During the War of 1812, Fell Street ran down a narrow stretch of land, with valuable water on both sides. William Price, who owned a shipyard at the east end of Thames, lived on Fell Street at 912 (built by 1802) and owned 903 to 907 (built 1779 -1781). One of the city's largest slaveholders with 25 enslaved workers, Price also employed 100 men at his shipyard. He built a dozen letter of marque schooners (more than any other ship builder in Baltimore) and also invests in three cruises.
In 1814, Price's tenants at 903-907 Fell Street included Peter Weary, a wood measurer, and widow Sarah Day. Price’s son and partner, John, lives at 913 Fell (built ca.1790). In the spring of 1813, Price helped to move 56 heavy cannon from his warehouse to Fort McHenry and nearby batteries. Salvaged from a French warship, the 10,000-pound cannon are loaned to Baltimore by the French Consul—they later played a crucial role in the fort's defense.
Another Fell Street resident who played a role in the War of 1812 is George Stiles who became General Sam Smith’s most trusted aide. Stiles owned substantial property in Fell's Point, including 910 Fell (built ca. 1810). A skilled sea captain, Stiles was a risk taker who acquired four letter of marque schooners. His Nonesuch received the nation’s first commission in 1812. The much admired Stiles, whom Niles’ Weekly Register called the savior of Baltimore was later elected mayor in 1816.
Farther down, at 931 Fell (built ca.1790), was the home of Elizabeth Steele, widow of shipbuilder John Steele, a carefully restored example of the fine townhouses that once dominated this street.
Built around 1800, 1706 Lancaster Street was home to Thomas Kemp, a 24-year-old shipbuilder from St. Michaels on Maryland’s 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—Rossie under Joshua Barney’s 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’s Fountain Street shipyard, several blocks to the north, also produced two sloops of war for the U.S. Navy—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.
The houses at 612 and 614 South Wolfe Street are two of the smallest and oldest wooden homes remaining in Fell’s Point. Ann Bond Fell Giles, widow of Edward Fell, inherited both properties following the death of her first husband. She remarried and had several more children. Upon her death, the properties ended up in the hands of her youngest daughter Susannah Giles Moore and her husband Phillip Moore. It stayed in their hands until Phillip died insolvent in 1833 or 1834.
The houses were built somewhere between February 1798 and 1801, though likely closer to the later date. 612 was connected to another property at 610 South Wolfe Street in its earliest days, and both were rented to Edward Callow in 1801. 614 South Wolfe Street was also rented out by the owners to Patrick Morrison.
Between 1842 and 1854, the buildings became homes to African American ship caulkers Richard Jones, Henry Scott, and John Whittington. The shipbuilding industry in Fell’s Point depended on free and enslaved black labor. Caulking, the process by which a ship is waterproofed and sealed, was dominated by black workers including Frederick Douglass who worked as a caulker in Baltimore in the 1830s.. For a time, the Black Caulker Association held a near monopoly over Baltimore's caulking industry.
The Black Caulker Association lost power in the mid-nineteenth century as European immigrants arrived competing for work. The houses on Wolfe Street were named the Caulker Houses in honor of the caulkers who lived there. The houses are also known as the “Two Sisters Houses” after sisters Mary Leeke Rowe Dashiell and Eleanor Marine Dashiell, descendants of the Leeke, Marine, and Dashiell families. They owned the houses prior to the acquisition by the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point.
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