/items/browse?output=atom&tags=Industrial%20buildings <![CDATA[Explore 91ĘÓƵ]]> 2025-03-12T11:45:26-04:00 Omeka /items/show/569 <![CDATA[Gunpowder Copper Works]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:57-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Gunpowder Copper Works

Subject

Industry

Creator

Sally Riley
Evart F. Cornell

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

Early Industry on the Gunpowder Falls

Story

The Gunpowder Copper Works, a once-prominent factory located along the Great Gunpowder Falls near Glen Arm, Maryland is the second oldest copper works in the United States. The factory operated from around 1811 to 1858 turning blocks of copper into thin sheets used for covering the bottoms of ships and boats to increase their speed and durability. Possibly the most intact industrial site of its kind along the Great Gunpowder Falls, the factory is located immediately past Factory Road on northbound Harford Road.

The Gunpowder Copper Works was established around 1811 by Levi Hollingsworth, a veteran of the American Revolution and a prosperous merchant from Cecil County with major investments in shipbuilding. On a trip to England, Levi Hollingsworth studied the refining, milling and rolling of copper and brought back extensive machinery he needed to set up a factory in America. He likely established the factory soon after leasing a mill from Dr. Thomas Love and Caleb Dorsey Goodwin on this site in 1811.

The Copper Works factory complex included two sets of sheet rolls, two refining furnaces, and later, and a cupola furnace for treating the slag. A water-wheel furnished the power. With a factory among in the fertile hills of Baltimore County, workmen eventually took to farming when business slowed. When the crops needed attention, workers left rolling and milling for another day.

During the War of 1812, the Gunpowder Copper Works supplied the U.S. Navy with sheathing, bolts and nails. Levi Hollingsworth joined the Fifth Maryland Regiment in 1814 and was wounded in September fighting the British at the Battle of North Point.

Shortly after end of the war, the dome on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. was rebuilt using copper sheathing rolled by the the Gunpowder Copper Works using ore mined in Frederick County, Maryland. The Capitol Dome contract brought the mill national recognition as a copper supplier. The profit from the project allowed Levi Hollingsworth to buy out the Ridgely and Goodwin interests in the Gunpowder Copper Works in 1816. By the time Hollingsworth died 1822, the mill was the only copper refinery in operation south of the Mason-Dixon Line. By 1850, the Gunpowder Copper Works had produced between 550,000 and 1.5 million pounds of copper sheeting.

After Levi Hollingsworth's death, the Copper Works sold to John McKim, Jr. and Sons. Operation of the copper works continued under the management of Isaac McKim until his death in 1838. Isaac McKim linked the Gunpowder Copper Works to the family's shipbuilding supply business on Smith's Wharf in Baltimore's harbor, now the site of the National Aquarium.

After Isaac's death, his nephews bought out the other beneficiaries and ran the Copper Works. Haslett and William McKim were both active businessmen in Baltimore, serving on the boards of the Baltimore Dispensary, the Peabody Institute, the B&O Railroad, and the Maritime Insurance Company. William McKim served as an aide-de-camp to Commander John Spear Smith during the Baltimore Bank Riot in 1835. His uncle, Isaac, had served a similar position to Commander Smith's father, General Sam Smith, during the War of 1812.

In September 1843, a notice in the Baltimore American, advertised the copper works for lease including:

"a sheet mill with two pairs of rollers, two pairs of large shears operated by a water wheel, two annealing furnaces, a tilt and bolt mill, a tilt-hammer operated by a water wheel, two furnaces, a blacksmith shop, carpenter and turning shop and a nail machine. Two refining shops with a slag furnace, coal houses and homes for workmen. The Dam is substantial and in good condition, and the water power is among the best in the vicinity of Baltimore. The works are on a good turnpike about 10 miles above Baltimore."

In 1858, major rain storms in mid-June caused significant flooding in the area and along the Great Gunpowder Falls, which destroyed the dam at the Copper Works. The dam was rebuilt, but operation ceased later that year and the factory closed. The owners rented the property rented to a tenant operator in 1861 but it likely remained closed during the Civil War. The Maryland General Assembly incorporated the Gunpowder Copper Works as a state facility in 1864, naming Levi Hollingsworth's son-in-law, William Pinkney Whyte, president of the operation, and Enoch Pratt, one of the incorporators. Despite Whyte's prominence as a politician and Pratt's success in business, the newly incorporated copper works soon failed. The City of Baltimore bought the 303 acres of land on which the copper works sat in 1866 as the possible site for a future reservoir.

In 1887, the Baltimore City Water Board sold the copper works to Henry Reier, who sold it to Henry E. Shimp for his "bending works at the Old Copper Factory on the Gunpowder," where he manufactured wheel rims, wagon-wheel spokes and wagon shafts. The facility never processed copper again, but Shimp's Eagle Steam Saw and Bending Mills continued operating into the twentieth century.

J. Alexis Shriver, Harford County landowner, bought the property in 1910 and sold the plant's water wheels during a World War I scrap drive. By the mid-twentieth century, the facility stood in ruins but was acquired by the state as part of the new Gunpowder Falls State Park.

There are at least four buildings from the original complex still standing along Harford Road just above Gunpowder River bridge. These include the Copper Works House with outbuildings, the Tilt-hammer House, the Foreman's House, and the spring house and bridge.

Constructed about 1815, the Gunpowder Copper Works House is a one-and-a-half-story stone building reportedly used as a dormitory for the workers at the nearby plant. By about 1900, this building had been converted to a stable by J. Alexis Shriver then later converted to a residence. The small stone Foreman's House was built around 1815. Two more stories and a large shed dormer were added to the building later. The house sold to Henry Reier in 1877 and his family held it until 1938. The Tilt-hammer House, built about 1815, may have been the coppersmith's house at one time. When it served as the tilt-hammer house, this building is where copper was pounded into sheets. The building became a residence after 1925 and the only original parts of the structure are the exterior stone walls.

Today, all of these buildings are in use as residences or offices. They are located within the Gunpowder Historic District and sit on land which has been incorporated into Gunpowder State Park.

Sponsor

Related Resources

Official Website

Street Address

11043 Harford Road, Glen Arm, MD 21057
]]> /items/show/566 <![CDATA[L. Gordon and Son Factory]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:57-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

L. Gordon and Son Factory

Subject

Industry

Creator

Caileigh Stirling

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

The L. Gordon & Son factory is a sixty-four thousand square foot industrial building on the corner of South Paca Street and West Cross Street, a few blocks from M&T Stadium. It is a three-story building of lightly-ornamented but utilitarian brick, with a Star of David design in the brickwork at the top. In the past century, the factory has housed at least four family businesses and each one has left their mark.

Fr. Bergner & Co. erected the factory on Paca Street, designed by architect J. Edward Sperry, in 1905. Two brothers, Frederick and William Bergner, ran the company for over 25 years manufacturing picture frames, photo albums, and other small luxuries. William died in 1902, leaving behind his parents, three brothers, and wife. It was Frederick who moved the business to the new factory and continued to oversee the company until his death in 1919.

The onset of the Great Depression, however, was a greater challenge than fire. In 1930, the company began leasing out the top floor of the Paca and Cross Street factory. In 1931, the company sold two tracts of land adjoining the Paca and Cross Street factory, one to the city to expand Sterrett Street, the other to the Catholic Church. By 1933, at the trial for a fraud case involving forty-two shares of Bergner & Co. stock, the prosecuting attorney implied that “the company consisted only of an empty warehouse.” In March 1933, Fr. Bergner & Co.’s remaining assets were seized, and in 1934 the court-appointed trustee sold the Paca and Cross Street factory to The Hopkins Place Savings Bank, who had held the mortgage for $47,000.By 1940, L. Gordon & Son was operating out of the Paca & Cross Street factory and they purchased the building in 1942. Paca and Cross Street was at least L. Gordon & Son’s third factory in the fifty years since its founding, but the firm would remain in that building for the next sixty years.

L. Gordon & Son was, as the name suggests, a family-owned business. Louis Gordon started the enterprise in 1891, making paper boxes by hand at his house on Orleans Street. He was a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his son Paul was, from the time he was a young man, an active participant in several Jewish and Zionist organizations in Baltimore.

Given his spiritual and political affiliations, it seems likely that Gordon installed the six-pointed star design at the top of the outer wall of the factory around the time they acquired the building. In 1897, the six-pointed star, known as a 'Magen David', was adopted as a symbol by the First Zionist Congress. From that point forward, the star became a symbol of Jewishness in general in the early twentieth century. The crest of Hadassah, the women’s branch of the American Zionist movement and the organization to which Paul Gordon's wife belonged, included the Magen David in their crest design at least as early as 1915.

After Paul's death the company passed to his son, Bertram I. Gordon. In 1951, L. Gordon & Son bought several lots surrounding their factory from Barnett L. Silver, who had spent the last decade buying them up from individual homeowners. Besides buying up half of the block at Paca & Cross Street, Gordon & Son also added a warehouse in 1967 at 2020 Hollins Ferry Road.

In May 1985, Bertram Gordon died of a heart attack. His widow Marjorie Gordon took over the company after his death, and it remained in operation at least through 1991. Marjorie Gordon died in 2009 at the age of eighty. The company sold the factory to Toybox, LLC, in 1997, and it has remained largely empty ever since.

Street Address

1050 S. Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
]]> /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/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/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/79 <![CDATA[Copycat Building]]>
Maryland native William Painter invented the "crown cork" bottle cap - a predecessor of the bottle cap still common today - at Murrill & Keizer's machine shop on Holliday Street in 1891. A prolific inventor with over 85 patents, Painter established the Crown Cork & Seal Company in 1892 and started producing both bottle caps and bottling machines. The business quickly outgrew their factory on East Monument Street and moved north to Guilford Avenue in September 1897 into a grand six-floor factory with handsome Victorian details.

As with all industrial enterprises in Baltimore, their growth was driven by the labor of thousands of men, women and children who worked at the factory and frequently organized to seek improved conditions and wages. In 1899, for example, 65 boys between the ages of 13 and 18 employed feeding the machines that placed the cork seals into the caps went on strike. Company officials remained unconcerned, remarking that the "places of any who may not come back will be easily filled by other boys." The firm continued to expand, adding a machine shop (now known as the Lebow Building) next door on Oliver Street in 1914, and building new factory buildings in Highlandtown where they moved in the 1930s.

The building on Guilford Avenue remained in use by a wide range of tenants from the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s through a whole host of over twenty industrial enterprises occupying the building in the 1960s. In 1983, Charles Lankford purchased the building and converted the industrial space to art studios. Soon artists began illegally converting their studio spaces into apartments and by the mid-1980s, the Copycat began to host a vital community of local artists and musicians. The building remains an anchor in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District - rezoned as "mixed-used" to accommodate the diverse tenants - and offers a unique perspective on the history of industry in central Baltimore.]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:49-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Copycat Building

Subject

Architecture
Industry

Description

For over twenty years, the Copycat - named for the roof top billboard of the Copycat printing company - has offered studio space and living space for countless artists, musicians, and performers. The history of creativity in this local landmark has a long history extending back to the construction of the Copycat Building in the 1890s as a factory complex for Baltimore's Crown Cork & Seal Company.

Maryland native William Painter invented the "crown cork" bottle cap - a predecessor of the bottle cap still common today - at Murrill & Keizer's machine shop on Holliday Street in 1891. A prolific inventor with over 85 patents, Painter established the Crown Cork & Seal Company in 1892 and started producing both bottle caps and bottling machines. The business quickly outgrew their factory on East Monument Street and moved north to Guilford Avenue in September 1897 into a grand six-floor factory with handsome Victorian details.

As with all industrial enterprises in Baltimore, their growth was driven by the labor of thousands of men, women and children who worked at the factory and frequently organized to seek improved conditions and wages. In 1899, for example, 65 boys between the ages of 13 and 18 employed feeding the machines that placed the cork seals into the caps went on strike. Company officials remained unconcerned, remarking that the "places of any who may not come back will be easily filled by other boys." The firm continued to expand, adding a machine shop (now known as the Lebow Building) next door on Oliver Street in 1914, and building new factory buildings in Highlandtown where they moved in the 1930s.

The building on Guilford Avenue remained in use by a wide range of tenants from the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s through a whole host of over twenty industrial enterprises occupying the building in the 1960s. In 1983, Charles Lankford purchased the building and converted the industrial space to art studios. Soon artists began illegally converting their studio spaces into apartments and by the mid-1980s, the Copycat began to host a vital community of local artists and musicians. The building remains an anchor in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District - rezoned as "mixed-used" to accommodate the diverse tenants - and offers a unique perspective on the history of industry in central Baltimore.

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

For over twenty years, the Copycat - named for the roof top billboard of the Copycat printing company - has offered studio space and living space for countless artists, musicians, and performers. The history of creativity in this local landmark has a long history extending back to the construction of the Copycat Building in the 1890s as a factory complex for Baltimore's Crown Cork & Seal Company.

Maryland native William Painter invented the "crown cork" bottle cap - a predecessor of the bottle cap still common today - at Murrill & Keizer's machine shop on Holliday Street in 1891. A prolific inventor with over 85 patents, Painter established the Crown Cork & Seal Company in 1892 and started producing both bottle caps and bottling machines. The business quickly outgrew their factory on East Monument Street and moved north to Guilford Avenue in September 1897 into a grand six-floor factory with handsome Victorian details.

As with all industrial enterprises in Baltimore, their growth was driven by the labor of thousands of men, women and children who worked at the factory and frequently organized to seek improved conditions and wages. In 1899, for example, 65 boys between the ages of 13 and 18 employed feeding the machines that placed the cork seals into the caps went on strike. Company officials remained unconcerned, remarking that the "places of any who may not come back will be easily filled by other boys." The firm continued to expand, adding a machine shop (now known as the Lebow Building) next door on Oliver Street in 1914, and building new factory buildings in Highlandtown where they moved in the 1930s.

The building on Guilford Avenue remained in use by a wide range of tenants from the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s through a whole host of over twenty industrial enterprises occupying the building in the 1960s. In 1983, Charles Lankford purchased the building and converted the industrial space to art studios. Soon artists began illegally converting their studio spaces into apartments and by the mid-1980s, the Copycat began to host a vital community of local artists and musicians. The building remains an anchor in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District - rezoned as "mixed-used" to accommodate the diverse tenants - and offers a unique perspective on the history of industry in central Baltimore.

Official Website

Street Address

1501 Guilford Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21202
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