/items/browse/hsbakery.com/about-us/page/9?output=atom <![CDATA[Explore 91ĘÓƵ]]> 2025-03-15T15:16:26-04:00 Omeka /items/show/421 <![CDATA[National Brewery - "Natty Boh"]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

National Brewery - "Natty Boh"

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Located in Baltimore’s Brewers Hill neighborhood, the National Brewing Company building, affectionately known to locals as the "Natty Boh" building, has been standing since 1872. The company was then known exclusively for its National Premium beer. In 1885, National Brewing began brewing its flagship National Bohemian beer, Natty Boh, and a hometown favorite was born. Production of Natty Boh continued on this site, with the exception of the Prohibition years, until 1975 when the company was bought. The brewery was shut down and the brewing operations were moved to Wisconsin.

Today the old brewery has been converted to office space and is part of the Brewer's Hill complex. The complex includes multiple breweries that were home to the Gunther, Schaefer, Hamm’s, and, of course, Natty Boh labels. Also, it is where the nation’s first “six pack” was invented in the 1940s.

The Brewers Hill neighborhood that surrounds the 27-acre brewery site was developed between 1915 and 1920 and is replete with rows of brick homes and marble steps.

Street Address

3601-3901 Dillon Street, Baltimore, MD 21224
]]>
/items/show/418 <![CDATA[Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park]]> 2023-11-10T12:29:37-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park

Creator

91ĘÓƵ
Maryland State Archives
Camille Heung

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park is a Living Classrooms Foundation campus (and headquarters). It is a national heritage site that celebrates the contributions of African Americans in the development of Baltimore’s maritime industry while preserving one of the city’s oldest existing waterfront industrial buildings. The museum chronicles the saga of Frederick Douglass’ life in Baltimore as an enslaved child and young man. It also highlights the life of Isaac Myers, a free-born African American labor leader and businessman. 

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (later Douglass) was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in February 1818. When he turned eight years old, his enslaver forced him to work for a family in Baltimore. When Frederick was fifteen, his enslaver sent him back to the Eastern Shore to labor as a fieldhand. Frederick rebelled intensely. He educated other enslaved individuals, physically fought back against a "slave-breaker," and attempted to seize his freedom through a bold, but ultimately unsuccessful plan.

Frustrated, his enslaver returned him to Baltimore. This time, Frederick met a young free Black woman named Anna Murray. Anna Murray used her money to buy him a train ticket, risking her own safety to help him seize his freedom. On September 3, 1838, with the ticket in hand, he boarded a northbound train dressed as a sailor. In less than 24 hours, Frederick arrived in New York City. From there, he became the most important leader of the movement for African-American Civil rRights in the 19th century (read more about Frederick Douglass ).Ěý

Kennard's Wharf at the end of Philpot Street, the very place where Frederick Douglass entered Baltimore as an enslaved child in the 1820s, later became the site of one of the most successful black-owned businesses in Baltimore City, the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. It was founded by Isaac Myers and other Black labor organizers. 

A caulker by trade, Myers was born free in Baltimore in 1835. The ship-building/maritime industries, and specifically the caulking trade, of Baltimore were historically interracial. By the close of the U.S. Civil War, black workers were systematically pushed out of this type of employment to make room for growing numbers of white workers in the city. This reality led Myers and others to found the Colored Caulkers Trade Union Society.

In the early 1860's, the union formed a cooperative company. Pooling their resources, the workers issued stock and quickly raised $10,000 in subscriptions among Black Baltimore residents. On February 12, 1866, they purchased a shipyard and railway, which they named the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. Within months, the cooperative employed 300 black caulkers and received several government contracts. Ultimately it employed a number of white workers as well. 

The success of Myers’s union in Baltimore encouraged black caulkers in other seaport cities to organize. Myers was elected president of the (Colored) National Labor Union, the first organization of its type in U.S. history. Myers appealed to black workers to join unions and called on white unions to accept them as full members. Myers also organized and became president of the Maryland Colored State Industrial Fair Association, the Colored Business Men’s Association of Baltimore, the Colored Building and Loan Association, and the Aged Ministers Home of the A.M.E. Church.  He also authored the Mason’s Digest. Myers was married twice and had several sons, one of whom became a leading political figure in Ohio. Isaac Myers died in Baltimore in 1891.

Related Resources

Official Website

Street Address

1417 Thames Street, Baltimore, MD 21231
]]>
/items/show/417 <![CDATA[Mount Washington Mill]]> 2021-02-22T09:48:35-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Mount Washington Mill

Subject

Industry

Creator

Nathan Dennies

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Mt. Washington Mill—historically Washington Mill, part of Washington Cotton Manufacturing Company—is one of Maryland’s earliest purpose-built cotton mills. In the early nineteenth century, the Napoleonic Wars and the Embargo Act disrupted imports and created new demand for locally-made cotton goods. When the nearly four stories tall stone Mt. Washington Mill began operation in 1810, it could fill this new market.

Located near the center of the complex, the mill was first powered by the current of the Jones Falls. Indentured servants, primarily young boys, worked to make fabrics like ginghams and calicos. The operation grew and the mill began hiring more men, women and children as workers. Most lived nearby in Washingtonville, a company town that, by 1847, included a company store and nearly forty homes between the factory and the railroad tracks. Workers were called to their shifts by the sound of the bell ringing in the mill's cupola.

The mill passed through several hands before 1853 when industrialists Horatio Gambrill and David Carroll acquired the facility. The pair had been quickly erecting textile mills in the Jones Falls Valley for the production of cotton duck, a heavy canvas used primarily for ship sails. By 1899, it had become part of the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company — a large conglomerate of textile mills comprising fourteen sites in Maryland and beyond — which would eventually control as much as 80% of the world’s cotton duck production until 1915, when the conglomerate split apart.

Washingtonville the mill village was soon overshadowed by the residential suburb of Mt. Washington, established in 1854 on the other side of the tracks. Mt. Washington became a fashionable neighborhood for middle-class Baltimoreans looking to get out of the city—Baltimore remained easily accessible by train. Life in Mt. Washington was much different than life in Washingtonville. Children were under little pressure to drop out of school to work in the mills to support their families, homes were spacious and built to fine standards, and residents had access to plenty of leisure activities and entertainment, such as at the "Casino" where all sorts of exhibitions and games and held.

In 1923, Washington Cotton Mill was purchased by the Maryland Bolt and Nut Company and repurposed for the production of metal fasteners like bolts, nuts, screws, and rivets. Industrial buildings were added to the campus and existing ones were outfitted for working steel. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes wrecked much of the industrial campus and in response, the factory was sold to Leonard Jed Company, a manufacturer of industrial supplies. It was sold again in 1984 to Don L. Byrne, a manager at the plant, before being redeveloped by Himmelrich Associates in the 1990s for office and commercial use.

Washingtonville never underwent the same revitalization. The village was largely razed in 1958 to make way for the Jones Falls Expressway leaving only a single duplex house still standing today.

Watch on this site!

Official Website

Street Address

1340 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21209
]]>
/items/show/414 <![CDATA[Lord Baltimore Hotel]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Lord Baltimore Hotel

Subject

Architecture

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Built in 1928, the Lord Baltimore Hotel is a beautiful example of an early twentieth-century high-rise hotel. Designed by prolific hotel architect William Lee Stoddart, it is reminiscent of such famous American hotels as New York's Vanderbilt Hotel or Chicago's Palmer House. The twenty-two-story steel frame building was the largest hotel building ever constructed in Maryland. However, the Lord Baltimore is also a reminder of the city’s history of racial discrimination and the long fight for integrated public accommodation.

In 1954, the same year the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education called for an end to segregated schools, black players from three American League teams with integrated rosters came to Baltimore to play against the Orioles. White players stayed at the Lord Baltimore, the Emerson, and Southern Hotel downtown. But for their black teammates, the only option was the African American-owned York Hotel in West Baltimore.

A year later, in 1955, students at Johns Hopkins University moved the prom away from the Lord Baltimore to the at the Alcazar Hotel in Mount Vernon in protest to the hotel manager’s refusal to admit black students to the dance and his threat to “stop the dance if Negroes attended.” By the late 1950s, after lobbying by Baltimore’s progressive Mayor Theodore McKeldin, the Lord Baltimore Hotel consented to rent rooms to black ballplayers and some conference attendees. In 1958, Baltimore hosted the All-Star Game and six black All-Stars, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, registered at the Lord Baltimore. For visiting black spectators, however, the hotel was not an option. Jimmy Williams, an assistant editor at the Afro American, advised spectators to bring pup tents and box lunches, writing, “The box lunches will be to ease the pangs of an aching stomach… The pup tents will provide a place for them to rest their carcasses after the last door of the downtown hotels have been slammed in their face and the uptown hotels are filled.” Williams predicted visitors would leave “just loving the quaint customs of Baltimore, which boasts of major league baseball and minor league businessmen.”

By the early 1960s, policies finally began to change. After hotel management realized they had rented rooms for the campaign office of segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace in 1964, the management refused to let them stay and the campaign was forced to move to a motel in Towson. In 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr., stayed at the hotel during a meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where he gave a lengthy press conference and received symbolic keys to the city from Mayor Tommy D’Alesandro III.

The hotel was one of the few historic buildings retained as part of the redevelopment of Charles Center and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Official Website

Street Address

20 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
]]>
/items/show/413 <![CDATA[United States Coast Guard Cutter TANEY]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

United States Coast Guard Cutter TANEY

Creator

National Park Service

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

The Last Surviving Warship from Pearl Harbor

Story

USCGC (United States Coast Guard Cutter) TANEY, a National Historic Landmark, is the last surviving warship that was present and fought at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 7, 1941. Named for former Secretary of the Treasury, Roger B. Taney, the ship was one of seven cutters named for Secretaries of the Treasury.

The Treasury Class cutters represented the ultimate development of pre-World War II patrol gunboats. They were large, powerful warships designed to provide maritime law enforcement, search and rescue services, and communication and weather services on the high seas. Treasury class cutters served as convoy escorts, amphibious force flagships, shore bombardment vessels, and maritime patrol ships in World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Crisis, and the Vietnam War. TANEY was built in 1936.

Following Pearl Harbor, TANEY steamed into the Atlantic for convoy duty in 1944, then returned to the Pacific in 1945 to participate in the Okinawa campaign and the occupation of Japan. After service in Vietnam she was decommissioned in 1986.

Official Website

Street Address

Pier 5, Baltimore, MD 21202
]]>
/items/show/412 <![CDATA[Montgomery Park]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Montgomery Park

Subject

Architecture

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

Award-winning Reuse of the Montgomery Ward Warehouse

Lede

Built in 1925, the eight-story tall Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store is one of nine monumental distribution centers built by the Montgomery Ward mail order company in cities around the United States.

Story

Built in 1925, the eight-story tall Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store is one of nine monumental distribution centers built by the Montgomery Ward mail order company in cities around the United States. Founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in Chicago, Illinois in 1872, the store sent catalogs (sometimes known as the "Wish Book") listing thousands of items, from clothing to tractors, to rural communities around the country. Designed by in-house company Engineer of Construction, W. H. McCaully, the building on Washington Boulevard is a testament to the importance of the company’s early success.

Montgomery Ward located its Atlantic Coast Headquarters in Baltimore largely due to the efforts of the city government and the Industrial Bureau of the Association of Commerce to attract new businesses—an early example of a public economic development program.

For nearly 60 years, Montgomery Ward was a major business in Baltimore. It employed thousands of people, sent out hundreds of thousands of catalogs emblazoned with the name Baltimore to customers throughout the eastern seaboard, and provided a unique retail option to generations of local residents.

Today, Montgomery Park has been adapted to a new use as offices. The new use also gave the building a new name, but saved the sign while replacing only two letters from the historic "Montgomery Ward" sign to preserve this icon on the southwest Baltimore skyline. The development won the Environmental Protection Agency's 2003 Phoenix Award.

Official Website

Street Address

1800 Washington Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21230
]]>
/items/show/411 <![CDATA[Mill Centre]]> 2019-06-10T22:22:56-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

Mill Centre

Subject

Industry

Creator

Nathan Dennies

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

Offices at Mount Vernon Mill No. 3

Lede

Mount Vernon Mill No. 3, renamed Mill Centre in the 1980s, represented in 1853 an important expansion to Mt.Vernon Company. Led by president and former sailor Captain William Kennedy, both were among fourteen U.S. mills that—as part of a huge textile conglomerate—would capture up to 80% of the world’s demand for cotton duck in the early 1900s.

Story

Mount Vernon Mill No. 3 was once part of the network of mills owned by the Mount Vernon Mill Company. The village of Stone Hill, adjacent to Mill No. 3, was built around 1845 to house the growing workforce. Families housed in the cottage-like stone duplexes were brought in from surrounding rural areas by mill owners, who also built a company store, churches, a boarding house, and a school.

By the 1880s, the combined mills employed 1,600 workers. Originally erected in 1853, Mill No. 3 was expanded in 1880 as demand for cotton duck increased. More housing followed, so much so that by 1888—when Hampden and Woodberry were annexed by Baltimore City — development had exceeded well beyond the original boundaries of the mill villages.

A 1923 strike against an increase in hours with little increase in pay proved devastating for workers. Soon after, what was once Hampden’s major employer moved much of the mills’ operations to the South. The company began selling off properties, and Stone Hill families in turn were able to buy their homes from their former employers. A new generation of manufacturers moved in and repurposed the old textile mills. In 1974, Rockland Industries bought Mill No. 3, installed new looms, and produced assorted synthetic textiles.

By 1986, the mill was once again sold and redeveloped into a complex of artist studios, galleries, and commercial office space. Today, the site is home to more than seventy tenants of various occupations.



Related Resources

, Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance

Official Website

Street Address

3000 Chestnut Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21211

Access Information

Private Property
]]>
/items/show/410 <![CDATA[Avenue Market]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Avenue Market

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The first building for the Avenue Market, originally known as the Lafayette Market, was built in 1871. In the twentieth century, the market and the Old West Baltimore neighborhood thrived as the Pennsylvania Avenue became a center of Baltimore culture. When the wooden market burned to the ground in 1953, merchants banded together to rebuild it.

The market survived as many of the neighborhood's historic buildings were abandoned, and in the 1970s, demolished in the name of urban renewal. Enthusiasm for urban renewal in the 1970s waned, and by the 1990s, the Lafayette Market was in desperate need of a makeover. It closed in 1994 for renovations and reopened in 1996 as the Avenue Market, an homage to Pennsylvania Avenue, the cultural heart of the neighborhood. The market was again renovated in 2012.

Official Website

Street Address

1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217
]]>
/items/show/409 <![CDATA[Northeast Market]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Northeast Market

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Northeast Market was established in 1885 as the area around Johns Hopkins Hospital was developed. The market was enlarged in 1896 and, in 1955, the original wooden structure replaced and modernized with a massive brick building with funds from a $102 million city bond issue. The last renovation of the twentieth century was in the 1980s.

In 2013, the market received a much needed facelift. The market received $2 million in renovations, giving the market a more clean and inviting look. Funds were provided by the Baltimore Public Market Corp. (which owns all six public markets in Baltimore), Johns Hopkins, and the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition, Inc. In addition to exterior renovations, seven new vendor stalls were added and the market has put a focus on healthy eating.

Official Website

Street Address

2101 E. Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21205
]]>
/items/show/408 <![CDATA[Hollins Market]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Hollins Market

Description

Hollins Market is the oldest public market still operating in Baltimore. The market was conceived in 1835 after piano makers Joseph Newman and his brother Elias Newman were given permission by the city to erect a market on the 1100 block of Hollins Street. In 1838, winds from a severe storm destroyed the original market, which was rebuilt the following year. The market found success in the following decades and expanded in 1864 with the creation of the current Italianate building, designed by architect George Frederick.

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

Baltimore's Oldest Operating Public Market

Story

The market was conceived in 1835 after piano makers Joseph Newman and his brother Elias Newman were given permission by the city to erect a market on the 1100 block of Hollins Street. In 1838, winds from a severe storm destroyed the original market, which was rebuilt the following year. The market found success in the following decades and expanded in 1864 with the creation of the current Italianate building, designed by architect George Frederick.

Official Website

Street Address

26 S. Arlington Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21223

Access Information

Open Monday to Saturday, 7 am – 6 pm
]]>
/items/show/406 <![CDATA[Atlantic-Southwestern Broom Company]]> 2019-06-25T17:01:44-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

Atlantic-Southwestern Broom Company

Subject

Industry

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

August Rosenberger got into the broom business by chance in the late 1800s. One of his customers, a farmer who was unable to make ends meet, asked Mr. Rosenberger if he would accept a small shack with one broom machine and one sewing machine in payment for his grocery bill. Mr. Rosenberger accepted and sent him on his way. By 1907, Rosenberger had a successful broom business and he set his sights on Baltimore.

Construction began on the Atlantic-Southwestern Broom Company in Baltimore in 1910. The business continued to grow and between 1922 and 1924, the building expanded with additional buildings to the east and north, adding 57,500 square feet of warehouse and space. Production peaked in 1932 at 3.6 million brooms and 300 employees.

The company closed in 1989. Harbor Enterprise Center opened it's doors in 1992 in the old Atlantic-Southwestern Broom Company and quickly became home to an eclectic mix of artists, woodworkers, and startup companies. Completed in early 2009, the ground floor has been converted to 20,000 square-feet of retail with office/studio space above. The factory is now home to more than fifty local businesses.

Official Website

Street Address

3500 Boston Street, Baltimore, MD, 21224
]]>
/items/show/404 <![CDATA[Northern Central Railroad Baltimore Freight Shed]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Northern Central Railroad Baltimore Freight Shed

Subject

Transportation

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Built by the Northern Central Railroad, the former Baltimore Freight Shed is a rare example of composite timber and iron roof construction of the mid nineteenth century.

The roof structure is comprised of a series of tricomposite trusses with timber top chords, wrought iron tension rods, and cast iron compression members. This use of both timber and iron in the same roofing system formed a transition period between short span timber trusses and longer span iron and steel trusses that would be in widespread use by the end of the century. The building remains in use today as the home of the Merritt Downtown Athletic Club.

Related Resources

Adapted from the description provided by the .

Official Website

Street Address

210 E. Centre Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
]]>
/items/show/403 <![CDATA[Hochschild Kohn Warehouse at 520 Park Avenue]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Hochschild Kohn Warehouse at 520 Park Avenue

Subject

Architecture

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

In 1942, after taking a powerful loss during the early years of the Great Depression, the Hochschild Kohn & Co. Department Store was finally ready to expand. An anchor for this planned growth was their brand-new warehouse at 520 Park Avenue that housed all of the sundry items that the department store offered.

Founded in 1897 by Max Hochschild and brothers Benno and Louis Kohn, Hochschild Kohn was the first of Baltimore’s big department stores to expand beyond the downtown shopping district of Howard and Lexington Streets. The company established its first suburban store in Edmondson Village (1947), then another on York Road and E. Belvedere Avenue (1948). It eventually had stores in Towson, Harford Mall, and beyond.

The warehouse on Park Avenue is a massive building of reinforced concrete. More impressive than the building’s size is that it got built at all. In 1942, the United States had just entered World War II and the federal government strictly rationed building materials, including the concrete and steel the building needed. Company records indicate that it took vice president Walter Sondheim (who went on to lead the integration of Baltimore’s school system after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 among many other civic contributions) pleading with the U.S. War Department that the building justified an allocation of construction materials as it would serve as a distribution center. Sondheim’s persuasion worked, and the building opened and operated as a warehouse and furniture showroom until 1983.

In 1983, the Bank of Baltimore purchased the building and converted it into offices. In 2014, the building underwent another conversion when Marks, Thomas Architects, Kinsley Construction, and The Time Group transformed the building into 171 apartment units with commercial space on the ground floor.

Today, the one-time furniture showroom and department store warehouse that defied war time rationing is now a hub of activity at the edge of the Mount Vernon neighborhood.

Related Resources

Official Website

Street Address

520 Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201
]]>
/items/show/401 <![CDATA[American Can Company]]>
Throughout the early 1900s, the site expanded to occupy the entire triangular parcel, with the construction of the Boiler House, Factory Building and Annex in 1913, and the Signature Building in 1924. Other structures occupied the site as well, including infill buildings constructed in the early 1960s.

At it peak, the American Can Company employed as many as eight-hundred local residents. However, when the American Can merged with the National Can Company in the late 1980s, the factory was closed, all of the jobs were lost, and the property became vacant. In 1987, the City of Baltimore received a UDAG grant, $8.5 million of which was directed towards clearing the site and constructing a mixed-use commercial and residential development by Michael Swerdlow, including two high rise residential towers. After strong community opposition, a PCB spill on the site, and loss of financing, Swerdlow abandoned the project.

In 1994, Safeway purchased the eastern half of the site and demolished the existing buildings to make way for a supermarket and 300 space parking lot. In 1997, The Can Company LLC acquired the remaining 4.3 acres, which included the most historically significant buildings on the site, and quickly began development to allow its first and largest tenant, DAP Products, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of sealants and adhesives, to relocate its 40,000 square foot world headquarters to the site in March 1998. The Can Company is now the home to retailers, restaurants, and offices.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

American Can Company

Subject

Industry

Description

The oldest building on the Can Company site was constructed by the Norton Tin Can and Plate Company in 1895, and by 1900, the company was the largest can manufacturer in the United States. The founder of the Norton Company became the first president of the American Can Company.

Throughout the early 1900s, the site expanded to occupy the entire triangular parcel, with the construction of the Boiler House, Factory Building and Annex in 1913, and the Signature Building in 1924. Other structures occupied the site as well, including infill buildings constructed in the early 1960s.

At it peak, the American Can Company employed as many as eight-hundred local residents. However, when the American Can merged with the National Can Company in the late 1980s, the factory was closed, all of the jobs were lost, and the property became vacant. In 1987, the City of Baltimore received a UDAG grant, $8.5 million of which was directed towards clearing the site and constructing a mixed-use commercial and residential development by Michael Swerdlow, including two high rise residential towers. After strong community opposition, a PCB spill on the site, and loss of financing, Swerdlow abandoned the project.

In 1994, Safeway purchased the eastern half of the site and demolished the existing buildings to make way for a supermarket and 300 space parking lot. In 1997, The Can Company LLC acquired the remaining 4.3 acres, which included the most historically significant buildings on the site, and quickly began development to allow its first and largest tenant, DAP Products, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of sealants and adhesives, to relocate its 40,000 square foot world headquarters to the site in March 1998. The Can Company is now the home to retailers, restaurants, and offices.

Relation

Adapted with permission from .

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The oldest building on the Can Company site was constructed by the Norton Tin Can and Plate Company in 1895, and by 1900, the company was the largest can manufacturer in the United States. The founder of the Norton Company became the first president of the American Can Company.

Throughout the early 1900s, the site expanded to occupy the entire triangular parcel, with the construction of the Boiler House, Factory Building and Annex in 1913, and the Signature Building in 1924. Other structures occupied the site as well, including infill buildings constructed in the early 1960s.

At it peak, the American Can Company employed as many as eight-hundred local residents. However, when the American Can merged with the National Can Company in the late 1980s, the factory was closed, all of the jobs were lost, and the property became vacant. In 1987, the City of Baltimore received a UDAG grant, $8.5 million of which was directed towards clearing the site and constructing a mixed-use commercial and residential development by Michael Swerdlow, including two high rise residential towers. After strong community opposition, a PCB spill on the site, and loss of financing, Swerdlow abandoned the project.

In 1994, Safeway purchased the eastern half of the site and demolished the existing buildings to make way for a supermarket and 300 space parking lot. In 1997, The Can Company LLC acquired the remaining 4.3 acres, which included the most historically significant buildings on the site, and quickly began development to allow its first and largest tenant, DAP Products, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of sealants and adhesives, to relocate its 40,000 square foot world headquarters to the site in March 1998. The Can Company is now the home to retailers, restaurants, and offices.

Related Resources

Adapted with permission from .

Official Website

Street Address

2400 Boston Street, Baltimore, MD 21224
]]>
/items/show/398 <![CDATA[A. Hoen & Company Lithography Plant]]> 2020-10-21T10:22:59-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

A. Hoen & Company Lithography Plant

Subject

Industry

Creator

Sierra Hallmen

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

In 1834, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Weber and their nephew, August Hoen, carried pieces of lithographic machinery, lithographic stones, and ink powders from Coblenz, Germany, to America. Upon arriving in America in 1835, Weber founded the E. Weber and A. Hoen Lithography Company. So began 146 years of continuous business for the company, which garnered it the title of the oldest lithographic firm in the United States. After Weber’s death in 1845, August took over and renamed the business A. Hoen & Co., Lithographers and Printers. Hoen helped create an international name for the company. He patented his litho-caustic method of printing, which required citric acid and gum Arabic to be laid over the etching in order to allow the lithographer to see the progress of his work. The company became most readily known for its maps, art reproductions, medical charts, and posters. Also, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, A. Hoen & Co. printed Confederate money. In 1880, the firm operated from a building on Lexington Street next to City Hall. The six-floor building owned by A. Hoen & Co. held ten additional businesses aside from the lithographers. At around the same time that Hoen received patents for producing halftone prints, the Lexington Street building caught fire. The top three floors and the roof suffered severe damage. The fire cost the Hoen Company roughly $150,000 in machinery and building damage. It also cost the Southern Electric Company, occupying an office in the building, approximately $75,000. Immediately after the fire, the firm moved to a temporary location in order to finish their government contracts, which preceded the establishment of the Government Printing Office. In 1902, A. Hoen & Co. moved to a new location on Biddle Street. The Lexington Street building was sold to the city in 1921 and after a failed renovation plan, it was torn down in 1926. During their time in operation at the Biddle Street location, the building had four different additions constructed to give the company more space. In honor of Aloys Senefelder (inventor of the lithographic process), the Senefelder symbol and the words “Sara Loquuntur” (which meant “the stones tell”) adorned the entrance. In 1969, the Maryland Historical Society and A. Hoen & Co. partnered to provide an exhibition of Hoen Lithographers’ history. A. Hoen & Co. succumbed to bankruptcy in 1981 after the pressure of a decline in business, the failure of a merger effort, an adverse tax ruling, and a union disagreement.The building on Biddle Street, after sitting empty for years, is planned for redevelopment. A joint venture aims to turn the abandoned building into housing for nurses, office space, and a café. The building’s 85,000 square feet will cost roughly $17 million to renovate. The redevelopment broke ground in the spring of 2018 and is expected to be complete in 2019.

Watch on this site!

Related Resources

Official Website

Street Address

2101 E. Biddle Street, Baltimore, MD 21213
]]>
/items/show/397 <![CDATA[Second Chance Architectural Salvage]]> .
Today, Second Chance trains and hires unemployed individuals in deconstruction, salvage, warehousing, retail, operations, and customer service. Second Chance works with local and regional architects, builders, developers, and property owners to identify residential and commercial buildings entering the demolition phase and remove all reusable elements through deconstruction for waste diversion and resale to consumers.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Second Chance Architectural Salvage

Description

Second Chance was founded in 2001 to develop solutions to sustainable employment and environmental issues. In 2003, a training and employment program was created to address the pressing needs of Baltimore City residents who were facing multiple challenges to employment, good wages, and progressive skills
.
Today, Second Chance trains and hires unemployed individuals in deconstruction, salvage, warehousing, retail, operations, and customer service. Second Chance works with local and regional architects, builders, developers, and property owners to identify residential and commercial buildings entering the demolition phase and remove all reusable elements through deconstruction for waste diversion and resale to consumers.

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

Creating Jobs and Reusing Architectural Treasures

Story

Second Chance was founded in 2001 to develop solutions to sustainable employment and environmental issues. In 2003, a training and employment program was created to address the pressing needs of Baltimore City residents who were facing multiple challenges to employment, good wages, and progressive skills
.
Today, Second Chance trains and hires unemployed individuals in deconstruction, salvage, warehousing, retail, operations, and customer service. Second Chance works with local and regional architects, builders, developers, and property owners to identify residential and commercial buildings entering the demolition phase and remove all reusable elements through deconstruction for waste diversion and resale to consumers.

Official Website

Street Address

1700 Ridgely Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

Access Information

Open to the public seven days a week.
]]>
/items/show/396 <![CDATA[Baltimore Streetcar Museum]]> 2020-10-21T10:13:58-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

Baltimore Streetcar Museum

Subject

Transportation

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Baltimore welcomed public mass transit in 1859 as the city ballooned to 170,000 people and the need for affordable transportation swelled. As transit technology raced ahead from horse drawn carts to steam, cable and eventually electric powered cars, Baltimore's system expanded to seemingly every corner of the city. After World War II, however, streetcars in Baltimore (and across the country) went downhill fast as automobile companies bought and retired street car lines and returning soldiers and their families moved to federally subsidized homes in the suburbs and out of reach of the streetcar systems. By 1963, Baltimore had run its last streetcar. Only a few years later, members of the National Railroad Historical Society's Baltimore Chapter founded the Baltimore Streetcar Museum in 1966. They located a permanent home along Falls Road at a former Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad station and moved the collections there from Lake Roland Park in 1970. Volunteers worked hours to install track and overhead wire so that visitors can again ride along a stretch of Falls Road. With a unique track gauge (5 ft. 4 1/2 in.) and historic cars, the ride is more than a fair likeness to what a passenger would have experienced in 1885 as Baltimore launched the first electric streetcar system in the country from downtown to a bustling mill village in Baltimore County called Hampden.

Watch for more on Baltimore's streetcar system!

Official Website

Street Address

1901 Falls Road, Baltimore, MD 21211

Access Information

The museum is open Sunday, 12:00 pm to 5:00pm from March to December; Saturday and Sunday, 12:00 pm to 5:00pm from June to October.
]]>
/items/show/395 <![CDATA[Meadow Mill]]> 2019-06-16T10:08:17-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

Meadow Mill

Subject

Industry

Creator

Nathan Dennies

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Lede

Meadow Mill was built by industrialist William E. Hooper in 1877 during one of the most prosperous periods for industry in the Jones Falls Valley. Designed by architect Reuben Gladfelter, it represented the finest of Baltimore mill design. A striking belfry, landscaped paths, and tidy gardens signaled Hooper’s prominence among business leaders.

Story

Baltimore industrialist William E. Hooper built Meadow Mill in 1877 during one of the most prosperous periods for industry in the Jones Falls Valley. Designed by architect Reuben Gladfelter, the structure represents the finest of Baltimore mill design. The striking belfry, landscaped paths, and tidy gardens all signaled Hooper’s prominence among business leaders.

Over the next century, workers at Meadow Mill manufactured twine, lamp wicks, cotton duck (a heavy canvas used primarily for ship sails), and, when during the building’s time as a London Fog factory, raincoats. When the building was new, Meadow Mill was one of four factories comprising Hooper’s Woodberry Manufacturing Company, including Mt. Washington Mill, Woodberry Mill, Clipper Mill and Park Mill. In 1899, the mill became part of the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company, a textile empire that manufactured as much as eighty percent of the world's cotton duck.

Entire families worked long hours to make ends meet. In 1880, children under the age of fifteen made up a quarter of the mill’s workforce. After 1900, the state began to enforce child labor laws that required permits for children under fifteen years old, but children could still expect to work twelve hour shifts for little pay, and at the sacrifice of an education. In 1906, thirty-five girls with no union leader or organization walked out of Meadow Mill demanding a pay increase. Fifty bobbin boys followed the girls out on strike. In the end, the girls' received a raise from fourteen dollars to sixteen dollars a month. The boys received nothing. Their fathers, seeing their boys out of work and not making any money, scolded them and sent them back to work.

By 1915, the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company broke apart and was reestablished as Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Mills. The new company controlled mills in Hampden-Woodberry, South Carolina and Alabama. Production boomed during World War I but, by the 1920s, the company began shifting its operations to the South where wages were low and workers less organized. Meadow Mill continued operations through the Depression then boosted production again during World War II to fill military commissions for canvas. Following the war, the company converted the mill for synthetic textile production, which required sealing the windows and installing air conditioning to regulate temperature and humidity.

In 1960, Meadow Mill was sold to Londontown Manufacturing Company, the makers of London Fog Raincoats. Company founder Israel Meyers started in the outerwear business in the 1920s and popularized military-style trench coats for civilians. London Fog went on to become the leading men's raincoat manufacturer of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978, the Sun referred to Baltimore as the “nation's raincoat capital,” reporting that Londontown employed 1,500 people in the city including 600 at the Meadow Mill plant. Londontown also continued the textile manufacturing tradition in the building, making proprietary polyester-cotton blends.

In 1972, Hurricane Agnes hit and flooded the factory causing $148,000 in damages. The company's signature raincoats could be found floating down the torrent of the Jones Falls. In 1976, the company was bought by Interco, a conglomerate based in St. Louis. In 1988, the Baltimore Economic Development Corp. struck a deal to move the London Fog factory from Meadow Mill to the Park Circle Business Park in northwest Baltimore. The company closed the Meadow Mill factory and sold the building to developer Himmelrich Associates. The new owners adapted the building for a wide mix of uses including offices, a gym, a restaurant, and a bakery.

As for London Fog, the company struggled through the 1990s. Interco filed for bankruptcy in 1991. The company renamed London Fog Inc. and tried opening its own retail locations, which ended up angering the company's biggest customers—department stores. By 1995, London Fog had shuttered five of its Baltimore area factories and shifted production overseas. In 1997, London Fog announced plans to close its last U.S. factory in northwest Baltimore, citing competition from cheaper overseas labor. Two years later, London Fog filed for bankruptcy protection. Founder Israel Meyers died the same year.

Official Website

Street Address

3600 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore, MD 21211
]]>
/items/show/394 <![CDATA[The Hour Haus]]> 2019-01-18T22:54:38-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

The Hour Haus

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The Hour Haus formerly served as a cornerstone for Baltimore's Station North Arts & Entertainment District. Inside you found rehearsal rooms for musicians, a recording studio, a large stage and a revolving cast of colorful characters. For over twenty-five years the Hour Haus survived as functioning music and art space. Unfortunately, the Hour Haus closed in July 2015.

The Hour Haus was once the headquarters of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad. The "Ma and Pa" once operated passenger and freight trains on its original line between York and Baltimore, Maryland, from 1901 until the 1950s. The Ma and Pa gained popularity with railroad enthusiasts in the 1930s and 1940s for its antique equipment and curving, picturesque right-of-way through the hills of rural Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Street Address

135 W. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201
]]>
/items/show/393 <![CDATA[Oak Street Garage]]>
The evolution of the automobile-related services that it housed and the controversy its construction generated illustrate the striking shifts in the urban landscape and economic fortunes it created in the boom years of the 1920s. The Piraino family owned the one-story storage garage through 1969 and actively operated it most of those years. Neely and Ensor Auto. Co., formerly a high-end carriage manufacturer, was the building's first tenant, occupying a portion of the original garage and all of its addition.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Oak Street Garage

Description

The Oak Street Garage, constructed in 1924 and enlarged in 1927, illustrates the dramatic impact of the automobile. Built and operated by first-generation Italian immigrants, the Oak Street Garage reflects the far-reaching impact of the automobile on Baltimore's urban fabric and economic life.

The evolution of the automobile-related services that it housed and the controversy its construction generated illustrate the striking shifts in the urban landscape and economic fortunes it created in the boom years of the 1920s. The Piraino family owned the one-story storage garage through 1969 and actively operated it most of those years. Neely and Ensor Auto. Co., formerly a high-end carriage manufacturer, was the building's first tenant, occupying a portion of the original garage and all of its addition.

Relation

Adapted from the .

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The Oak Street Garage, constructed in 1924 and enlarged in 1927, illustrates the dramatic impact of the automobile. Built and operated by first-generation Italian immigrants, the Oak Street Garage reflects the far-reaching impact of the automobile on Baltimore's urban fabric and economic life.

The evolution of the automobile-related services that it housed and the controversy its construction generated illustrate the striking shifts in the urban landscape and economic fortunes it created in the boom years of the 1920s. The Piraino family owned the one-story storage garage through 1969 and actively operated it most of those years. Neely and Ensor Auto. Co., formerly a high-end carriage manufacturer, was the building's first tenant, occupying a portion of the original garage and all of its addition.

Related Resources

Adapted from the .

Street Address

2600 N. Howard Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
]]>
/items/show/392 <![CDATA[Peabody Heights Brewery]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Peabody Heights Brewery

Subject

Food & Drink

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The site of Peabody Heights Brewery, also home to RavenBeer, Public Works Ale, and Full Tilt Brewing, was the site of Oriole Park from 1916 to 1944. Before this, the ballpark was home to the Baltimore Terrapins of the short-lived Federal League and was called Terrapin Park. During this time, the Orioles were playing in a ballpark literally across the street. When the Federal League went defunct in 1915, the Orioles took over Terrapin Park.

The ballpark was made out of wood, which led to its demise on July 3, 1944. The ballpark caught fire, destroying everything inside. The cause of the fire is unknown, but it was speculated at the time to have been a discarded cigarette.

Peabody Heights Brewery took over the site in 2012, making it the first brewery to be established in Baltimore City in over thirty years. In the late 1800s. there were about 40 breweries in the city, but by the 1970s, most had closed down. Owing to a national resurgence of interest in craft-brewing, breweries in Baltimore have begun to flourish again.

Official Website

Street Address

401 E. 30th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
]]>
/items/show/390 <![CDATA[Union Mill]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Union Mill

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

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.

Official Website

Street Address

1500 Union Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21211
]]>
/items/show/389 <![CDATA[Baltimore Museum of Industry]]> 2020-10-14T17:02:05-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

Baltimore Museum of Industry

Subject

Museums
Industry

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

In the late 1970s, Mayor William Donald Schaefer proposed the creation of a museum to tell the story of Baltimore industry across two centuries of American history. Even before they the new museum found a building, Baltimore City officials organized an exhibit at the Baltimore Convention Center, and put up a display about the museum-to-be during the Baltimore City Fair. Roger B. White, a young city employee hired under the Comprehensive Employment Training Act, led the search to find an appropriate location, acquire collections, and recruit private donors. White found a Platt & Company oyster cannery building on the 1400 block of Key Highway and began the process of turning the old factory into a museum. Once one of eighty canneries operating around Baltimore’s harbor, Platt & Company on Key Highway was one of the last canneries left. The museum developed exhibits on three major periods of Baltimore’s industrial growth: 1790-1830, 1870-1900, and 1920 up through the 1970s. White acquired equipment from the American Brewery and furnishings from the local Read’s Drug Store chain. In November 1981, after years of preparation, the doors opened to the public at the renovated oyster cannery reborn as the Baltimore Museum of Industry. By December, Baltimore City had awarded the museum $25,000 to pay for the cost of school field trips and, in 1984, the city decided to purchase the site. The museum originally leased the building for around $25,000 a year but, after the property sold to Baltimore City, the rent climbed to $85,000. The museum organized a corporate membership drive in order to cover the rising rent. At the same time, the museum sought to triple the amount of space in the facility while adding a pier and waterfront improvements. In 1996, with only half of the renovation complete, Alonzo Decker Jr., former Black & Decker chief executive, donated $1 million to the fund. With this single donation, the museum surpassed its' $3.5 million goal and finished the renovation. For his gift, the Museum inscribed Decker’s name on the wall of the main gallery. Today, the museum thrives as an immersive experience of permanent and temporary exhibits that detail and demonstrate the industrial history of Baltimore. The exhibits include machinery from a cannery, garment loft, machine shop, pharmacy and print shop and the collections include around a million artifacts. With a pier and waterfront area, the museum often hosts weddings and corporate events as well.

Watch our on this museum!

Official Website

Street Address

1415 Key Highway, Baltimore, MD 21230
]]>
/items/show/388 <![CDATA[Jim Rouse Center of the American Visionary Art Museum]]>
When the museum was rehabilitated the architects reused portions of the timber framing as a design element, and also brought in other creative materials.The project explores the use and reuse of found objects. Glass bottle bottoms, barrel staves, exposed brick, refurbished windows and neon signs bring an eclectic look to the building, while both recycling used materials and allowing the building to receive historic tax credit certification.

The project received a Preservation Award from 91ĘÓƵ honoring the American Visionary Art Museum, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Inc., J. Vinton Schafer & Sons, Inc., Burdette, Koehler, Murphy & Associates, Hope Furrer Associates, Inc., Miller, Beam, & Paganelli, Inc., Cramptin/Dunlop Architectural Lighting Services LLC, and Alain Jaramillo.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Jim Rouse Center of the American Visionary Art Museum

Subject

Architecture

Description

Formerly home to a whiskey barrel warehouse and the offices of the Baltimore Copper Paint Company, the Jim Rouse Center of the American Visionary Art Museum serves as a prime example of adaptive reuse in the City of Baltimore. Built in the 1930s, the simple brick exterior housed an intricate timber framework to support the whiskey barrels, walls, and roof. After many years of vacancy, the building was given new life as part of the American Visionary Art Museum, which recognizes the work of untrained artists.

When the museum was rehabilitated the architects reused portions of the timber framing as a design element, and also brought in other creative materials.The project explores the use and reuse of found objects. Glass bottle bottoms, barrel staves, exposed brick, refurbished windows and neon signs bring an eclectic look to the building, while both recycling used materials and allowing the building to receive historic tax credit certification.

The project received a Preservation Award from 91ĘÓƵ honoring the American Visionary Art Museum, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Inc., J. Vinton Schafer & Sons, Inc., Burdette, Koehler, Murphy & Associates, Hope Furrer Associates, Inc., Miller, Beam, & Paganelli, Inc., Cramptin/Dunlop Architectural Lighting Services LLC, and Alain Jaramillo.

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Lede

Formerly home to a whiskey barrel warehouse and the offices of the Baltimore Copper Paint Company, the Jim Rouse Center of the American Visionary Art Museum serves as a prime example of adaptive reuse in the City of Baltimore.

Story

Built in the 1930s, the simple brick exterior housed an intricate timber framework to support the whiskey barrels, walls, and roof. After many years of vacancy, the building was given new life as part of the American Visionary Art Museum, which recognizes the work of untrained artists.

When the museum was rehabilitated the architects reused portions of the timber framing as a design element, and also brought in other creative materials.The project explores the use and reuse of found objects. Glass bottle bottoms, barrel staves, exposed brick, refurbished windows and neon signs bring an eclectic look to the building, while both recycling used materials and allowing the building to receive historic tax credit certification.

The project received a Preservation Award from 91ĘÓƵ honoring the American Visionary Art Museum, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Inc., J. Vinton Schafer & Sons, Inc., Burdette, Koehler, Murphy & Associates, Hope Furrer Associates, Inc., Miller, Beam, & Paganelli, Inc., Cramptin/Dunlop Architectural Lighting Services LLC, and Alain Jaramillo.

Official Website

Street Address

800 Key Highway, Baltimore, MD 21230
]]>
/items/show/387 <![CDATA[Eastern Avenue Sewage Pumping Station]]>
The Baltimore Public Works Museum occupied the building from 1982 up until the museum closed in 2010. The museum gave visitors a behind the scenes look at how a large city provides public works utilities to its citizens. The museum modeled phone lines, street lights, drains and pipes, and sewage disposal.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Eastern Avenue Sewage Pumping Station

Description

Completed in 1912, the Eastern Avenue Sewage Pumping Station opened as a critical engine Baltimore’s then brand-new sewer system. City engineers built the station to house enormous steam-driven Corliss pumps capable of pumping up to 27,500,000 gallons of sewage a day. The utility of the building did not prohibit a bit of style. The engineers graced the structure with copper roof, gables and cupola turning it into a handsome monument to the growth and development of the city celebrated by proud civic leaders. In 1960, the city replaced the aging steam-driven pumps with electric turbines. The building continues to operate as a pumping station up through the present.

The Baltimore Public Works Museum occupied the building from 1982 up until the museum closed in 2010. The museum gave visitors a behind the scenes look at how a large city provides public works utilities to its citizens. The museum modeled phone lines, street lights, drains and pipes, and sewage disposal.

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Completed in 1912, the Eastern Avenue Sewage Pumping Station opened as a critical engine of Baltimore’s then brand-new sewer system. City engineers built the station to house enormous steam-driven Corliss pumps capable of pumping up to 27,500,000 gallons of sewage a day. The utility of the building did not prohibit a bit of style. The engineers graced the structure with copper roof, gables, and a cupola, turning it into a handsome monument to the growth and development of the city celebrated by proud civic leaders. In 1960, the city replaced the aging steam-driven pumps with electric turbines. The building continues to operate as a pumping station up through the present.

The Baltimore Public Works Museum occupied the building from 1982 up until the museum closed in 2010. The museum gave visitors a behind the scenes look at how a large city provides public works utilities to its citizens. The museum modeled phone lines, street lights, drains and pipes, and sewage disposal.

Street Address

751 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21202
]]>
/items/show/386 <![CDATA[American Brewery Building]]> 2020-10-16T12:10:44-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

American Brewery Building

Subject

Industry

Creator

Johns Hopkins

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The American Brewery Building at 1701 North Gay Street might be the most “Baltimore” of all buildings in the city. It is in the style of High Victorian architecture, as so much of our city was built, and is just plain quirky. Since 1973, the 1887 J.F. Weisner and Sons brewery building (later known as the American Brewery) stood as a hulking shell lording over a distressed neighborhood. Its restoration is a noteworthy symbol of optimism for the historic structure and the surrounding community. The conversion of the brewery into a health care and community center for Humanim more than fits the organization’s motto: “To identify those in greatest need and provide uncompromising human services.” The project won a 2010 91ĘÓƵ Preservation Award for Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design recognizing Humanim, Inc., architects Cho Benn Holback + Associates, and contractor Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.

Watch our on this building!

Official Website

Street Address

1701 N. Gay Street, Baltimore MD 21213
]]>
/items/show/385 <![CDATA[International Seamen’s Union Headquarters, Seamen’s Defense Committee and National Maritime Union]]>
During the early 1900s, workers on board shipping vessels faced harsh living conditions. Ship owners could maximized space for cargo by crowding seamen into tiny living spaces so that quarters more like cowsheds than housing, although, according one physician’s report, cattle had it better. When on land, seamen were often forced to stay close to the water in overcrowded boarding houses that were segregated by race. The boarding house owners often supplied food, liquor, and prostitutes at high rates such that seamen often became indebted to them.

The boarding house owners also served as agents, hiring seamen on behalf of the ship owners such that they became “both the seamen’s debtor and his employer”; their control over the labor force made them powerful players in regulating wages and working conditions. Their control, however, was hardly absolute; ship owners had the ultimate control over their workers. Seamen constituted an ethnically and racially diverse workforce, and ship owners often used ethnic and racial antagonisms to divide workers in the effort to thwart unionization. For example, they would give jobs that were traditionally the purview of a specific ethnicity to members of other groups in order to create social schisms. But the nature of their work introduced seamen to people around the world, and many became more open to different cultures and political ideas as a result.

Seamen established their first labor organization, the International Seamen’s Union (ISU), in 1895 under the American Federation of Labor; but, this organization was only open to skilled workers, and their exclusivity limited the union’s strength and weakened strikes. In the 1930s, longshoremen and ship and dock workers formed the Maritime Workers Industrial Union (MWIU), a left-leaning organization that opposed racial discrimination and worked for higher wages, better working conditions, and fair hiring practices.

The ISU, however, viewed the MWIU as a threat and often worked to thwart their efforts during the early years of the Depression. In the mid-1930s, seamen worked to push the ISU to become inclusive and adopt a more militant position by forming the Seamen’s Defense Committee (SDC), which adopted the MWIU’s policy of organizing all workers, regardless of position, race, or nationality, in October 1936. That same year, four hundred ISU members from Baltimore joined an SDC strike in support of workers belonging to the Maritime Federation of the Pacific. Meeting at this hall, they voted to use the strike to advance their own demands for ship owners to hire workers—regardless of race or nationality—at the union halls, an eight hour workday, pay for overtime work, and for an end to port work on Saturday afternoons and Sundays; eight hundred workers showed up for picket duty on the first day.

The strike endured despite outbreaks of violence on both sides, but support began to waver as the weeks dragged on. The SDC decided to put pressure on Washington, for the National Labor Relations Board was in the midst of determining the legitimacy of the ISU’s contract with ship owners. On January 18, 1937, a massive group of seamen from ports spanning the Atlantic and Gulf coasts marched all day and night in the cold and rain from Baltimore to Washington in what became known as the Midnight March of the Baltimore Brigade. When they reached Washington, they were joined by thousands more demonstrators. Delegates met with every major head of the government, even President Roosevelt. This gave them the “moral victory” that the strikers sought and led to the strike’s conclusion. The strikers voted to return to work on January 25, ending the 87-day strike. The NLRB gave the seamen a favorable ruling, and during the spring of 1937 the National Maritime Union officially formed, with a constitution stipulating the organization of all seamen, “without regard to race, creed, and color.”]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

International Seamen’s Union Headquarters, Seamen’s Defense Committee and National Maritime Union

Description

At the corner of Broadway and Eastern Avenue, stands a modest three-story brick building with corbeling below a flat roof supported by heavy brackets and full cornice line. Over the course of the twentieth century, this building was home to three of the most important unions for Baltimore’s maritime industry: the International Seamen’s Union, the Seamen’s Defense Committee, and the National Maritime Union.

During the early 1900s, workers on board shipping vessels faced harsh living conditions. Ship owners could maximized space for cargo by crowding seamen into tiny living spaces so that quarters more like cowsheds than housing, although, according one physician’s report, cattle had it better. When on land, seamen were often forced to stay close to the water in overcrowded boarding houses that were segregated by race. The boarding house owners often supplied food, liquor, and prostitutes at high rates such that seamen often became indebted to them.

The boarding house owners also served as agents, hiring seamen on behalf of the ship owners such that they became “both the seamen’s debtor and his employer”; their control over the labor force made them powerful players in regulating wages and working conditions. Their control, however, was hardly absolute; ship owners had the ultimate control over their workers. Seamen constituted an ethnically and racially diverse workforce, and ship owners often used ethnic and racial antagonisms to divide workers in the effort to thwart unionization. For example, they would give jobs that were traditionally the purview of a specific ethnicity to members of other groups in order to create social schisms. But the nature of their work introduced seamen to people around the world, and many became more open to different cultures and political ideas as a result.

Seamen established their first labor organization, the International Seamen’s Union (ISU), in 1895 under the American Federation of Labor; but, this organization was only open to skilled workers, and their exclusivity limited the union’s strength and weakened strikes. In the 1930s, longshoremen and ship and dock workers formed the Maritime Workers Industrial Union (MWIU), a left-leaning organization that opposed racial discrimination and worked for higher wages, better working conditions, and fair hiring practices.

The ISU, however, viewed the MWIU as a threat and often worked to thwart their efforts during the early years of the Depression. In the mid-1930s, seamen worked to push the ISU to become inclusive and adopt a more militant position by forming the Seamen’s Defense Committee (SDC), which adopted the MWIU’s policy of organizing all workers, regardless of position, race, or nationality, in October 1936. That same year, four hundred ISU members from Baltimore joined an SDC strike in support of workers belonging to the Maritime Federation of the Pacific. Meeting at this hall, they voted to use the strike to advance their own demands for ship owners to hire workers—regardless of race or nationality—at the union halls, an eight hour workday, pay for overtime work, and for an end to port work on Saturday afternoons and Sundays; eight hundred workers showed up for picket duty on the first day.

The strike endured despite outbreaks of violence on both sides, but support began to waver as the weeks dragged on. The SDC decided to put pressure on Washington, for the National Labor Relations Board was in the midst of determining the legitimacy of the ISU’s contract with ship owners. On January 18, 1937, a massive group of seamen from ports spanning the Atlantic and Gulf coasts marched all day and night in the cold and rain from Baltimore to Washington in what became known as the Midnight March of the Baltimore Brigade. When they reached Washington, they were joined by thousands more demonstrators. Delegates met with every major head of the government, even President Roosevelt. This gave them the “moral victory” that the strikers sought and led to the strike’s conclusion. The strikers voted to return to work on January 25, ending the 87-day strike. The NLRB gave the seamen a favorable ruling, and during the spring of 1937 the National Maritime Union officially formed, with a constitution stipulating the organization of all seamen, “without regard to race, creed, and color.”

Creator

Rachel Donaldson

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

At the corner of Broadway and Eastern Avenue, stands a modest three-story brick building with corbeling below a flat roof supported by heavy brackets and full cornice line. Over the course of the twentieth century, this building was home to three of the most important unions for Baltimore’s maritime industry: the International Seamen’s Union, the Seamen’s Defense Committee, and the National Maritime Union.

During the early 1900s, workers on board shipping vessels faced harsh living conditions. Ship owners could maximize space for cargo by crowding seamen into tiny living spaces. Quarters were more like cowsheds than housing, although, according to one physician’s report, cattle had it better. When on land, seamen were often forced to stay close to the water in overcrowded boarding houses that were segregated by race. The boarding house owners often supplied food, liquor, and prostitutes at such high rates the seamen often became indebted to them.

The boarding house owners also served as agents, hiring seamen on behalf of the ship owners, so they became “both the seamen’s debtor and his employer.” Their control over the labor force made them powerful players in regulating wages and working conditions; however, this it was hardly absolute. Ship owners had the ultimate control over their workers. Seamen constituted an ethnically and racially diverse workforce, and ship owners often used ethnic and racial antagonisms to divide workers in the effort to thwart unionization. For example, they would give jobs that were traditionally the purview of a specific ethnicity to members of other groups in order to create social schisms. But the nature of their work introduced seamen to people around the world, and many became more open to different cultures and political ideas as a result.

Seamen established their first labor organization, the International Seamen’s Union (ISU), in 1895 under the American Federation of Labor; but, this organization was only open to skilled workers, and their exclusivity limited the union’s strength and weakened strikes. In the 1930s, longshoremen and ship and dock workers formed the Maritime Workers Industrial Union (MWIU), a left-leaning organization that opposed racial discrimination and worked for higher wages, better working conditions, and fair hiring practices.

The ISU, however, viewed the MWIU as a threat and often worked to thwart their efforts during the early years of the Depression. In the mid-1930s, seamen worked to push the ISU to become inclusive and adopt a more militant position. Consequently, the Seamen’s Defense Committee (SDC) was formed in October 1936 and it adopted the MWIU’s policy of organizing all workers, regardless of position, race, or nationality. That same year, four hundred ISU members from Baltimore joined an SDC strike in support of workers belonging to the Maritime Federation of the Pacific. Meeting at this hall, they voted to use the strike to advance their own demands for ship owners to hire workers—regardless of race or nationality—at the union halls, an eight hour workday, pay for overtime work, and for an end to port work on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Eight hundred workers showed up for picket duty on the first day.

The strike endured despite outbreaks of violence on both sides, but support began to waver as the weeks dragged on. The SDC decided to put pressure on Washington, for the National Labor Relations Board was in the midst of determining the legitimacy of the ISU’s contract with ship owners. On January 18, 1937, a massive group of seamen from ports spanning the Atlantic and Gulf coasts marched all day and night in the cold and rain from Baltimore to Washington in what became known as the Midnight March of the Baltimore Brigade. When they reached Washington, they were joined by thousands more demonstrators. Delegates met with every major head of the government, even President Roosevelt. This gave them the “moral victory” that the strikers sought and led to the strike’s conclusion. The strikers voted to return to work on January 25, ending the 87-day strike. The NLRB gave the seamen a favorable ruling, and during the spring of 1937 the National Maritime Union officially formed, with a constitution stipulating the organization of all seamen, “without regard to race, creed, and color.”

Street Address

1702 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21231
]]>
/items/show/384 <![CDATA[Speaker's Corner on Eastern Avenue]]>
For these activists—immigrant and native-born—public speaking became the best way to advance their cause. Nathaniel Parks, a retired steel worker and former resident of Sparrow’s Point, describes one way that activists exercised their right to free speech during the early 1930s:

“The company never did allow people to come in and talk union at Sparrow’s Point. It was an island…And it happened that the car pulled up a half a block from this corner…And a lady got out [of the car] and a man got out, and they walked over to this iron [street light] pole, and then she handcuffed him to the pole. And then he started putting in his spiel about union: what its advantages was, what they were trying to do. And then, the police, they were in a quarrel; they didn’t know what to do. They ran around trying to find a hacksaw or something to get him untied from this pole. And he got his spiel before they got him. And then when they put him in this patrol wagon and carried him on the other side of the bridge, he was still with his head out of the window…blasting out just about what the union was in for, what the people was in for. Oh, it was really nice to see what was going to happen the way the company was treating men on the jobs in those days…”

During the 1930s and 1940s, a traffic island at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Lehigh Street became a hotspot for pro-union soapbox speakers. Many of these speakers were women, the daughters and wives of steel workers. Most of the work in the steel mills at this time was restricted to men. Male labor activists, therefore, faced the potential of unemployment and blacklists if they were caught organizing. Women, however, did not face this direct threat and used their voices to rally support for the union. Besides speaking in a public arena like the traffic median on Eastern Avenue, women also went door-to-door and backyard-to-backyard, preaching to women about the union cause as they went about their housework.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Speaker's Corner on Eastern Avenue

Subject

Labor

Description

In the 1930s, when the managers at Bethlehem Steel remained staunchly opposed unionization, labor activists at Sparrow’s Point faced real challenges. According to Ellen Pinter, men couldn’t wear union buttons for fear of losing their jobs. During the struggles for unionization in the mills, several of the organizers were foreign-born, residents of neighborhoods like Highlandtown in the southeastern section of the city along Eastern Avenue. These activists tried to organize their fellow workers by speaking to them in their native languages in places where ethnic workers would congregate.

For these activists—immigrant and native-born—public speaking became the best way to advance their cause. Nathaniel Parks, a retired steel worker and former resident of Sparrow’s Point, describes one way that activists exercised their right to free speech during the early 1930s:

“The company never did allow people to come in and talk union at Sparrow’s Point. It was an island…And it happened that the car pulled up a half a block from this corner…And a lady got out [of the car] and a man got out, and they walked over to this iron [street light] pole, and then she handcuffed him to the pole. And then he started putting in his spiel about union: what its advantages was, what they were trying to do. And then, the police, they were in a quarrel; they didn’t know what to do. They ran around trying to find a hacksaw or something to get him untied from this pole. And he got his spiel before they got him. And then when they put him in this patrol wagon and carried him on the other side of the bridge, he was still with his head out of the window…blasting out just about what the union was in for, what the people was in for. Oh, it was really nice to see what was going to happen the way the company was treating men on the jobs in those days…”

During the 1930s and 1940s, a traffic island at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Lehigh Street became a hotspot for pro-union soapbox speakers. Many of these speakers were women, the daughters and wives of steel workers. Most of the work in the steel mills at this time was restricted to men. Male labor activists, therefore, faced the potential of unemployment and blacklists if they were caught organizing. Women, however, did not face this direct threat and used their voices to rally support for the union. Besides speaking in a public arena like the traffic median on Eastern Avenue, women also went door-to-door and backyard-to-backyard, preaching to women about the union cause as they went about their housework.

Creator

Rachel Donaldson

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

In the 1930s, when the managers at Bethlehem Steel remained staunchly opposed to unionization, labor activists at Sparrow’s Point faced real challenges. According to Ellen Pinter, men couldn’t wear union buttons for fear of losing their jobs. During the struggles for unionization in the mills, several of the organizers were foreign-born residents of neighborhoods like Highlandtown in the southeastern section of the city along Eastern Avenue. These activists tried to organize their fellow workers by speaking to them in their native languages in places where ethnic workers would congregate.

For these activists, immigrant and native-born, public speaking became the best way to advance their cause. Nathaniel Parks, a retired steelworker and former resident of Sparrow’s Point, describes one way that activists exercised their right to free speech during the early 1930s:

“The company never did allow people to come in and talk union at Sparrow’s Point. It was an island…And it happened that the car pulled up a half a block from this corner…And a lady got out [of the car] and a man got out, and they walked over to this iron [street light] pole, and then she handcuffed him to the pole. And then he started putting in his spiel about union: what its advantages was, what they were trying to do. And then, the police, they were in a quarrel; they didn’t know what to do. They ran around trying to find a hacksaw or something to get him untied from this pole. And he got his spiel before they got him. And then when they put him in this patrol wagon and carried him on the other side of the bridge, he was still with his head out of the window…blasting out just about what the union was in for, what the people was in for. Oh, it was really nice to see what was going to happen the way the company was treating men on the jobs in those days…”

During the 1930s and 1940s, a traffic island at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Lehigh Street became a hotspot for pro-union soapbox speakers. Many of these speakers were women, the daughters and wives of steel workers. Most of the work in the steel mills at this time was restricted to men. Male labor activists, therefore, faced the potential of unemployment and blacklists if they were caught organizing. Women, however, did not face this direct threat and used their voices to rally support for the union. Besides speaking in a public arena, like the traffic median on Eastern Avenue, women also went door-to-door and backyard-to-backyard, preaching to women about the union cause as they went about their housework.

Street Address

Eastern Avenue and Lehigh Street, Baltimore, MD 21224
]]>
/items/show/383 <![CDATA[Dundalk Town Center]]>
Bethlehem Steel, which had recently purchased the mills and shipyards at Sparrows Point, faced an increased demand for ships as the United States mobilized for the first World War. The need for shipyard workers and the labor force at the plant grew. In Dundalk, workers could purchase their own homes through payroll deductions enabling lower-tier managers, foremen, and top-tier skilled workers to become homeowners. Originally, Bethlehem Steel sought to replicate Roland Park, an upscale neighborhood in northern Baltimore; but the demands of wartime prompted the company to rely on the United States Navy to undertake the construction. Expediency was key so the Navy opted to build duplexes which could be built much faster than the planned single-family homes.

Almost everything about Dundalk was influenced by its connection to the shipbuilding industry—the curved streets extending northward from the town center form the shape of a boat. Street names include Flagship and Midship. In just two years, the population of Dundalk reached 2,000; it would grow to 8,000 over the course of the next decade. In 1924, Bethlehem Steel created the Dundalk Company, a corporation to oversee the company’s real estate. Even as it grew, Dundalk remained a segregated white community and closely tied to the operations on Sparrow’s Point.]]>
2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Dundalk Town Center

Description

From the 1890s through the early 1970s, Bethlehem Steel owned and operated Sparrow’s Point as a company town located right by the expansive mill complex. In 1916, however, Bethlehem Steel departed from the model of company-owned housing when it commissioned the construction of Dundalk. Initially, the company erected five hundred gray stucco and slate roofed homes on tree-lined streets between Dundalk Avenue and Sollers Point Road. In the center of the community stood a shopping center surrounded by a park.

Bethlehem Steel, which had recently purchased the mills and shipyards at Sparrows Point, faced an increased demand for ships as the United States mobilized for the first World War. The need for shipyard workers and the labor force at the plant grew. In Dundalk, workers could purchase their own homes through payroll deductions enabling lower-tier managers, foremen, and top-tier skilled workers to become homeowners. Originally, Bethlehem Steel sought to replicate Roland Park, an upscale neighborhood in northern Baltimore; but the demands of wartime prompted the company to rely on the United States Navy to undertake the construction. Expediency was key so the Navy opted to build duplexes which could be built much faster than the planned single-family homes.

Almost everything about Dundalk was influenced by its connection to the shipbuilding industry—the curved streets extending northward from the town center form the shape of a boat. Street names include Flagship and Midship. In just two years, the population of Dundalk reached 2,000; it would grow to 8,000 over the course of the next decade. In 1924, Bethlehem Steel created the Dundalk Company, a corporation to oversee the company’s real estate. Even as it grew, Dundalk remained a segregated white community and closely tied to the operations on Sparrow’s Point.

Creator

Rachel Donaldson

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Bethlehem Steel owned and operated Sparrow’s Point as a company town near the expansive mill complex from the 1890s through the early 1970s. In 1916, however, Bethlehem Steel departed from the model of company-owned housing when it commissioned the construction of Dundalk. Initially, the company erected five hundred gray stucco and slate roofed homes on tree-lined streets between Dundalk Avenue and Sollers Point Road. In the center of the community stood a shopping center surrounded by a park.

Bethlehem Steel, which had recently purchased the mills and shipyards at Sparrows Point, faced an increased demand for ships as the United States mobilized for the first World War. The need for shipyard workers and the labor force at the plant grew. In Dundalk, workers could purchase their own homes through payroll deductions, enabling lower-tier managers, foremen, and top-tier skilled workers to become homeowners. Originally, Bethlehem Steel sought to replicate Roland Park, an upscale neighborhood in northern Baltimore; but the demands of wartime prompted the company to rely on the United States Navy to undertake the construction. Expediency was key so the Navy opted to build duplexes which could be built much faster than the planned single-family homes.

Almost everything about Dundalk was influenced by its connection to the shipbuilding industry—the curved streets extending northward from the town center form the shape of a boat. Street names include Flagship and Midship. In just two years, the population of Dundalk reached 2,000; it would grow to 8,000 over the course of the next decade. In 1924, Bethlehem Steel created the Dundalk Company, a corporation to oversee the company’s real estate. Even as it grew, Dundalk remained a segregated white community and closely tied to the operations on Sparrow’s Point.

Official Website

Street Address

Dundalk Avenue, Dundalk, MD 21222
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/items/show/382 <![CDATA[Turner Station]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Turner Station

Creator

Rachel Donaldson

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Tucked away in the southeastern corner of Baltimore County, and separated from the rest of Sparrow’s 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:

“It 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.”

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’s development belongs largely to Mr. Anthony Thomas (1857-1931) and Dr. Joseph Thomas (1885-1963), Anthony Thomas’ son.

Related Resources

Official Website

Street Address

23 Rayme Road, Dundalk, MD 21222
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