By Sydney Kempf
In 1894, William G. Scarlett founded the William G. Scarlett Seed Company. Born in Baltimore in 1873, George D. Scarlett was a true entrepreneur who chased the American dream. At twenty-one, George Scarlett began working in the seed industry by鈥�

By Sydney Kempf
In the twentieth century, Pier 8 in Baltimore鈥檚 Inner Harbor and then Broadway Pier in Fells Point used to be the launching point for the steamboats of the Wilson Line. The Wilson Line extended from Philadelphia to Wilmington to Baltimore and ran a鈥�

By Sydney Kempf
Archibald Hilton Bull founded the A. H. Bull & Co. in 1902. The company originally ran steamship lines from New York to Florida. Eventually A. H. Bull & Co. expanded to include an office in Baltimore. In the early 1900s, when Baltimore鈥檚鈥�

By Sydney Kempf
In 1879, Charles T. Bagby and A. D. Rivers founded the Bagby and Rivers Furniture Company, the predecessor to the Bagby Furniture Company. Bagby and Rivers manufactured furniture and in their 1882 furniture catalog, the company advertises mainly鈥�

By David Stysley
For 50 years, the Hampden and Ideal Theaters operated within a few doors of each other in the 900 block of 36th Street in Hampden. Julius Goodman, who ran the Ideal for many years, described the competition: 鈥淲ell, we were friendly competitors. We鈥�

By David Stysley
In the Progressive Age (1890-1920), movie theaters were a new and popular form of entertainment. They were being built all over Baltimore, and Hampden was no different. In 1908, Marion Pearce and Philip Scheck (who already owned six theatres) opened鈥�

By David Stysley
Hampden Hall was an important part of Baltimore even before the neighborhood of Hampden was a part of Baltimore. Six years before Hampden was incorporated into Baltimore City, Hampden Hall was constructed as a meeting hall for Civil War veterans in鈥�

By David Stysley
The story of Hampden鈥檚 name can be traced back to St. Mary鈥檚 Community Center. Originally established as St. Mary鈥檚 Episcopal Church, the congregation started meeting in Hampden in the 1850s. Under the leadership of Henry Mankin this congregation鈥�

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
General Ship Repair maintains the rich shipbuilding tradition so long associated with the South Baltimore neighborhoods of Federal Hill and Locust Point. Charles 鈥淏uck鈥� Lynch founded the company in 1924, moved to this location in 1929, lost the鈥�

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
The Key Highway Yards along the southern side of the Inner Harbor played a pivotal role in Baltimore鈥檚 shipbuilding industry from the 1820s until 1982. Passersby today see almost no traces of this industrial history at the upscale Ritz Carlton and鈥�

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
The Hercules Shipbuilding Company, housed in this brick building, was an active player in Baltimore鈥檚 maritime industry, building vessels for commercial and leisure use as well as wartime naval construction and repair. Jonathan and Eleanor LaVeck鈥�

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
All that remains of the Chesapeake Paperboard Co. complex today is the water tower. The site is now known as McHenry Row, a 90,000 square foot mixed use development project that contains 250 luxury apartments, offices, and street level shops at the鈥�

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
The Domino Sugar refinery (and its iconic red neon sign) is one of the last major working industries along Baltimore's inner harbor. Raw sugar arrives at the plant in giant ships and barges, and is unloaded and refined to become white, powdered,…

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
The Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation manufactured chemical components for many industrial applications. Quaker merchant Isaac Tyson Jr. established the company that became Allied Chemical in 1828, mining chromium ore and supplying chrome pigment鈥�

By The Laurel Cemetery Memorial Task Force
Laurel Cemetery was incorporated in 1852 as Baltimore鈥檚 first nondenominational cemetery for African Americans. The location chosen was Belle Air Avenue (now Belair Road), on a hill long used as a burial ground for free and enslaved servants of…

By Baltimore Museum of Industry
Today the site of Under Armour's world headquarters, five of these buildings used to house Procter & Gamble's Baltimore Plant: Process Building (1929), the Soap Chip Building (1929), the Bar Soap Building (1929), the Warehouse (1929),…

By Richard F. Messick
Imagine a horde of Christmas elves attacking a chorus line of Roman legionaries. Now, if you wish to see this fever-dream in person, take a trip to A.T. Jones & Sons on N. Howard Street. They have a warehouse filled with costumes from any period鈥�

By Molly Ricks
Clifton Park is Baltimore鈥檚 fourth oldest country landscape park after Druid Hill, Patterson, and Carroll Parks. Around 1800, Baltimore merchant Henry Thompson purchased the rural property and began transforming the farmhouse into a federal style鈥�

By Molly Ricks
Today, Wyman Park is a complex of highly-contrasting park spaces, half-hearted links, and a variety of associated urban edges. The 1904 Olmsted Brothers report singled out the Wyman Park section with its 鈥渙ld beech trees and bold topography鈥� as 鈥渢he鈥�

By Molly Ricks
For almost two centuries, Baltimore鈥檚 Patterson Park has preserved its historic integrity while serving the recreational needs of an urban population with varied cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. The dramatic geology, topography, and鈥�

By Molly Ricks
In south Baltimore, Latrobe Park still has traces of Olmsted design elements. Originally only 6 acres in size, this park was created to serve the working class neighborhoods on the Locust Point peninsula. Unlike much larger plans for Patterson and鈥�

By Richard F. Messick
Alexander Fruman emigrated to Baltimore from Eastern Europe in 1917 with few possessions. Among them was a handsaw that helped him start a business building wooden windows and doors in 1919, in a shop at the corner of Stiles Street and S. Central鈥�

By Richard F. Messick
Like many old family-owned businesses, Lakein鈥檚 Jewelers was started by a newly arrived immigrant, 29-year-old Isadore Lakein, who arrived in the United States from Russia in 1912 with his wife Anna and their son Samuel. A second son, David, was…

By Alan Gibson & Eli Pousson
In April 1942, less than six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, a group of Elkridge residents established a new volunteer fire department. The new fire department was one of many initiatives in U.S. cities and towns…

By Alan Gibson & Eli Pousson
The handsome Victorian on Elkridge鈥檚 Main Street now known as the Brumbaugh House was built around 1870 and began serving as a doctor's office in the nineteenth century. The home鈥檚 most famous resident, Dr. Benjamin Bruce Brumbaugh, started his own鈥�

By Cindy Kelly
Artist Jim Sanborn鈥檚 first public sculpture, the Patapsco River Project was created as part of the Baltimore Sculpture Symposium sponsored by the city and administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development during the summer of 1977.鈥�

By Eli Pousson
Martick鈥檚 Restaurant Francais on Mulberry Street is a place of fond memories where Baltimore enjoyed fine food, lively music, and art for nearly a century. The once-famous restaurant started in 1917 as a small grocery store established by Harry and鈥�

By Chuck Howell
For over sixty years, tall broadcasting towers have stood high above the old homes in Baltimore鈥檚 Woodberry neighborhood. The two tallest towers now standing on聽Television Hill beam out the signals of four television stations and three radio…

By Eli Pousson
The little-known history of Baltimore's Interstate 395 (I-395) and Martin Luther King Boulevard, Jr. Boulevard offers a reminder of the years of contentious planning efforts that ended with the construction of these roadways in the early 1980s.鈥�