Officially dedicated on July 13, 1839 and born out of the garden cemetery movement, Green Mount Cemetery is one of the first garden cemeteries created in the United States. After seeing the beautiful Mount Auburn Cemetery in Connecticut in 1834, Samuel Walker, a tobacco merchant, led a campaign to establish a similar site in Baltimore. During a time in which overcrowded church cemeteries created health risks in urban areas, Walker's successfully garnered support and commissioned plans from architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II to establish the Green Mount Cemetery on sixty acres of the late merchant Robert Oliver's estate.
During his life, Walker spared no expense tailoring the beauty of the estate, and left the grounds highly ornamented upon his death. Latrobe's design incorporated all the beautiful features associated with garden cemeteries including dells, majestic trees, and numerous monuments and statues. Amongst the towering hardwood trees in the cemetery is a rare, small-flowered red rose known as the Green Mount Red. Created by Green Mount Cemetery's first gardener, James Pentland, the Green Mount Red can only be found here at Green Mount and on George F. Harison's grave at Trinity Church Cemetery in New York.
Walking into Green Mount Cemetery, the first thing visitors notice is the imposing Entrance Gateway designed by Robert Cary Long, Jr. An example of the Gothic style, the gateway features two towers reaching forty feet and beautiful stained glass windows. The haunting chapel, designed by John Rudolph Niernsee and James Crawford Neilson, is made of Connecticut sandstone and features flying buttresses and an impressive 102 foot spire.
Green Mount Cemetery is famously known as the resting place of a large number of prominent historical figures ranging from John Wilkes Booth, to local philanthropists Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt. The graves and sculptures that scatter the cemetery make Green Mount Cemetery a treasury of nineteenth century art.
William Henry Rinehart, considered the last important American sculptor to work in the classical style, had many commissions at Green Mount, and is credited with some of the cemeteries most awe-inspiring pieces. Commissioned by Henry Walters for the grave of his wife, Ellen Walters, Rinehart's "Love Reconciled as Death" depicts a classical Grecian woman cast in bronze strewing flowers. Poetically resting on Rinehart's own grave is his bronze statue of Endymion: the beautiful young shepherd boy who Zeus granted both eternal youth and eternal sleep.
Perhaps the most striking sculpture in the Green Mount Cemetery is the Riggs Memorial, created by Hans Schuler. Schuler was the first American sculptor to win the Salon Gold Medal in Paris, and his mastery shows in the Riggs Monument depicting a grieving woman slouched over a loved one's grave, holding a wreath in one hand and a drooping flower in the other.
The Grove of Remembrance Pavilion has stood nestled amongst the trees on Beechwood Drive near the Maryland Zoo for nearly a century. Designed by architect E.L. Palmer, the rustic pavilion鈥檚 placement within the Grove of Remembrance is fitting. The grove was planted on October 8, 1919 to honor those who had died in World War I and the pavilion is a monument to First Lieutenant Merrill Rosenfeld, a prominent Baltimore attorney, killed while serving in the military during World War I. Lieutenant Rosenfeld was born in Baltimore in 1883 as the eldest son of Israel Rosenfeld and Rebecca Rosenfeld, n茅e Stern, second generation German Jewish immigrants. Israel Rosenfeld owned a successful clothing retail business and achieved the rank of colonel serving as an aid-de-camp to Governor John Walter Smith. Merrill Rosenfeld was much like his father. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 1904 and joined the Maryland Bar in 1906. He fought during the Mexican Revolution of 1910, earning the rank of top sergeant, and joined the 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division during World War I. Having attained the rank of first lieutenant, he was leading his men during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive when he died October 16, 1918. The U.S. government recognized his sacrifice by awarding him with a Distinguished Service Cross for 鈥渆xtraordinary heroism鈥 and praised him for his 鈥渄isplay鈥of] the greatest bravery and heroism鈥 before his death. He received further honors in 1919 when the Court of Appeals commissioned architects J.B. Noel Wyatt and William Nolting to build a bronze memorial honoring him and five other Baltimore attorneys who had died in the war and in 1921, when the Maryland Bar Association commissioned a similar memorial. When Israel Rosenfeld died on October 10, 1925, he left $10,000 for the pavilion鈥檚 construction in Druid Hill Park. Baltimore was a city with a history of tolerance towards the Jews, particularly those of German heritage, in the early 1900s. The Rosenfelds had thrived in this environment, and Israel wanted to ensure that Baltimoreans would remember his late son鈥檚 military achievements and sacrifice for years to come.
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Guilford began in 1780 when the property was confiscated from British land-owners and given to Revolutionary War veteran Lieutenant-Colonel William McDonald. McDonald gave Guilford its name to commemorate the battle of Guilford Court House, North Carolina. His son William, better known as 鈥淏illy,鈥 inherited the estate and in 1852 built the Guilford Mansion.
The Italianate design of the mansion was a collaboration of British-born architect Edmund Lind and American William T. Murdock. The 52-room wood house was built over walls of masonry and was imposing in size and rich finishes. A solid walnut staircase rose with a grand sweep in a spiral ascent to the square turret. The drawing-room, library, billiard and reception rooms and great dining room all opened on to a main hall and had exposure to wide verandas shadowed by magnolia trees and draped in wisteria. The main hall itself was as wide as the driveway, paved in marble and lighted with stained-glass windows.
The mansion once stood where Wendover Road now meets Greenway. The entrances of the 300 acre Guilford estate were marked by imposing gates that were guarded by stone lions, reported to be copies of the lions of the Louvre. Frescoes on either side of the drive entrance depicted knights ready for conflict. Gates stood at York Road near present-day Underwood Road, Charles Street at University Parkway and Charles Street just south of Cold Spring Lane. Billy McDonald was an enthusiastic horseman and at Guilford he stabled his renowned mare, 鈥淔lora Temple.鈥 The mare was housed at the Guilford estate in stalls that were kept in magnificent style as a suite of four apartments. Above her head was a stained glass window with her portrait.
In 1872, Arunah S. Abell, founder of The Sun, purchased Guilford from McDonald鈥檚 heirs. A.S. Abell had a home in the City and several country estates but he spent much time at Guilford living there for 35 years. On August 12, 1887, the New York Times reported that A. S. Abell celebrated his 81st birthday. 鈥淢r. Abell passed the day quietly and pleasantly at his country seat, Guilford, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, who had tastefully arranged in the rooms of the beautiful mansion, particularly Mr. Abell鈥檚 private room, many lovely flowers.鈥 Eight months later Arunah S. Abell died.
Dr. Alfred T. Gundry established the Gundry Sanitarium on his family farm in the late 1800s, and the Gundry family continued to operate the facility up through 1990. Dr. Gundry served as the medical superintendent at nearby Spring Grove Hospital from 1878 to 1891, where he was a pioneer in ending the use of mechanical restraints on psychiatric patients. One advertisement from 1903 described the santitarium:
鈥淪plendidly located, retired and accessible to Baltimore, surrounded by 28 acres of beautiful grounds. Buildings modern and well arranged. Every facility for treatment and classification. Under the medical management of Dr. Alfred T. Gundry.鈥
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The Gunpowder Copper Works, a once-prominent factory located along the Great Gunpowder Falls near Glen Arm, Maryland is the second oldest copper works in the United States. The factory operated from around 1811 to 1858 turning blocks of copper into thin sheets used for covering the bottoms of ships and boats to increase their speed and durability. Possibly the most intact industrial site of its kind along the Great Gunpowder Falls, the factory is located immediately past Factory Road on northbound Harford Road. The Gunpowder Copper Works was established around 1811 by Levi Hollingsworth, a veteran of the American Revolution and a prosperous merchant from Cecil County with major investments in shipbuilding. On a trip to England, Levi Hollingsworth studied the refining, milling and rolling of copper and brought back extensive machinery he needed to set up a factory in America. He likely established the factory soon after leasing a mill from Dr. Thomas Love and Caleb Dorsey Goodwin on this site in 1811. The Copper Works factory complex included two sets of sheet rolls, two refining furnaces, and later, and a cupola furnace for treating the slag. A water-wheel furnished the power. With a factory among in the fertile hills of Baltimore County, workmen eventually took to farming when business slowed. When the crops needed attention, workers left rolling and milling for another day. During the War of 1812, the Gunpowder Copper Works supplied the U.S. Navy with sheathing, bolts and nails. Levi Hollingsworth joined the Fifth Maryland Regiment in 1814 and was wounded in September fighting the British at the Battle of North Point. Shortly after end of the war, the dome on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. was rebuilt using copper sheathing rolled by the the Gunpowder Copper Works using ore mined in Frederick County, Maryland. The Capitol Dome contract brought the mill national recognition as a copper supplier. The profit from the project allowed Levi Hollingsworth to buy out the Ridgely and Goodwin interests in the Gunpowder Copper Works in 1816. By the time Hollingsworth died 1822, the mill was the only copper refinery in operation south of the Mason-Dixon Line. By 1850, the Gunpowder Copper Works had produced between 550,000 and 1.5 million pounds of copper sheeting. After Levi Hollingsworth's death, the Copper Works sold to John McKim, Jr. and Sons. Operation of the copper works continued under the management of Isaac McKim until his death in 1838. Isaac McKim linked the Gunpowder Copper Works to the family's shipbuilding supply business on Smith's Wharf in Baltimore's harbor, now the site of the National Aquarium. After Isaac's death, his nephews bought out the other beneficiaries and ran the Copper Works. Haslett and William McKim were both active businessmen in Baltimore, serving on the boards of the Baltimore Dispensary, the Peabody Institute, the B&O Railroad, and the Maritime Insurance Company. William McKim served as an aide-de-camp to Commander John Spear Smith during the Baltimore Bank Riot in 1835. His uncle, Isaac, had served a similar position to Commander Smith's father, General Sam Smith, during the War of 1812. In September 1843, a notice in the Baltimore American, advertised the copper works for lease including:
"a sheet mill with two pairs of rollers, two pairs of large shears operated by a water wheel, two annealing furnaces, a tilt and bolt mill, a tilt-hammer operated by a water wheel, two furnaces, a blacksmith shop, carpenter and turning shop and a nail machine. Two refining shops with a slag furnace, coal houses and homes for workmen. The Dam is substantial and in good condition, and the water power is among the best in the vicinity of Baltimore. The works are on a good turnpike about 10 miles above Baltimore."In 1858, major rain storms in mid-June caused significant flooding in the area and along the Great Gunpowder Falls, which destroyed the dam at the Copper Works. The dam was rebuilt, but operation ceased later that year and the factory closed. The owners rented the property rented to a tenant operator in 1861 but it likely remained closed during the Civil War. The Maryland General Assembly incorporated the Gunpowder Copper Works as a state facility in 1864, naming Levi Hollingsworth's son-in-law, William Pinkney Whyte, president of the operation, and Enoch Pratt, one of the incorporators. Despite Whyte's prominence as a politician and Pratt's success in business, the newly incorporated copper works soon failed. The City of Baltimore bought the 303 acres of land on which the copper works sat in 1866 as the possible site for a future reservoir. In 1887, the Baltimore City Water Board sold the copper works to Henry Reier, who sold it to Henry E. Shimp for his "bending works at the Old Copper Factory on the Gunpowder," where he manufactured wheel rims, wagon-wheel spokes and wagon shafts. The facility never processed copper again, but Shimp's Eagle Steam Saw and Bending Mills continued operating into the twentieth century. J. Alexis Shriver, Harford County landowner, bought the property in 1910 and sold the plant's water wheels during a World War I scrap drive. By the mid-twentieth century, the facility stood in ruins but was acquired by the state as part of the new Gunpowder Falls State Park. There are at least four buildings from the original complex still standing along Harford Road just above Gunpowder River bridge. These include the Copper Works House with outbuildings, the Tilt-hammer House, the Foreman's House, and the spring house and bridge. Constructed about 1815, the Gunpowder Copper Works House is a one-and-a-half-story stone building reportedly used as a dormitory for the workers at the nearby plant. By about 1900, this building had been converted to a stable by J. Alexis Shriver then later converted to a residence. The small stone Foreman's House was built around 1815. Two more stories and a large shed dormer were added to the building later. The house sold to Henry Reier in 1877 and his family held it until 1938. The Tilt-hammer House, built about 1815, may have been the coppersmith's house at one time. When it served as the tilt-hammer house, this building is where copper was pounded into sheets. The building became a residence after 1925 and the only original parts of the structure are the exterior stone walls. Today, all of these buildings are in use as residences or offices. They are located within the Gunpowder Historic District and sit on land which has been incorporated into Gunpowder State Park.
From brewery to apartments, the reuse of the Gunther brewery complex is remarkable for its scope and quality. The building is in what鈥檚 now called, aptly, the Brewer鈥檚 Hill neighborhood east of Canton. This area started to populate with German brewers in the early nineteenth century and by the Civil War, it was awash with beer. After a brief respite during Prohibition, brewing was back and the original Gunther building, built around 1900, was in full swing. But breweries gradually closed in Baltimore and the Gunther was shuttered and left abandoned for many years.
The work, which earned state and federal historic tax credits, included restoring the facade of the Romanesque Revival-style brewhouse with its decorative arches, pilasters and an elaborate corbelled cornice. The 1949 Stock House and another smaller brewhouse dating to 1950 were also restored. The complex now encompasses five buildings with 162 apartments and retail space.
In almost every kitchen in Baltimore, and maybe Maryland, there is a tiny yellow, blue, and red tin of Old Bay seasoning. It is an essential part of local cuisine. Yet, most people are unaware of the spice鈥檚 dramatic Jewish history. Old Bay was created by Gustav Brunn, a Jewish immigrant who came to the United States after escaping from Nazi Germany.听 On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, violent mobs across Nazi Germany and Austria burned and looted Jewish homes, businesses, hospitals, and synagogues in what would be known as Kristallnacht, or "The Night of Broken Glass." The Nazis also rounded up 30,000 Jewish men and sent them to concentration camps. Brunn was among those captured and sent to Camp Buchenwald. His family helped secure Brunn鈥檚 release by paying 10,000 marks to a lawyer who bailed him out. As soon as he was released, Brunn and his children left for the United States. A spice merchant, Brunn left with very little, but he insisted on taking his hand-crank spice grinder. In 1939, the Brunn family arrived in Baltimore and settled into an apartment at 2317 Eutaw Place. After arriving in America, Brunn wanted to re-enter the spice trade, but he had no capital. Brunn had to secure a loan from Katz American to open his spice business. Katz American was not a bank, it was another spice company. As a fellow Jewish spice merchant, Katz put profit aside to help Brunn start his business. After securing a loan from Katz American, Brunn created the Baltimore Spice Company. The company took up residence on the second floor of 26 Market Place; and, the hand-crank spice grinder began to turn once again.听 Before Brunn created the Baltimore Spice Company, he had worked at McCormick until he was fired for being Jewish. Brunn鈥檚 son said that after McCormick learned Brunn was Jewish, he was promptly fired, and told to 鈥済o and see the Jewish charities.鈥 Although Brunn experienced rampant anti-semitism in his lifetime, he continued to persevere.听 The Baltimore Spice Company began developing a crab seasoning around 1940. Brunn created the famous spice after noticing local crab steamers come to his shop to buy various spices. His shop at 26 Market Place was directly across from the Wholesale Fish Market. The crab steamers would then blend the spices together to season their crabs. Brunn was inspired by the crab steamers to create his own crab seasoning--Old Bay. Brunn added tiny amounts of various spices to his crab seasoning in order to be unique in an overly saturated crab spice market. According to Brunn鈥檚 son,听 鈥淭hose minor things he put in there 鈥 the most unlikely things, including cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves and all kinds of stuff that had nothing to do with crabs at all 鈥 gave a background bouquet that he couldn鈥檛 have anticipated. Old Bay, per se, was almost an accident.鈥 In the very beginning, Brunn had trouble selling the spice mixture that would one day become synonymous with Baltimore. However, after giving samples to the local crab steamers, business began to pick up. By this time, the spice still had no name. Brunn named the spice after the Old Bay steamship line, which used to run out of Baltimore. After getting its name, the spice mix鈥檚 popularity continued to grow. Major companies, including McCormick, began to sell a similar product in a similar can.听 The rivalry between the Baltimore Spice Company and McCormick over the rights to Old Bay did not end until five years after the death of Gustav Brunn. In 1990, the company sold the rights to the original Old Bay recipe to McCormick. The spice has continued to be a mainstay in grocery stores in Baltimore and across the entire Mid-Atlantic. In recent years, the spice mix has gained an almost cult-like popularity and has helped spawn the development of things such as: Old Bay apparel, vodka, and beer.听 The spice is so quintessentially Maryland that a poll by Goucher College found that 鈥渙pinions toward Old Bay transcend party, age, race, gender, and ideological lines,鈥 said Mileah Kromer, director of the Sara T. Hughes Politics Center at Goucher. 鈥淎n overwhelming majority of Marylanders view it favorably.鈥澨 When Gustav Brunn created Old Bay in 1939, he thought he just created a great spice mixture. He did not know he would create a product that would become integral to the cultural fabric of Maryland. 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.
Mencken lived in an apartment at 704 Cathedral Street for five years with his wife, nee Sara Haardt. The third floor apartment鈥檚 east windows faced Mount Vernon Place, and the inside was decorated with a distinctly Victorian style. Marion Elizabeth Rodgers provides detailed description of the apartment in Mencken: The American Iconoclast, a thorough chronicle of the writer鈥檚 life, who is perhaps best known for his Baltimore Sun editorials and opinion pieces.
The third floor apartment was reached by climbing numerous steep stairs, as the building did not have an elevator, for which Mencken apologized to guests, promising comfortable chairs and a stocked bar once in the apartment. Inside, Sara decorated the drawing room with green chenille and mulberry silk; gilt mirrors, fancy fans, lace valentines, and glass bells hung elsewhere.
There were not many traces of Mencken in the apartment, save a lithograph of the Pabst Brewery plant operating at full swing in the dining room, which was also decorated with his 267 beer steins, a collection of ivories, and an autographed portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Hamilton Owens wondered 鈥渉ow a boisterous and rambunctious fellow like Henry could manage to be comfortable鈥 in the apartment, and many friends privately felt the lithograph of the brewery was Mencken鈥檚 one salvation. Before Sara, Mencken was known to be a notorious bachelor.
While living in the apartment, Sara鈥檚 health, which had always been poor, continued to deteriorate. Mencken recalled that when he 鈥渕arried Sara, the doctors said she could not live more than three years... actually, she lived five, so that I had two more years of happiness that I had any right to expect.鈥 Mencken continued to live at the Cathedral Street apartment in the months after Sara鈥檚 death, but returned to the family home 1524 Hollins Street early in 1936.
"As much a part of me as my own two hands," is how Henry Louis Mencken described his house at 1524 Hollins Street and his personality can be seen in everything from the parquet floors to the garden tiles. In 1880, Mencken was brought by his parents as an infant to the house and lived there until his death at the age of 75. Much of Mencken's writing, reading and thinking was done in the second floor front study, with its view of Union Square and the surrounding neighborhood. It was here where Mencken's "councils of war" were held over various government actions to suppress books and where Mencken convinced the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow to defend John Scopes in the Scopes Monkey Trial. It was also in this room where Mencken wrote the newspaper columns and books that made him, in the words of journalist Walter Lippmann, "the most powerful personal influence" in America. The house was a central feature of the former City Life Museums, and since its closing in 1997, the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House have cared for the building.
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H&S Bakery began first as the vision of Isidore Paterakis, an immigrant from Chios, Greece. In 1943, Isidore Paterakis turned H&S Bakery into a reality by going into business with his son-in-law Harry Tsakalos. What began as a small family-owned bakery morphed into a bread-making powerhouse. H&S Bakery expanded throughout the twentieth century to include Northeast Foods and the Schmidt Baking Company. Following in his father鈥檚 entrepreneurial spirit, John Paterakis, struck a deal with the fast food giant McDonald鈥檚 in the seventies. Based in Baltimore, Northeast Foods, under the management of H & S bakery, is now a supplier of sandwich buns and English muffins for McDonald鈥檚 restaurants on the east coast.听
The company remained an active part of the Harbor East community in the nineties. According to one Baltimore Sun article published in 1993, H&S Bakery 鈥減roduce[d] 370,000 rolls. Every hour.鈥 While continued growth led to H&S Bakeries opening in seven states, the Paterakis family chose to remain in Baltimore. H&S Bakeries continued to work within the food industry and in the nineties, John Paterakis expanded the company to include property development with the formation of H&S Properties Development Corporation. The H & S Property Development Corporation, along with the Bozzuto family, is responsible for the creation of Liberty Harbor East. The Paterakis and Bozzuto families鈥 combined efforts have resulted in a revitalized Harbor East complete with new, luxurious residential areas and retail stores.Today, the Paterakis family continues to remain an integral part of the east Baltimore community and is the 鈥渓argest family-owned variety baker in the U.S.鈥 according to H&S Bakery鈥檚 website.听Built around 1848 for Dr. John Hanson Thomas, the great-grandson of John Hanson, President of the Continental Congress, The Hackerman House represented the height of elegance and convenience in the mid-nineteenth century. Renowned guests include the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and General Kossuth. In 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Francis M. Jencks purchased the home and remodeled it extensively under the direction of Charles A. Platt. The graceful circular staircase was widened and the oval Tiffany skylight installed in the coffered dome. The bow window in the dining room was added and the entire house was decorated in the Italian Renaissance style. Following the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Jencks, the house was used as headquarters for various civic organizations and fell into a state of neglect and disrepair. Mr. Harry Leo Gladding purchased the building in 1963 and painstakingly restored it to its former elegance. Willard Hackerman purchased the building at 1 West Mount Vernon Place in the late 1980鈥檚 from the estate of its last owner, Harry Gladding. Mr. Hackerman was concerned with the possibility that the architectural anchor of Mount Vernon Place might be converted to commercial use. Story has it that he took the keys and placed them on the desk of then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer. In true Schaefer fashion, the Mayor held a contest to determine the best use of the historic structure. The Walters won the competition with a proposal to convert the house into galleries for its growing and important collection of Asian Art. Hackerman House opened in the spring of 1991. Mr. and Mrs. Hackerman have generously supported the Walters for many years and his firm, Whiting-Turner, has been the contractor for many of our additions and renovations. Over the years, he was a friend and mentor to our directors and Board members.
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Enoch Pratt Free Library Branch No. 7 opened its doors on July 2, 1900, 17 years after industrialist Robert Poole and fellow businessmen established Woodberry鈥檚 first community library. In 1899, Poole donated the land, the books from the old library, and $25,000 towards erecting the new branch of Enoch Pratt Free Library on Falls Road.
The doors at Branch No. 7 of the Enoch Pratt Free Library opened to patrons on July 2, 1900, seventeen years after industrialist Robert Poole and fellow businessmen established Woodberry鈥檚 first community library. In 1899, Poole donated land across the street from his Maple Hill estate, the books from the old library, and $25,000 towards the construction of the new building on Falls Road.
The library鈥檚 architect Joseph Evans Sperry designed a number of significant buildings along with partner John Wyatt. The firm鈥檚 work including the Bromo Seltzer Tower and the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Building. The neoclassical design of the library was a departure from the Romanesque style of the original six library branches, designed by Sperry's former boss, architect Charles Carson. Poole's foundry located down the hill in Woodberry provided the ionic columns for the library. More famously, in the 1850s, the foundry cast the columns of the peristyle of the U.S. Capitol Building dome.
In order to increase circulation in the busy mill town, the library advertised the new branch with slips placed in workers' pay envelopes. The library also carried reference books on textile manufacturing as requested by residents. When the mills were at their busiest, the library had to find new ways to attract visitors. The library also faced competition from new sources of entertainment to Hampden such as a bowling alley, pool room, and movie theater. Up until 1915, the library shared the building with Provident Savings Bank. When the bank moved to 36th Street, the library tore down the wall that had separated the the reading room from the bank to create a new auditorium for lectures.
One of the more elaborate ways the library attracted visitors was the 1917 Garden Exhibit and Harvest Exhibition. During the Garden Exhibit in the spring, librarians handed out packets of seeds to patrons and nurtured a garden of their own behind the library. In an annual report, the branch manager noted that the staff found gardening surprisingly interesting. They were taken in by the excitement of coming to work and seeing plants that had grown as much as an inch taller overnight. The Harvest Exhibition took place in the fall, offering residents a miniature county fair with lectures on canning and gardening and contests for the best crops.
In 1936, Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds were used to double the size of the Hampden Library. Today, the library remains both an architectural landmark and community resource for area residents.
Hampden Hall was an important part of Baltimore even before the neighborhood of Hampden was a part of Baltimore. Six years before Hampden was incorporated into Baltimore City, Hampden Hall was constructed as a meeting hall for Civil War veterans in 1882. It was later used as a town hall and a venue for dances and concerts, among other events. Later as Baltimore City moved into the Progressive Age (1890-1920), Hampden Hall also changed with the times.
The Progressive Age is marked, in part, with an increase in commercialization. Baltimore businessman Theodore Cavacos, who owned a pharmacy that operated in Hampden Hall, bought the building in 1913. He expanded the hall by building storefronts along 36th Street. The Cavacos family owned the building until 2004. In 1975, the family worked with artist Bob Hieronimus and the city of Baltimore to create a large mural on the north side of the building that celebrates Hampden and two Medal of Honor winners, Lieutenant Milton Ricketts and Private First Class Carl Sheridan, from the neighborhood.
Lieutenant Ricketts was awarded his Medal of Honor for his service in the Navy in the Pacific Theater of World War II. While serving on the U.S.S. Yorktown in the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942, a bomb exploded directly beneath Ricketts and mortally wounded him. However, before he died, he was able dampen the fire. This courageous action undoubtedly prevented the rapid spread of the fire to other parts of the ship.
Private First Class Sheridan won his Medal of Honor for his service in an attack on the Frezenberg Castle in Germany on November 26, 1944. With complete disregard for his own safety, he blasted a hole through a heavily-fortified door. Sheridan charged into the gaping entrance and was killed by the enemy fire that met him. The Sheridan-Hood Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3065 in Hampden was founded in 1945 and is named in memory of Carl Sheridan.
Only long-time residents of Baltimore can remember the Hampden Reservoir, buried since 1960 under debris from the construction of the Jones Falls Expressway and used as Roosevelt Park. The Hampden Reservoir was completed in 1861 three years after construction began at a cost of $206,643.50 by John W. Maxwell and Company. The reservoir was part of a system of improvements along the Jones Falls, including Lake Roland and the Mt. Royal Reservoir, to deliver a new supply of fresh water to Baltimore residents. The Hampden Reservoir remained in operation until 1915, when the municipal water supply was reconstructed once again, and the polluted 40,000,000 gallon reservoir was reduced to a neighborhood ornament. In 1930 it was drained and cleaned, and the pipes were cut off entirely from the city water system to prevent any contamination through seepage. Though the city threatened to drain it for years, Hampden residents managed to block all proposals for more than forty years.
In 1960 the Bureau of Water Supply began draining the reservoir without announcement. The city then revealed plans to fill the muddy pit and turn it into a Department of Aviation heliport. Neighborhood residents, led by Rev. Werner from the nearby Hampden Methodist Church (now known as the United Methodist Church), responded with an immediate outcry. The irate citizens protested that helicopters would be a major disturbance to the school, recreation center, and churches in the immediate proximity. Werner called the ordeal 鈥渁n infringement on our territorial rights without due recourse to a public hearing.鈥 Eventually the city retracted its proposal for the heliport. The draining did continue, however, as the city conveniently had an arrangement with the contractors excavating the new Jones Falls Expressway nearby. In exchange for a local site to dump the excavated soil, the city would receive a discount on the cost of that stretch of highway. So it was settled, the mud from the Jones Falls Expressway filled the giant hole, and the reservoir has been largely forgotten.
The story of Harbor Point is the story of innovation, invention, and reinvention. Harbor Point is the former home of Baltimore Chromium Works (now AlliedSignal), a company built around Isaac Tyson鈥檚 discovery of a local source for chromium in the early 1800鈥檚. It is also the current home to Constellation Energy, an energy company that also has roots in 19th century Baltimore.
Baltimore Chromium Works was the brainchild of Isaac Tyson. If you鈥檝e ever painted any walls of your home in red, yellow, or green paint, you have Tyson to thank.
In the early 1800s, Isaac Tyson was a college geology major who came home to Baltimore County on a break from classes when he noticed a rock used to prop open a screen door at a local country store. He recognized it as chromite, a mineral that contains iron and chromium oxides.
Tyson knew that chromium was a key ingredient in paint manufacturing: it is the magic ingredient that allows pigments to stick to paint. During the colonial era, colored paint was expensive and had to be imported from Europe and having green or red walls was a marker of wealth (think of James Madison鈥檚 house in Virginia where the walls are a vibrant color known as Miami Green); the interiors of most homes were simply painted white.
Tyson was the first to determine that specific ecosystems correlated to rich chromium veins (Soldiers Delight in western Baltimore County was among local areas Tyson mined for chromium). He set out and walked from Virginia to Vermont buying up farms that had chromium veins, and at one point, controlled 95% of the world鈥檚 chromium.
Tyson鈥檚 company Baltimore Chromium Works (later Allied Chemical) was headquartered on Harbor Point. The company used this location to refine chromium, a procedure that is dirty and highly toxic. Hexavalent chromium is also a significant carcinogen (it鈥檚 the same chemical that Erin Brockovich advocated against). Waste from the refinery was dumped into the harbor, which became significantly polluted.
Harbor Point eventually became a $100 million superfund site. To clean up chromium polluted soil, a giant wall was erected around the site, and an industrial sump pump removed contaminated water 24 hours a day. Post-clean-up, the empty space was used to host Cirque du Soleil and later served as a temporary beach recreation area. Today, the area is dedicated to mixed development, including being home to the headquarters of Constellation Energy, a company whose story goes back two centuries.
Constellation is an energy supplier that provides electricity and natural gas to Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E), a local utility that was the first gas utility in the United States. Somewhat improbably, this utility had its origins in an art museum.
In 1816, Rembrandt Peale, son of the famous portraitist Charles Wilson Peale, used gas lighting to illuminate the Peale Museum, his gallery and museum that became the first purpose-built museum in the United States. Gas lighting was not only a novelty; it also allowed Peale to sell tickets in the evening, so people could visit the galleries after sundown. Historical records report that passersby would stand on Holliday Street in front of the Peale Museum marveling at the brightness of the light coming from its windows, which was an unprecedented sight in a world of candles and oil lamps.
Peale was an innovator and an entrepreneur, and by 1817, he had started the Baltimore Gas Company and secured the contract to supply gas streetlights throughout Baltimore, the first city in America, and among the first in the world, to be lit by gas; hence its nickname, 鈥淟ight City.鈥 Peale manufactured the gas in a shed at the back of the museum. It was supplied to the city in wooden pipes made from hollowed out logs. Two hundred years later, the business Rembrandt Peale founded at his museum continues to provide power to the city.
For Baltimoreans of a certain generation, it鈥檚 hard to imagine the harbor without Harborplace. Bolstered by the enthusiastic support of Mayor William Donald Schaefer, the brainchild of urban pioneer, James Rouse brought millions of visitors to downtown Baltimore and inspired imitations around the globe. The Urban Land Institute cited Harborplace as 鈥渁 model for post-industrial waterfront development around the world.鈥 For a time, 鈥渢he Inner Harbor鈥 was synonymous with 鈥淗arborplace.鈥
Located within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Baltimore Harbor is formed at the mouth of the Patapsco River, which leads to the Chesapeake Bay and then the Atlantic Ocean. The Inner Harbor was never more than 15 feet deep, limiting its use as a seaport to shallow boats plying the Chesapeake Bay; ocean-going vessels preferred the deeper ports of Canton and Fells Point. As part of an effort to make the harbor of Baltimore Town deeper, two brothers, flour merchants Andrew and John Ellicott (Ellicott City is named after them) invented the first dredger in 1783. Also known as the Mud Machine, it removed debris, mud, and sediment from the harbor floor to increase the depth of the water.
Land around harbor was always valuable. The first big development came around 1800, when landowners just north of the harbor started filling in the marshy land just below today鈥檚 Water Street to get access to the 18-foot deep port. They built piers and docks and transformed the harbor into a Chesapeake Bay maritime hub with boats arriving daily from the Eastern Shore laden with seafood and produce. On a busy day during oyster season there may have been upwards of 100 boats docked in the harbor.
By the time of the 1904 fire, the area had become dilapidated. The Fire Commission observed: 鈥淭he warehouses were in even worse condition, any of the docks being nothing more than mudholes and so narrow that no modern vessel even of moderate size could even get beyond the ends.鈥
After the fire, the city used its power of eminent domain to condemn the land around the harbor, take it away from private owners, and make it publicly owned and publicly managed land. New piers were built, including Piers 4, 5, and 6鈥攑robably the first reinforced concrete structures built in seawater in America. The city leased the piers to private companies like United Fruit and Standard Oil. But even then, part of Pier 4鈥攖he Public Pier--was reserved for the citizens of Baltimore.
Up until around World War II, the harbor was a hub of maritime activity in and around the Chesapeake Bay. After World War II, new highway construction and the building of the Bay Bridge in 1952 meant less reliance on ships to transport products from the Eastern Shore to Baltimore. In 1960, the large public Marsh Market, just north of the harbor, closed. In 1962, the steamer, The City of Norfolk, made its final run.
The city reacted to these changes by re-envisioning the harbor as a place for industry to a place of recreation. First, in 1963, Mayor Theodore McKeldin expanded the urban renewal zone that had been created in 1958 to guide the expansion of Charles Center to include the Inner Harbor. Subsequently, the majority of the buildings around the harbor were demolished and replaced with surface parking lots, which became magnets for fairs and festivals. Around 10,000 people attended the City Fair to take part in the festivities, as well as take in the spectacle of the harbor. In 1971, The Baltimore Sun observed: 鈥淭he docks, the boats, the setting itself are the showstoppers more than the food or the booze or the rides.鈥
City Fair was just the beginning of the movement to bring people to the harbor as a tourist attraction. In 1976, thousands of people came to the Inner Harbor to see over 50 tall ships docked there in celebration of America鈥檚 Bicentennial. The Science Center also opened that year. The National Aquarium followed in 1980, and the Six Flags at the Power Plant launched in 1985.
In 1978, the city sponsored a ballot on the referendum of whether to lease out part of the harbor to a private developer to build what would become Harborplace. Fifty-four percent voted yes.
Harborplace opened in 1980. In the first three months, 7 million people visited. In the first year, more people visited the Inner Harbor than went to Disney World. On the opening day of Harborplace, Martin Milspaugh, head of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management, the urban renewal agency that guided the redevelopment, said: 鈥淗arborplace is the missing ingredient of the Inner Harbor. Instead of a series of attractions, we鈥檒l have one massive attraction on the shoreline.鈥
The Harborplace pavilions on Pratt and Light streets featured local merchants and restaurants and was both popular and profitable in its early years. In surveys done at the time, 20% of the people visiting Harborplace were from outside of Maryland and 80% were Marylanders.
Harborplace spawned many imitations. Over 200 harbors across the world copied Baltimore. Harbourside in Sydney, Australia is almost an exact replica that is also currently under redevelopment.
Despite its success, Harborplace changed hands several times. In 2004, it was bought by Chicago-based General Growth Properties, and in 2012, New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp bought it. In 2019, Harborplace went into a court-ordered receivership with a manager appointed from New Jersey. And in 2022 Baltimore-based MCB real estate purchased it.
In 2024, another referendum around zoning changes and use restrictions, including removing height restrictions for new buildings, allowing for residential development, and expanding the footprint of how much land the city might lease to private owners, was put before Baltimore voters. The referendum was passed to allow for a potential new development to the harbor.
Harlem Park started as one of the largest squares in West Baltimore, 9 戮 acres, more than double the size of Franklin, Lafayette, or Union Square. The grounds of the park and much of the land around it had originally belonged to Dr. Thomas Edmondson.
Dr. Thomas Edmondson was born in 1808 as the son of a prosperous local merchant and graduated in medicine from the University of Maryland in 1834. He never practiced medicine and instead focused on art and horticulture, building a grand mansion and greenhouses on a hill now bounded by Edmondson Avenue, Harlem, Fulton and Mount. Dr. Edmondson died in 1856 and his estate presented a section of the property to the City of Baltimore on November 11, 1867 as a gift for the creation of a public park or square.
The city passed an ordinance accepting the gift in February 1868 and improvements on the park soon began. The engineer and general superintendent for Druid Hill Park, August Paul, prepared a plan for the grounds with "Beds and mounds of exotic and native flowers, the most difficult of cultivation" laid out in patterns of "stars, diamonds, Maltese crosses, hearts, ovals, circles, and semicircles, each one of great artistic beauty and of remarkably accurate outline." Another account described a "group of willows that encircled a gurgling spring at the eastern end of the grounds... a white mulberry tree that was a delight to the neighborhood, and a great flowering tree of the lobelia family, abundant in the Hawaiian Islands."
The park was dedicated in 1876, as an asset to the increasingly developed blocks around the park and up to Fulton Avenue. The Harlem Stage Coach Company incorporated in February 1878 to run a line of omnibus coaches from Fulton Avenue to Edmondson Avenue before turning south at Harlem Park. One of the directors of the enterprise was Joseph Cone, who became a tremendously active rowhouse builder in West Baltimore during the 1870s and 1880s, putting up hundreds of rowhouses each year with then modern amenities such as gaslights, hot water, central heating, and door bells. Cone pioneered the financing strategy of "advance credit" where home-owners could pay for their properties piecemeal providing the builder with capital for putting up yet more houses.
Harlem Park was substantially diminished in the early 1960s, with the construction of a $5,300,000 school complex, designed by architects Taylor & Fisher, resulting in the demolition of homes and businesses along the northern edge of the park. The school also took the eastern half of the park to turn it into a school yard. The remaining square endures as a quiet green space still used by West Baltimore residents.
The Harlem Park Theatre was originally built as a church for a congregation that had outgrown the size of their existing building. Construction on this Romanesque-style building on Gilmore Street began in the summer of 1902. The building had a Port Deposit granite edifice and was considered aesthetically modern at the time of construction, designed to be an ornament in the neighborhood.
The new Methodist Episcopal Church was a short-lived venture marred by two destructive fires that led to its eventual abandonment. On December 22, 1908, the building was almost destroyed in a fire. Repairs were completed to the point where the congregation could continue to use the building until a more severe fire in 1924. On April 3, a fire destroyed the church, and the building was abandoned. This was also the period when the demographics of the neighborhood were shifting from predominately white to predominately African American. The Methodist Episcopal Church was a predominately white congregation, so the change in demographics may have influenced the decision to abandon the church.
In 1928, the title for the church was officially transferred to Emanuel M. Davidove and Harry H. Goldberg, who resold the property to their company the Fidelity Amusement Corporation, formed for the purpose of building "a 1,500 seat motion picture theatre for Negroes to be known as Harlem Theatre." The company hired architect Theodore Wells Pietsch, a notable Baltimore architect who also designed Eastern High School and the Broadway Pier. Pietsch took the property's history into consideration when designing the new building: the theatre was made fireproof through the use of steel and concrete, and a fire extinguishing system was also included in the building's design.
Like the church it replaced, the theater was designed as an ornament and a spectacle. The building's decorative theme, inspired by Spanish architecture, was considered the most elaborate on the East Coast, and the theatre was promoted as "the best illuminated building in Baltimore." The bright, decorative facade included a 65-foot marquee with 900 50-watt light bulbs to illuminate the sidewalk underneath, as well as "tremendous electric signs" around the marquee and a forty-foot high sign that could be seen from two miles away.
The opening weekend for the theatre in October 1932, is notable because of the significant celebratory events planned to mark the grand opening. The theatre was introduced "in a blaze of glory," in a grand opening that drew crowds of 5,000 to 8,000 people. The jubilant scene was described by a journalist:
"The blazing marquee studded with a thousand lights made the entire square take a semblance of Broadway glamour. The marquees illuminated the entire Harlem Square which was crowded with those who lined the sidewalk unable to gain admittance."
A parade was held in tribute to Theodore Wells Pietsch and the construction of the theatre. The parade was both photographed and filmed, and the resulting film was shown at the theatre the next week.
After a successful opening, the theatre remained open for nearly forty years. Baltimore citizens remember the theatre with "cavernous three-story high ceiling, a balcony, carpeted floors and thick cushioned seats" and "艙celestial ceiling with twinkling electrical stars and projected clouds that floated over movie-goers' heads." There are also records of community events, such as a free "Movie Jamboree" in 1968 for the children of Baltimore workers donated by the theatre's then-manager Edward Grot, and midnight shows to raise money for the local YMCA. However, the theatre remained segregated throughout is existence and went into decline by the late 1960s.
By the mid-1970s, the Harlem Theatre was closed. In 1975, it was purchased by Reverend Raymond Kelley, Jr. with the intention of turning it into the Harlem Park Community Baptist Church. Refurbishment included replacement of theatre seats with pews, and removal of the marquee. On July 6, 1975, the new church was dedicated. The building continues to be used by the congregation of the Harlem Park Community Baptist Church today.
At the close of the eighteenth century, the far eastern edge of Baltimore was marked by Harris Creek, a modest tributary of the Patapsco that spilled into the River near where Boston Street and Lakewood Avenue in Canton today. In an area of Baltimore that was still sparsely settled, Harris Creek did feature one major enterprise鈥攖he shipyard of Samuel and Joseph Sterrett. The shipyard included a large blacksmith shop, sheds for boat builders and mast wrights, and a serviceable road back into Fells Point for workers and supplies. The Master Constructor at the shipyard was David Stodder, an experienced shipwright who held seventeen enslaved people, making him one of the largest slaveholders in Baltimore at the time. Among the ships produced at the shipyard was the 600-ton Goliath, owned by Abraham Van Bibber who also co-owned the privateer sloop Baltimore Hero commanded by Thomas Waters during the Revolutionary War. Van Bibber reportedly intended the Goliath for the East India Trade. The most famous ship to sail down Harris Creek was the U.S. Frigate Constellation launched in 1797. (The second USS Constellation, built in 1854, contains portions of this original.) Stodder built the ship according to the design of Naval Constructor Joshua Humphreys. The Constellation was just one of six frigates that Humphreys designed in the 1790s to pursue Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean. While Harris Creek was filled in during the early nineteenth century to make more land for the quickly growing Baltimore City, evidence of Canton's maritime past endured. In 1908, locals uncovered the charred remains of a 130-foot clipper ship that had burned at its pier and had been buried 400 feet inland from the present shoreline. In the 1880s, Harris Creek was turned into a major municipal sewer with an outfall at Boston Street. In 1901, Baltimore constructed a brick arch bridge to carry Boston Street that has remained there through the present.
A neglected brick rowhouse at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue was once the residence of Baltimore鈥檚 first black City Councilman Harry S. Cummings. Harry S. Cummings, his wife Blanche Teresa Conklin and their two children Louise Virginia and Harry Sythe Cummings, Jr. moved to 1318 Druid Hill Avenue in 1911. The family hadn't moved far. They had moved to 1234 Druid Hill Avenue in 1898 and Cummings' sister continued to live in the house up through the 1950s. This house, later known as Freedom House for its' role as offices for the local chapter of the NAACP, was torn down by Bethel AME Church in November 2015. The rowhouse at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue听was not only a family home but also a place for politics. Cummings campaigned and won re-election to the City Council in 1911 and 1915. In 1912, Cummings hosted the Seventeenth Ward Organization at his home where local Republicans met to endorse President William Howard Taft. Unfortunately, Cummings fell ill at age fifty-one and, on September 5, 1917, the Sun reported that Cummings was "critically ill at his home, 1318 Druid Hill Avenue, of a complication of diseases and a blood clot on the brain. It was said last night that he had not spoken since last Friday." Cummings died on September 7, 1917, at his home. On Monday, September 10, thousands of people, both white and black, visited the Metropolitan M.E. Church on Orchard Street to see the 鈥渞emains lay in state鈥 and hundreds of people visited his home. Rev. Leonard Z. Johnson, the pastor of Madison Street Presbyterian Church, conducted a brief service at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue, remarking:
鈥淭his life is a token and a proof of Negro possibility in the sphere of life achievement, if given its chances to fulfil itself, and while such Negro possibility shows there shall none, of right reason, decry the Negro people and race and reuse right and a place of common human respect and equal opportunity of strong life in the citizen life of the nation.鈥Blanche T. Cummings continued to live in the house up until her death on January 12, 1955, and the property remained in family ownership up until 2005. Despite the deteriorated condition of the building today, the backyard still holds a reminder of the Cummings family鈥攁 rare American Elm planted on Harry S. Cummings, Jr.鈥檚 seventh birthday. Neighbors hope to see the history of this home and memories of the听Cummings family preserved of for generations to come.
1727 E. Baltimore Street housed a series of ethnic food establishments from the turn of the century through the early 1960s, reflecting greater migration patterns in the neighborhood. In 1917, it was the Shub Bros. Bakery; in 1947, it was the Warsaw Bakery, and around 1959, Hartman Hammonds (Lumbee) rented the storefront and opened Hartman鈥檚 BBQ Shop. Mr. Hammonds sold Lumbee-style BBQ with traditional sides like coleslaw, as well as hotdogs and hamburgers. The shop was frequented by construction workers who lived in East Baltimore. Mr. Hammonds made lunches at night and the workers would come pick them up in the morning, then they would come back on Fridays to pay for their lunches for the week. 1725 and 1727 E. Baltimore were eventually merged and converted into a church.
The Hebrew Orphan Asylum appears like a grand castle on a hill with rows Victorian Romanesque arched windows and turrets at every corner. The unique design is a credit to the architectural partnership of Lupus & Roby - composed of German architect and craftsman Edward Lupus and Baltimore born architect Henry A. Roby - but the building itself is a landmark to the history of philanthropy and social service in Baltimore's Jewish community.
In February 1872, the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Baltimore organized to establish an orphanage for the Jewish community and local German Jewish merchant William S. Rayner donated the handsome Calverton Mansion - an 1815 country home used most recently as the Baltimore Almshouse - as a home for the new organization. Regrettably, the building burned down in 1874 but, despite the set-back, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum rebuilt on the same site, opening their new building in 1876. William Rayner spoke at the dedication, reflecting his hopes and aspirations for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum: "the Jewish community should regard donations as an investment that would bear fruit; some of the children in the future would contribute to the welfare of the community, and the rest would serve as the contributor's advocates in heaven."
While a small group of wealthy German Jews first established and led the orphanage, a broad and diverse community of Jewish Baltimoreans supported the Hebrew Orphan Asylum with donations of all sorts and the Jewish children and families who depended on the Hebrew Orphan Asylum came from all across Europe. The history of the institution follows the history of the Jewish community in Baltimore, as the population at the orphanage grew rapidly along with the increased Jewish immigration from Europe during the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. Many older orphanages closed from the 1920s through the 1940s as care for dependent children moved away from large institutional homes towards foster care or smaller group homes and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was no different, closing in 1923.
A group of local doctors converted the Hebrew Orphan Asylum to the West Baltimore General Hospital, later known as the Lutheran Hospital of Maryland which remained at the site through the late 1980s. The building was abandoned for over a decade but 糖心影视 and the Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation engaged in a decade-long campaign to preserve and restore this landmark of Baltimore's Jewish history. Today, the building is home to 听the Center for Health Care and Healthy Living.听
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Adorned with graceful arches and elegant art deco lights the eight story Beaux Arts Hecht-May Co. building at the corner of Lexington and Howard streets (designed by Smith and May architects) was originally built in 1908 as an annex to the Bernheimer Brothers Department store. In what must have been a first for Baltimore, the building initially featured a rooftop garden and hosted cow milking demonstrations. The store sold groceries, clothing, and a variety of household goods.
In 1923, Bernheimer Brothers merged with the Leader Department Store and four years later The May Company bought the combined Berheimer-Leader store and incorporated it as one of their outlets. In 1959, the May Co. purchased the Hecht Company and this building became the Hecht-May Company's main Baltimore location. Though this building's life as part of the Hecht Company began in the twentieth century, the story of the Hecht Company reaches far back to the mid-1840s.
Samuel Hecht, founder of the DC-based Hecht Company, emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1844 and worked as a peddler. Four of Hecht's five sons worked in the family business but one in particular - Moses Hecht - stood out as an early and persistent entrepreneur who proved critical to the family's success. Moses began working at one of Hecht's earliest Baltimore outlets, Hecht's Reliable on Broadway, at age 13 and went on to become the store's general manager within two years. He helped to bring the store record profits thanks to innovations like the one-price-per-item policy, guaranteeing everyone paid the same price for the same merchandise without needing to bargain with store employees.
Hecht's retail empire grew quickly and lasted for over 100 years. By the late 1800s, the Hecht Company operated a general store at Baltimore and Pine streets, a carpet store on Lexington, and an upscale store known as The Hub at the corner of Baltimore and Light Streets. When the 1904 Baltimore Fire destroyed The Hub's first location, the business relocated to Baltimore and Charles Streets - the site of the Mechanic Theatre today. At their Howard and Lexington location, Hecht's customers could purchase everything from sheets and towels to formal wear and pianos. The store featured an art gallery on the eighth floor and customers frequently punctuated their shopping trips with lunch in the Courtyard Restaurant or tea in the Skyline Tearoom.
In 1949 Hecht's opened a store in Annapolis and continued to open locations throughout the Baltimore-Washington area up until the 1970s. This store closed in the 1980s when Hecht's consolidated several locations. Renovated in 2007, the building is now home to a branch of Rite Aid and the upper stories house rental apartments.
Helen Mackall Park was dedicated by the Rosemont Community on Saturday, December 4, 1971 to honor Mrs. Helen Mackall鈥攁 crossing guard for James Mosher Elementary School who lost her leg while saving the life of a 6-year old Bonita Lynn Lineberger at the corner of Lafayette and Wheeler Avenues.
Established in the 1930s, the park was originally dedicated as the Nichols Playground in honor of George L. Nichols, a superintendent with the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks who retired in 1945.
The ghostly traces of the words 鈥淏altimore and Ohio Railroad鈥 painted on the brick wall give a clue to the former life of the substantial building that anchors the east end of Fell Street. Designed by architect E. Francis Baldwin in 1897 for the B&O Railroad, Henderson鈥檚 Wharf was one of the largest and most up-to-date tobacco warehouses of its day. Its subsequent renovation a century later is a fine example of how Baltimore has been a pioneer in reimagining old industrial buildings and transforming them into spaces for contemporary living.
Henderson鈥檚 Wharf was originally known as O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 Wharf, named after Captain John O鈥橠onnell, the founder of Canton and one of the wealthiest men in the United States at his death in 1805. In 1850, James A. Henderson, a merchant, purchased the property and made it a major steamship hub. By 1865, the Sun hailed the sendoff of the steamship Somerset from the wharf and anticipated the excitement of the community and the profit to be made: 鈥淭he pioneer of the ocean line of steamships between Liverpool and Baltimore鈥ill doubtless be witnessed by many persons, as it is an event of the greatest moment to all the various mercantile interests of Baltimore. It is understood that a number of merchants of this city have given orders to European agents to have goods sent them direct from Liverpool by the Somerset on her return trip and the gentlemen having charge of the line are also assured that she will return with a full number of steerage passengers. The prospects of the Ocean Line are altogether of an encouraging character.鈥
By the 1890s, a different kind of journey was available to Baltimoreans as companies like the Sassafras River Company offered steamship day excursions across the bay to destinations like Worton Manor Beach.
B&O announced their proposal to build a warehouse on Henderson鈥檚 Wharf in 1894. A Baltimore Sun headline in 1896 announced:
A BIG WAREHOUSE: To Be Erected by the B. and O. Railroad Company for Tobacco Storage HENDERSON'S WHARF THE SITE The Building Will Be the Largest Structure of Its Kind in Baltimore Its Cost Will Be About $200,000 and It Will Have Capacity for 25,000 Hogsheads--In Size It Will Be 250 by 300 Feet and Six 糖心影视 High--Important Addition to the City's Terminal Facilities
The warehouse boasted two-and-a-half foot thick walls with more than 30,000 sq feet of floor space divided into four sections, each with its own elevator.
Both the size and the scope of the building were designed to keep the tobacco inspection and storage industry within the state of Maryland, instead of sending Maryland tobacco out-of-state to Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky to be processed. The B&O cited not only the capacity of their new warehouse as an advantage but praised the location as well. Railroad tracks ran into the building, the better for loading and unloading from trains. Similarly, the harbor location allowed ships carrying tobacco crops from the Eastern Shore or Southern Maryland easy access to the warehouse, and tobacco destined for foreign ports could be loaded on railroad barges to be transported to any part of the harbor to be sent abroad.
The warehouse was used for various purposes until it was abandoned in 1976. In 1984, a fire swept through, causing significant damages. The building underwent a $9.75 million renovation in 1991 that retained some of its original architectural elements including its lovely archways. Since then, Henderson鈥檚 Wharf has been used as a variety of residences, including apartments, condominiums, and currently, as a luxury hotel.
with research support from Jewish Museum of Maryland
This building was slated for demolition in 2023.听
Looking up at this large, handsome red brick and stone building across Baltimore Street, one can just make out the remnants of 鈥淗endler Creamery Company鈥 written across the front fa莽ade. Manuel Hendler (1885-1962) opened this ice cream manufacturing plant in 1912. Born to Jewish immigrants and raised on a Baltimore County dairy farm, Hendler became a household name in Baltimore. His popular ice cream attracted the attention of the New Jersey-based Borden Company, which bought his operation in 1928.
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with research support from 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.
Amidst the grand old houses, some vacant and in disrepair, and important civil rights historic sites in Historic Marble Hill in West Baltimore sits the Henry Highland Garnet Neighborhood Park. It is a leafy green space, with flowers, trees, giant urns, winding paths, and park benches. Plaques to a variety of local leaders are spread throughout. The park, in the Baltimore National Heritage Area, is named for militant abolitionist and minister, Henry Highland Garnet. Garnet was born into slavery on Maryland鈥檚 Eastern Shore in 1815. He and his family escaped via the Underground Railroad to New York City when he was 9 years old. Although they escaped to a northern state, slave catchers threatened his family. Garnet spent time working on ships and attended several schools established by abolitionists. He became a Presbyterian minister. In 1840 he helped found the . He was known for his captivating and radical speeches encouraging armed uprisings among the enslaved. During the Civil War he helped recruit Black soldiers for the Union Army, and narrowly escaped a white mob during the . On February 12, 1865 he was the first African American to address the United States House of Representatives, encouraging them to adopt the 13th Amendment with a sermon entitled 鈥.鈥 After the end of the war, he continued to work against slavery in Cuba and Brazil. Although he had first been critical of Liberia, a colony in Africa for Black Americans, toward the end of his life he supported Black emigration.听 In December 1881 President James Garfield appointed听 him Ambassador to Liberia, and he died there a few months later on February 13, 1882. The large historical marker at one of the entrances to the park quotes Garnet鈥檚 鈥溾 also known as the 鈥淐all to Rebellion,鈥 which he gave to the National Negro Convention in 1843:
Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. Let every slave throughout the land do this, and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed than you have been鈥攜ou cannot suffer greater cruelties than you have already. Rather die free men than live to be slaves. Remember that you are four million!In the audience was fellow former Marylander, Frederick Douglass. The address was considered too radical to distribute,but other abolitionists, including John Brown, funded its publication. In 1969, the Henry Highland Garnet Council, which was made up of 36 block organizations,听 established the park on the site of a former school.听 Robert Harding, a MICA professor, designed the park and Lena Boone, president of the Council, coordinated the work. The Neighborhood Improvement Program (a federally funded program of the Department of Labor) provided the labor for the creation of the park. The Baltimore City Department of Public Works furnished the walkways and plumbing for the fountain and the Department of Recreation and Parks provided $15,000 for materials. The construction company, Potts and Callahan (still operating today) donated fill dirt for the landscaping. Over the decades the park fell into disrepair. In 2016 the park was renovated by the Marble Hill Community Association. Since 2018 it has been maintained by Friends of Henry Highland Garnet Park. In 2021 volunteers planted a rose walk and installed a bronze plaque (sponsored by the Baltimore National Heritage Area and Union Baptist Church) to honor Juanita Jackson Mitchell and Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. The Mitchells were important civil rights activists who lived and worked in the neighborhood, and who had entertained Jackie Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson in their rose garden. A community composting program currently provides fertilizer for the gardens, continuing the tradition of neighborhood care for, and pride in, the park.
Henry Thompson was born in 1774 in Sheffield, England and came to Baltimore in 1794, where he became a member of the Baltimore Light Dragoons. He was elected captain of this company in 1809, six years after completing a house called "Clifton" in what is now Clifton Park in Baltimore City but back then was Baltimore County. By 1813, Captain Thompson had disbanded the Light Dragoons and formed a mounted company called The First Baltimore Horse Artillery. Brigadier General John Stricker soon enlisted Captain Thompson and his horsemen to act as mounted messengers traveling between Washington and Bladensburg to report on the movements of British troops and ships. The unit also became the personal guard to General Samuel Smith, who commanded the defenses during the Battle of Baltimore and Ft. McHenry in 1814. Henry Thompson contributed much to Baltimore in addition to his War of 1812 service. In 1816, he built and was president of the Baltimore and Harford Turnpike Company, now Harford Road. In 1818, he served on the Poppleton Commission that laid out the street grid in Baltimore that we have today. He was also a director of the Port Deposit Railroad, The Bank of Baltimore, the Merchant's exchange, the Board of Trade, the Baltimore Insurance Company, and, to boot, he was the recording secretary of the Maryland Agricultural Society. Later in life he served as a marshal at the dedication ceremonies of the Washington Monument and Battle Monument, and Grand Marshal of a procession commemorating the death of General Lafayette in 1834. As for Clifton Mansion, Thompson owned the property until 1835. During that time, he hosted a number of notables that include Maryland Governor Charles Ridgely of Hampton, Alexander Brown (considered America's first investment banker), Henry Clay (who early in his political career was a chief agitator for declaring war on Britain in 1812), and General Winfield Scott (who commanded forces in 1812 and later masterminded the Union's military strategy in the Civil War). In 1835, Thompson sold Clifton to a gentleman named Daniel Cobb. Thompson died shortly after, in 1837, and Cobb went broke. After failing to make his mortgage payments, Thompson's heirs reclaimed Clifton. The heirs soon sold the house and grounds to a prosperous and up and coming Baltimore merchant looking for a fine summer estate. That, of course, was Johns Hopkins, and a story for another day.
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The Hercules Shipbuilding Company, housed in this brick building, was an active player in Baltimore鈥檚 maritime industry, building vessels for commercial and leisure use as well as wartime naval construction and repair. Jonathan and Eleanor LaVeck owned the firm. Workers at Hercules specialized in ship repairs, cargo hold renovations, and battening (the tool in the phrase "batten down the hatches").
The building is representative of the industry and how the harbor, as well as a sizable labor force, hastened the growth of the city鈥檚 economic development. The Hercules building is a 3.5 story, 20th-century, Colonial Revival brick office building, approximately 7,200 square feet. It is a National Register-eligible structure. The company used this building from 1941, though the BMI has been unable to determine the construction start date. The building remained in use and unchanged until the Baltimore Museum of Industry purchased it in the early 1990s and began restoration and renovation work, including the addition of an elevator tower and fire stair.
One of the tools Hercules workers used for shipbuilding is a drop forge, to shape heavy steel. The Hercules drop forge remains on the Baltimore Museum of Industry鈥檚 outdoor campus next to the large outdoor sculpture by David Hess, 鈥淲orking Point.鈥 Hess created Working Point, comprised of 90 tons of obsolete machinery, in 1997.
Before the Hercules chapter of this site鈥檚 history, 1425 Key Highway was home to the Louis Grebb Packing Plant, an oyster and fruit cannery with waterfront access. Owners of the Hercules Co. sold the property in 1975. The Superior Concrete Company operated a cement plant on this site in the late 1980s.
The submerged iron hull of the steamship Governor R.M. McLane is also visible from the waterfront at this location鈥攁long with at least six other abandoned vessels. One of two steamboats built by the Philadelphia firm Neafie and Levy in the early 1880s, this flagship of the 鈥淥yster Navy鈥 enforced conservation laws designed to protect the depleted oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay. The General Assembly established Maryland鈥檚 Oyster Police Force in 1868 in order to protect one of the state鈥檚 precious natural resources鈥攐ysters鈥攚hich had been overharvested and also suffered from disease. Canneries, such as Platt & Company (now home to the Baltimore Museum of Industry, on this site), helped fuel Marylanders鈥 appetite for oysters from the Bay. Relations between oyster 鈥減irates鈥 or 鈥減oachers鈥 and the state officials dedicated to conserving the bivalves sometimes became violent, leading to the 鈥淥yster Wars鈥 of the late 19th century.
The McLane remained an integral part of the Maryland State Oyster Police Force until 1932, before being sold in 1948 and used to tow barges for the next six years. After all is said and done, industry is actually about people鈥攚orkers, consumers, entrepreneurs, and investors鈥攚ho invest time, money, and labor into work. Whether building ships or canning oysters, Baltimoreans were hard at work at this site. Imagine what it was like to work here 100 years ago. What has changed? What has remained the same?
The Highfield House is an outstanding example of International Style architecture totaling 265,800 square feet in fifteen stories. The Highfield House apartment building was designed by Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and was constructed by the Chicago-based development company, Metropolitan Structures, Inc. between 1962 and 1964. Highfield House is one of only two buildings in Baltimore designed by Mies.
The building is a free-standing high rise slab set on a platform and the main facade faces east. Although the structure has a commanding presence, the siting and design also create a suburban-feeling environment for the residents and the surrounding residential neighborhoods of Guilford and Tuscany-Canterbury. Architect Mies van der Rohe applied a unique structural solution by allowing the brick skin of the building to become an infill between the visible columns and floor beams. The building adopts a very simple outline design: a rectangular eleven bay by three bay block. The east (front) fa莽ade and west elevation are the long (eleven bays) side of this rectangle, while the north and south elevations are its short sides (three bays).
Mies was known for the principles of high-rise "skin and bone" design that were applied to the Highfield House, but he also made minor departures from previous designs to integrate the structure better with its surroundings. Mies utilized the existing site conditions, including the topography, to create sheltered courtyard-style recreation spaces for the residents and for the parking garage to be concealed from Charles Street.
In 1979, the building was converted to condominiums鈥攕hifting ownership responsibilities from developers to private owners. Building management offered tenants the first opportunity to purchase their unit before putting them on the market. They sold over 70 percent of the 165 units to tenants in the first ten weeks鈥攎aking it the one of the most successful condo conversions in Baltimore at the time.
In 2007, the National Park Service listed the Highfield House to the National Register of Historic Places. Only 43 years old at the time, Highfield House defied the convention of only listing buildings older than 50 years recognizing the significance of the building to the history of modernism in Baltimore.