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.

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.

3600 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore, MD 21211

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 “an infringement on our territorial rights without due recourse to a public hearing.” 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.

Eben Dennis, underbelly, November 20, 2012

1221 W. 36th Street, Baltimore, MD 21211