun describing the 500 tons of nickel-chrome alloy steel used to build a structure covered with 2 1/2 tons of paint. The tower was stabilized by guy-wires made from three miles of steel wire rope anchored by 33-foot square concrete slabs buried 16 feet deep. Together the tower base and cable anchors required a remarkable 2,250 tons of concrete. Finally, in a ceremony on August 9, 1959, Governor J. Millard Tawes joined station managers to throw the switch and turn on the broadcast. At the time of its completion, the giant $1.125 million 鈥渃andelabra tower鈥 on what was then known to everyeone as TV Hill, was the tallest free-standing broadcast tower in the United States. A 270-foot addition in 1964 brought the top to 1315 feet above sea level. Today, however, the tower isn鈥檛 even the tallest in the neighborhood. A second tower completed on a nearby hill in 1987 by Cunningham Communications holds that honor, at 1,549 feet above sea level. The newer tower is a single mast structure, and though both hills and the three towers they support are now collectively known as TV Hill, there鈥檚 still only one candelabra tower.
The former U.S. Marine Hospital on Wyman Park Drive near the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus was built in 1934鈥攂ut the Marine Hospital Service itself dated back over a century earlier. In 1798, President John Adams signed "An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen" that supported the creation of Marine Hospitals in major American ports from Boston to Baltimore. Following the Civil War, a scandal broke out over the mismanagement of the Marine Hospital Fund (supported by a tax on the wages of all U.S. sailors). In 1870, the U.S. Congress responded to the controversy by converting the loose network of hospitals into a more centrally-managed bureau within the Department of Treasury. Early on the Baltimore Marine Hospital was located in Curtis Bay on the same site later developed at the听Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard. The Maryland Hospital of U.S. Marine Hospital Service also maintained dedicated wards at St. Joseph鈥檚 Hospital at Caroline and Hoffman Streets before the construction of a new hospital complex on Remington Avenue around 1885. A 1901 directory of Baltimore charities invited sailors in need of medical care to apply for admission at the surgeon鈥檚 office located at the Baltimore Custom House, explaining:
Only those who have served as sailors on an American registered vessel for at least 60 days prior to application are strictly eligible, but any bona fide sailor taken sick or injured in the line of duty will receive attention.In 1934, the old building was replaced by a modern 290-bed facility making Baltimore's听hospital the second largest marine hospital in the country. In the 1950s, the hospital began serving a more general population, including both people enlisted in the military and local residents, as the United States Public Health Services Hospital. In October 1981, the federal government closed all of the U.S. Public Health Service hospitals across the country. Baltimore's old Marine Hospital was taken over by a group known as the Wyman Park Health System and continued to treat many of the patients who had been going there for decades. In 1987, the group merged with Johns Hopkins University. One result of the merger was the creation of a new primary care organization, the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, that has continued to provide outpatient medical services from the lower levels of the building today. In 2008, the university considered plans for demolishing and replacing the building. Fortunately, in January 2019, the university announced plans to preserve and renovate the building for continued use by students and faculty.
In 1990, Catonsville resident Charlie Kucera discovered an illegal garbage dump at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where the bwTech@UMBC Research and Technology Park is located today. The university cleared away the contents of the dump relatively quickly, but the residents of Catonsville saw the discovery as evidence that UMBC did not care about the environment. This incident worsened the already strained relationship between the residents of Arbutus and Catonsville and the UMBC administration.
The next year, UMBC announced to the public their plans for a research park鈥攖he first university research park in the state of Maryland. While some residents were enthusiastic about the possible job opportunities and improvement to the local economy, Charlie Kucera and other residents were unconvinced of the park鈥檚 potential. Their opinion of the university had been damaged by their discovery of the dump, on top of which, they were concerned about adding another large scale building in close proximity to their homes and were wary of increased traffic and possible chemical leaks which could harm the environment.
Despite the community鈥檚 objections, plans for the research park continued. Residents felt slighted by the university鈥檚 unwillingness to incorporate them in the decision making process. These discrepancies led to a series of zoning conflicts between Arbutus, Catonsville, and UMBC administrators lasting for nearly a decade, halting any and all construction. When UMBC finally agreed to scale back the size of the research park in 2000, work began on the bwTech@UMBC Research and Technology Park.
Since the completion of the first buildings in 2002, the research park continues to be a thriving asset to the university. The research park鈥檚 two campuses, bwTech@UMBC North and BWTech@UMBC South, are both nationally recognized science and technology business parks that provide a home for over ninety different technological companies and research institutions to this day.
Visitors and students driving onto the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus often wonder about the unexpected white silo that stands near the entrance to I-95. The silo is one of few remaining reminders of Spring Grove Hospital which was located on the site of UMBC from 1867 to the 1960s.
Albin O. Kuhn, the university鈥檚 first chancellor, pushed to keep the silo in place for a few reasons. Kuhn claimed the structure reminded him of his childhood growing up on a farm. He joked that the silo would be called 鈥渢he Kuhn Silo because they knew that I had a farm background or an interest in, in fact, farming.鈥 More practically, he suggested it would be difficult to move as 鈥渢hose are fairly heavy concrete things to remove.鈥 So Kuhn conceded and said 鈥淲ell, let [that] thing stand. It won鈥檛 bother anybody and it will be sort of a memory of the fact that this once was used as a farm for the Spring Grove.鈥
Spring Grove Hospital, formerly known as The Maryland Hospital for the Insane, moved from downtown Baltimore to Catonsville in 1872. The Maryland General Assembly intended for the hospital to 鈥減rovide for the relief of indigent sick persons, and for the reception and care of lunatics鈥 in the Baltimore region. To do this, the proprietors of Spring Grove used agricultural labor as a source of moral building. As part of their therapy, patients performed agricultural labor, grew their own food, and turned up a profit for the institution. This was especially the case in rough economic times, like the early 1930s, when the hospital had to cut the budget for patient care. However, the lack of strong income from these farming methods eventually outweighed their supposed moral good. By the 1960s, the hospital鈥檚 farm was operating at a reduced capacity.
Therefore, when administrators began planning for the UMBC campus, the acreage seemed more appealing as a college than a space for patient therapy. In the 1960s, the Commissioner of Mental Hygiene for the state of Maryland deemed the program no longer crucial to the hospital鈥檚 future. Instead, Spring Grove sold the land to make way for UMBC. Though there are few remaining reminders of Spring Grove Hospital that can be seen on the UMBC campus today, the white silo has stood, and continues to stand, as a direct link to UMBC鈥檚 historic roots.
Union Baptist Church traces its origins to 1852 and a group of fifty-seven worshipers meeting in a small building on Lewis Street. It was the fifth oldest African American congregation in Baltimore and financed entirely by African Americans. The first pastor of the church was the Reverend John Carey. In 1866, the Lewis Street congregation merged with members of Saratoga Street African Baptist Church, forming Union Baptist Church. When Rev. Harvey Johnson arrived in 1872, he found a modest congregation of perhaps 270 members.听 Harvey Johnson鈥檚 dealings with the Maryland Baptist Maryland Baptist Union Association (MBUA) in particular, and with prejudiced white Baptists in general, served as a proving ground for his leadership and vision. He took the skills honed in the battle for equality among all Baptists and transfered those skills as he entered the fight for equaliy among all people. Johnson鈥檚 original cause of friction with the MBUA stemmed from its paternalistic approach to black people and black Baptist churches. Not only did black ministers categorically receive less pay than white counterparts, but black churches were slow to realize full and equal political priviledges within the state denomination governing apparati. This problem was more troubling once, thanks in no small part to Johnson himself, black numbers in the state鈥檚 Baptist churches began grow. By 1885, Union Baptist's membership surpassed two thousand members for the first time. Rev. Johnson's response to this discrimination was two-fold: economic independence and institutional autonomy. This situation exploded throughout the 1890s as Johnson urged black congregations to free themselves of white purse strings, and to get out of the Union Association altogether. One of Rev. Johnson's most controversal speeches brought this issue to fore. In September 1897, speeking in Boston, Johnson made, "A Plea For Our Work As Colored Baptists, Apart From the Whites." Johnson called for black Baptists to move as a group toward self-determination. The Union Baptist Church鈥檚 Gothic design features stained glass windows created by John LeFarge, the renowned artist known as the inventor of the art of using opalescent stained glass.
Watch our on this building!
Organized in 1875 by Samuel H. Cummings at Gilmore and Mulberry Streets, the Harlem Park Methodist Episcopal Church relocated to Harlem Park in 1880 under the leadership of John F. Goucher. The church constructed a new building in 1906 under the leadership of Rev. E.L. Watson and then moved again to Harlem Avenue and Warwick Avenue under the leadership of Rev. E.P. Fellenbaum. The new building was described:
鈥淕othic in design, with an auditorium seating 800 persons. In addition, there will be an educational building, equipped with 10 rooms for Sunday-school work. In the basement will be a social hall. A recreation room with bowling alleys and a lecture room that may be converted into a gymnasium also are planned.鈥At a mortgage burning ceremony in 1947, Fellenbaum recalled that some criticized the project, and the $100,000 mortgage, as 鈥淔ellenbaum鈥檚 Folly.鈥 The congregation laid the cornerstone for the new building at 4:00 PM on May 2, 1925. The Harlem Park Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated at 3:00 PM on November 21, 1926 with Bishop William Fraser McDowell officiating. In May 1953, the Harlem Park Methodist Church merged with the Grove Methodist Chapel, erected in 1857 on Johnnycake Road in Baltimore County, to form the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church in Catonsville, Maryland. Their building was offered for sale at $210,000. Bishop E.A. Love of the Washington Conference appointed the Reverend N.B. Carrington as the leader of the Union Memorial United Methodist Church and assisted in securing help from the Washington and Baltimore Conferences and the Board of Missions to purchase the property. The church had previously moved from Pine and Franklin Streets to North and Madison Avenues in 1951 and had fewer than 100 members when it moved to Harlem Avenue in 1953. By the time of Rev. Carrington鈥檚 retirement in 1961, however, the church had grown to over 600 members. Carrigton began pastoring at Union Memorial United Methodist in 1952, and also worked as the supervisor of the AFRO鈥檚 pressroom. He later commented, 鈥淚 married, baptized and buried many of them down there 鈥 matter of fact they call me the AFRO鈥檚 chaplain.鈥 Commenting on the success of the church in paying off the building鈥檚 $225,000 mortgage in 8 years, Carrington noted, 鈥淭hose are the kind of people we have in our congregation. They wanted to get it out of the way and they worked hard to do it.鈥
Originally known as Druid Mill, Union Mill was built between 1865 and 1872. At the time, it was the largest cotton duck mill in the United States. A unique feature of the mill's construction is the use of locally quarried stone. The other mills in the area were constructed with brick.
Druid Mill was was the first mill in the area to feature a clock tower, which was clearly visible to the workers living in Druidville located across Union Avenue. The mill joined the Mount Vernon Woodberry Cotton Duck Company in 1899, which had a virtual monopoly on the world's production of cotton duck. The mill was then renamed Mount Vernon Mill No. 4.
Today, the mill is home to residences and businesses, including Artifact Coffee.
Union Square began as part of Willowbrook, the John Donnell Federal-period estate, which he purchased in 1802 from Baltimore merchant and later Mayor Thorowgood Smith. In 1847, the Donnell family heirs donated the two-and-a-half-acre lot in front of the manor house to the City of Baltimore to be designated as a public park. Beginning in the 1850s, the Donnell family started to work with a number of speculative builders to develop the neighborhood.
In 1867, the Donnells left Willowbrook (now the site of Steuart Hill Academic Academy), and the house was given to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The building served as a convent and home for wayward girls until its demolition in the mid-1960s. The oval dining room was removed from the mansion and recreated in the Baltimore Museum of Art where it remains a part of the American Decorative Arts wing.
This demolition sparked a renewed awareness of historic places and their importance to the community, as residents organized to form the Union Square Association and received historic district designation for the area in 1970.