/items/browse?output=atom&tags=Lombard%20Street <![CDATA[Explore 91Ƶ]]> 2025-03-12T11:52:39-04:00 Omeka /items/show/372 <![CDATA[Jewish Immigrants on Lombard Street]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:54-05:00

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Title

Jewish Immigrants on Lombard Street

Creator

Jewish Museum of Maryland

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Story

In the early 1900s, more than 600 people lived in the 70 houses on just a single block of Lombard Street between Lloyd and Central Avenue. For example, two households lived in 1139 E. Lombard Street in 1910. The Bergers consisted of Morris, a 55-year-old pants presser; his 50-year-old wife Eva; their 18-year-old daughter Fannie, a coat operator; their newlywed son, 26-year-old Harris, a pants maker; and Harris’s wife Rebecca, age 20. The Sundicks included 36-year-old Max, a pants presser; his 35-year-old wife Sarah; and their four children ages 6 months to 10 years.

As they made the difficult economic and cultural adjustment to life in America, struggling Jewish immigrants like the Bergers and Sundicks often relied on the many charitable organizations run by uptown German Jews. One of the best known, the Hebrew Friendly Inn and Aged Home (which later became Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital) began in 1890. In the early 1900s, it was located at 1153 E. Lombard Street, just east of Weiss Deli.

On the site of what is today Lenny’s Deli, Louis Herman operated a shvitz bad (Russian bath) in the early 1900s at 1116 E. Lombard. While very few homes featured hot water or indoor bathrooms, going to the Russian baths was generally an indulgence reserved for special occasions. For most residents, bathing meant a trip to the Walters Free Public Bath on High Street near Pratt (demolished 1953) where a nickel bought a shower, soap and a towel.

Street Address

1153 E. Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
]]> /items/show/368 <![CDATA[Attman's Delicatessen and Corned Beef Row]]> 2019-11-30T22:04:52-05:00

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Title

Attman's Delicatessen and Corned Beef Row

Creator

Jewish Museum of Maryland

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Story

Attman’s Delicatessen at 1019 E. Lombard Street is one of just a few delis the remain at the heart of the old Lombard Street market that once stretched from Albemarle Street to Central Avenue. Imagine New York’s famed Lower East Side, minus the tenements. Here, Russian immigrants became fish sellers offering fresh carp in white-tiled pools; poultry dealers selling live chickens, ducks, and geese from wooden cages; bakers and grocers; dry goods merchants, and shochets (a slaughterer who follows Jewish religious laws when killing animals).

Food has a long history at 1019 E. Lombard Street. After starting their business on Baltimore Street in 1915, Harry and Ida Attman purchased this building in the early 1930s. They bought it from Nathan and Elsie Weinstein, whose grocery business also dated back to 1915. Before that, around 1910, Russian-born Joseph Lusser sold fish and poultry here. His family shared the house with two other Russian Jewish families.

The opposite side of Lombard Street was occupied from the 1930s through the 1970s by the well-known Tulkoff’s horseradish plant, now located in Dundalk. Another local fixture, David Yankelove, sold chickens on the north side of the street until the 1980s. David’s father, Louis, had been a butcher here beginning in the early 1900s.

The next row down from Attman’s at 1005-1011 E. Lombard is an early block of houses with steeply pitched roofs that suggest they were built before the Civil War. The deep-back buildings are later additions, constructed to accommodate immigrant families in search of affordable housing. These houses speak volumes about commercial life on the turn-of-the century Lombard Street. From the 1910 census, we learn that 1105 housed a grocer, 1007 was an Italian-owned fruit store, 1009 featured a butter and egg business, and 1011 was a poultry dealer.

The empty space to the right of Attman’s was formerly Smelkinson’s Dairy. During the Riots of 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Smelkinson’s burned to the ground. However, most of Lombard Street survived the riots with little damage and the street remained vital until the late 1970s, when a combination of inner city decline and the rise of the suburban shopping mall caused its small family businesses to close.

Official Website

Street Address

1019 E. Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
]]> /items/show/152 <![CDATA[Baltimore Arena]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:51-05:00

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Title

Baltimore Arena

Subject

Architecture

Creator

Johns Hopkins

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Story

In 1961, the cornerstone of the Baltimore Civic Center (as it was then called) was laid, enclosing a time capsule with notes from President John F. Kennedy, Maryland Governor Millard Tawes, and Baltimore Mayor Harold Grady. Located on the site of the former Old Congress Hall where the Continental Congress met in 1776, the arena opened a year later to great acclaim as part of a concerted effort to revitalize downtown Baltimore. Through ups and downs and a number of renovations, the arena has become woven into the fabric of the city.

In its early years, Baltimore’s professional hockey team (the Baltimore Clippers) played here, as did the Baltimore Bullets, the city’s former basketball team. In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered a speech called "Race and the Church" at the arena as part of a gathering of Methodist clergy, and in 1989 the arena hosted the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships. And then there are the concerts. On Sunday, September 13, 1964 the Beatles played back-to-back shows at the arena to throbbing young Baltimoreans, and the arena is reportedly one of the only indoor venues in the U.S. still standing where the Fab Four played. In the 1970s, Led Zeppelin played the arena and shot a few scenes for their movie “The Song Remains the Same” backstage. Also in the 1970s, the Grateful Dead performed many shows here, including a performance where they played the song “The Other One” for a reportedly record forty minutes.

Finally in 1977, Elvis Presley performed at the arena just weeks before he died. The tickets for the show sold out in 2 ½ hours, and although there were no untoward incidents reported while The King was onstage, he did apparently lose his lunch in a corridor in the back.

Official Website

Street Address

201 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
]]> /items/show/82 <![CDATA[Bromo Seltzer Tower]]>
The tower was built by Captain Isaac Emerson, a chemist and inventor of the headache remedy and alleged hangover cure, Bromo Seltzer, as part of the company's factory. Emerson was a wealthy and well regarded Baltimorean, known as a generous philanthropist and world traveler. He had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the Spanish-American war and a post-war visit to Florence's tower on the Palazzo Vecchio provided the inspiration for the design of this tower created by local architect Joseph Evans Sperry.

Though the factory was torn down in 1969, the 289 foot tower survived several threats of demolition and in 2007 philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown worked with Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts to transform the structure into 33 artists' studios. The tower is open once a month for public 91Ƶ and while much has changed visitors can still ride the 1911 Otis elevator to the clock room on the 15th floor and view the still-functioning clock works.]]> 2020-10-16T11:23:18-04:00

Dublin Core

Title

Bromo Seltzer Tower

Subject

Architecture
Industry

Description

While few remember the slogan of the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Company - "If you keep late hours for Society's sake Bromo-Seltzer will cure that headache" - the iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower has been a Baltimore landmark since its construction in 1911. At 15 stories, the tower made the Bromo-Sltzer factory the tallest building in the city boasting a four-dial gravity clock that was the largest in the world (bigger, even, than London's Big Ben) and an illuminated, rotating 51-foot blue steel bottle that immediately secured the tower's spot as a favorite of city residents and visitors alike. Ship captains traveling up the bay reportedly used the bottle as a beacon to guide them toward the Light Street docks and the removal of the blue bottle in 1936 is still a sore point with many Baltimoreans.

The tower was built by Captain Isaac Emerson, a chemist and inventor of the headache remedy and alleged hangover cure, Bromo Seltzer, as part of the company's factory. Emerson was a wealthy and well regarded Baltimorean, known as a generous philanthropist and world traveler. He had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the Spanish-American war and a post-war visit to Florence's tower on the Palazzo Vecchio provided the inspiration for the design of this tower created by local architect Joseph Evans Sperry.

Though the factory was torn down in 1969, the 289 foot tower survived several threats of demolition and in 2007 philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown worked with Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts to transform the structure into 33 artists' studios. The tower is open once a month for public 91Ƶ and while much has changed visitors can still ride the 1911 Otis elevator to the clock room on the 15th floor and view the still-functioning clock works.

Creator

Theresa Donnelly

Relation

, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Lede

While few remember the slogan of the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Company—"If you keep late hours for Society's sake Bromo-Seltzer will cure that headache"—the iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower has been a Baltimore landmark since its construction in 1911.

Story

While few remember the slogan of the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Company—"If you keep late hours for Society's sake Bromo-Seltzer will cure that headache"—the iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower has been a Baltimore landmark since its construction in 1911. At fifteen stories, the tower made the Bromo-Seltzer factory the tallest building in the city. The tower boasted a four-dial gravity clock that was the largest in the world (bigger, even, than London's Big Ben) and an illuminated, rotating 51-foot blue steel bottle. The iconic design immediately secured the tower's spot as a favorite of city residents and visitors alike. Ship captains traveling up the bay reportedly used the bottle as a beacon to guide them toward the Light Street docks and the removal of the blue bottle in 1936 is still a sore point with many Baltimoreans. The tower was built by Captain Isaac Emerson, a chemist, and inventor of the headache remedy and alleged hangover cure, Bromo-Seltzer. Emerson was a wealthy and well-regarded Baltimorean, known as a generous philanthropist and world traveler. He had been a lieutenant in the Navy during the Spanish-American war and a post-war visit to Florence's tower on the Palazzo Vecchio provided the inspiration for the design of this tower created by local architect Joseph Evans Sperry. Though the factory was torn down in 1969, the 289-foot tower survived several threats of demolition and in 2007 philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown worked with Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts to transform the structure into 33 artists' studios. The tower is open once a month for public 91Ƶ and while much has changed visitors can still ride the 1911 Otis elevator to the clock room on the 15th floor and view the still-functioning clock works.

Watch our on this building!

Related Resources

, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts

Official Website

Street Address

21 S. Eutaw Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
]]> /items/show/27 <![CDATA[Carroll Mansion]]>
In addition to being the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first Catholic senator, Carroll was fabulously wealthy. He was instrumental in founding the B&O Railroad, the First and Second National Banks, and gave lavishly to build the Baltimore Basilica and Georgetown University. Before his death in 1832 in the Mansion, Carroll entertained frequently for people who came to learn about the Revolution first-hand. John H.B. Latrobe, son of the famous early American architect Benjamin Latrobe, called it "the finest house in Baltimore at the time."

The building has a history as varied as its most prominent occupant. It has been a saloon, a house for Jewish immigrants, a sweatshop, a school, and a recreation center. The City first boarded it up in 1954, then restored it and operated as a history museum until 1997, when it was again boarded up. In 2002, the non-profit organization Carroll Museums, Inc. reopened the Mansion and has been restoring it since. It is currently open for 91Ƶ and to rent for events.]]> 2020-10-16T14:45:22-04:00

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Title

Carroll Mansion

Subject

Architecture
Historic Preservation
Museums

Description

Step inside this grand residence and find 18-foot ceilings, a spiral staircase, and ornate chandeliers. Few Americans could have afforded the Carroll Mansion in the early 1800s when Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, bought this Lombard Street house for his daughter and son-in-law. Carroll, however, was in no way an ordinary citizen.

In addition to being the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first Catholic senator, Carroll was fabulously wealthy. He was instrumental in founding the B&O Railroad, the First and Second National Banks, and gave lavishly to build the Baltimore Basilica and Georgetown University. Before his death in 1832 in the Mansion, Carroll entertained frequently for people who came to learn about the Revolution first-hand. John H.B. Latrobe, son of the famous early American architect Benjamin Latrobe, called it "the finest house in Baltimore at the time."

The building has a history as varied as its most prominent occupant. It has been a saloon, a house for Jewish immigrants, a sweatshop, a school, and a recreation center. The City first boarded it up in 1954, then restored it and operated as a history museum until 1997, when it was again boarded up. In 2002, the non-profit organization Carroll Museums, Inc. reopened the Mansion and has been restoring it since. It is currently open for 91Ƶ and to rent for events.

Creator

Johns Hopkins

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Story

Step inside this grand residence and find 18-foot ceilings, a spiral staircase, and ornate chandeliers. Few Americans could have afforded the Carroll Mansion in the early 1800s when Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, bought this Lombard Street house for his daughter and son-in-law. Carroll, however, was in no way an ordinary citizen. In addition to being the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first Catholic senator, Carroll was fabulously wealthy. He was instrumental in founding the B&O Railroad, the First and Second National Banks, and gave lavishly to build the Baltimore Basilica and Georgetown University. Before his death in 1832 in the Mansion, Carroll entertained frequently for people who came to learn about the Revolution first-hand. John H.B. Latrobe, son of the famous early American architect Benjamin Latrobe, called it "the finest house in Baltimore at the time." The building has a history as varied as its most prominent occupant. It has been a saloon, a house for Jewish immigrants, a sweatshop, a school, and a recreation center. The City first boarded it up in 1954, then restored it and operated as a history museum until 1997, when it was again boarded up. In 2002, the non-profit organization Carroll Museums, Inc. reopened the Mansion and has been restoring it since. It is currently open for 91Ƶ and to rent for events.

Watch our on this building!

Official Website

Street Address

800 E. Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
]]> /items/show/11 <![CDATA[Union Square]]>
In 1867, the Donnells left Willowbrook (now the site of Steuart Hill Academic Academy), and the house was given to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The building served as a convent and home for wayward girls until its demolition in the mid-1960s. The oval dining room was removed from the mansion and recreated in the Baltimore Museum of Art where it remains a part of the American Decorative Arts wing.

This demolition sparked a renewed awareness of historic places and their importance to the community, as residents organized to form the Union Square Association and received historic district designation for the area in 1970.]]> 2018-11-27T10:33:48-05:00

Dublin Core

Title

Union Square

Subject

Parks and Landscapes

Description

Union Square began as part of Willowbrook, the John Donnell Federal-period estate, which he purchased in 1802 from Baltimore merchant and later Mayor Thorowgood Smith. In 1847, the Donnell family heirs donated the 2.5-acre lot in front of the manor house to the City of Baltimore to be designated as a public park. Beginning in the 1850s, the Donnell family started to work with a number of speculative builders to develop the neighborhood.

In 1867, the Donnells left Willowbrook (now the site of Steuart Hill Academic Academy), and the house was given to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The building served as a convent and home for wayward girls until its demolition in the mid-1960s. The oval dining room was removed from the mansion and recreated in the Baltimore Museum of Art where it remains a part of the American Decorative Arts wing.

This demolition sparked a renewed awareness of historic places and their importance to the community, as residents organized to form the Union Square Association and received historic district designation for the area in 1970.

Curatescape Story Item Type Metadata

Subtitle

The Willowbrook estate becomes an urban oasis

Story

Union Square began as part of Willowbrook, the John Donnell Federal-period estate, which he purchased in 1802 from Baltimore merchant and later Mayor Thorowgood Smith. In 1847, the Donnell family heirs donated the two-and-a-half-acre lot in front of the manor house to the City of Baltimore to be designated as a public park. Beginning in the 1850s, the Donnell family started to work with a number of speculative builders to develop the neighborhood.

In 1867, the Donnells left Willowbrook (now the site of Steuart Hill Academic Academy), and the house was given to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The building served as a convent and home for wayward girls until its demolition in the mid-1960s. The oval dining room was removed from the mansion and recreated in the Baltimore Museum of Art where it remains a part of the American Decorative Arts wing.

This demolition sparked a renewed awareness of historic places and their importance to the community, as residents organized to form the Union Square Association and received historic district designation for the area in 1970.

Related Resources

Street Address

Hollins Street and S. Stricker Street, Baltimore, MD 21223
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