Faded Hints of the Past Series: William Hollingsworth Machine Company

Ghost Ad, 227-229 Holliday St
(CharmCityHistory.com)

  The second in Faded Hints of the Past series focuses upon a brick building with a near fully obscure ghost ad, nestled between the Brink's Building (built circa 1947) and the Peale Museum (built 1814), on the east side of the 200 block (227-229 Holliday Street).  Departing from a recent City Hall visit, I came across this vertically placed white backgrounded ghost ad reading "ollingsworth..."  A few other clues were even less visible and barely recognizable from weathering and time, it diagonally reads "Rotary Press."

Early Morning Software,
Current Occupant (Oct 2013)

  A business by the name of Early Morning Software Incorporated currently occupies the building at this address having signage above the door.  In comparison to the Peale Museum adjacent to the south, the building's brick facade seems to have been less maintained and one would be inclined to guess it to have been built earlier, but this is likely not the case.
  After some investigative work and with the help of Sanborn insurance maps, we can determine that as of 1902, this building consisted of two separate smaller buildings having the address of 227 and 229 Holliday Street.  The second floor of the more northern section, 229 Holliday, was occupied by a "machine shop."  From the same map, it sat adjacent to a building that once occupied the north lot from 1847 to 1908, a bell foundry and brass works that was (according to Baltimore Sun classified ads) originally known as Clampitt & Regester, and finally J. Regester's Sons Co. (it is from this location that the original Baltimore City Hall bell was fabricated).

William T. Harris'
Gasoline-Powered
Motor Vehicle 1893
(Courtesy: U.S. Patent Office)

2nd Floor Machine Shop
at 227 Holliday St
(1902 Sanborn Insur. Map)

According to research, the machine shop was owned by a William Hollingsworth who rose from being an apprentice at age 14 after coming to Baltimore from his birthplace in Hartford County, Maryland to being a foreman and then superintendent.  Born in 1869, by his 31st birthday, he began his own business here on Holliday Street.  He was an avid inventor and well known in his trade, having been cited numerous times in the "American Machinist" journal.

  Most notably, according to The Antique Automobile, Vol. 33, in 1892, "a man" came into Mr. Hollingsworth's machine shop at this Holliday Street location wanting a steam-propelled passenger wagon for a sight-seeing bus for the World's Fair, but was instead persuaded to change to gasoline power and designed the car.  With high certainty the man, referenced in the above book, was a certain William T. Harris who is credited by Encyclopaedia Britannicaas being one of the earliest builders of a gasoline car.  In fact, one the earliest patent filings (No. 495733) for a vehicle motor (possibly THE earliest gasoline powered) is that of William T. Harris of Baltimore, MD, likely as a result of Hollingsworth's idea that day.  By 1896, William Hollingsworth invented and patented a "Mechanism for Drying Varnished Paper," in 1909, a "Ticket Vending Machine" and in 1926, a "Bronzing Machine," all in addition to the routine manufacturing of positive pressure blowers and combustion engines.

The Wm. Hollingsworth Building,
Circa 1900 (Courtesy: MD Historical Society)

   The building has had its share of catastrophic events in the early 20th Century.  It appears that late in 1906, Mr. Hollingsworth's machine shop was temporarily moved next door to 227 Holliday while he was in the process of reconstructing both addresses such that once rebuilt, it would be a single four-story structure business.  Unfortunately, on January 10, 1907, shortly after the roof had been joined across both portions and without warning the 3rd floor of 229 gave way, caved in, resulting in two men hurt and one worker buried dead beneath the debris of brick and mortar.   Just one year later and four years after the Great Baltimore Fire, in the early morning of January 24, 1908, a devastating fire started at J. Regester's Sons Bell Foundry which, as the Baltimore Sun reported, resulted in the death of three firemen and ruined plant - the Hollingsworth's machine shop suffered serious water damage and burned window sashes.

"Hollingsworth Bldg."
(1914 Sanborn Insur. Map)

  By 1932, his business at this location had grown to the point of being incorporated as the William Hollingsworth Machine Company, but its founder unfortunately died in 1941 without history crediting him with the notoriety of being the brains behind one of the earliest pioneers in modern automobile history.  Getting back to our original hint to this part of Baltimore's past, the Hollingsworth ghost ad is at least 70 years old.

(References Courtesy of: Baltimore Sun Newspapers, The Antique Automobile, Vol. 33, Encyclopaedia Britannica, American Machinist Journal)

Celebrating the Marvels of Light at 39 West Lexington

1916 Old BG&E Building,
Gas Light Panel
(Courtesy: Anomalous_A,
Flickr.com)

  Early Baltimore Gas and Electric History - On March 11, 1802, the Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser reported on a “new light,” the invention of a young scientist named Benjamin Henfrey, being demonstrated as gaslights – it was a novelty, but gained no financial support at first.  It would take several years until Dr. Charles Kugler, a Philadelphia merchant, in an effort to bring his gas manufacturing techniques to public attention, convinced Rembrandt Peale to illuminate a room on June 11, 1816 in his Peale Museum (also known as the Municipal Museum of the City of Baltimore, 225 N. Holliday Street) with burning gas lamps.

  The public was so impressed that, by June 14th, 1816, a small group of men convinced by the demonstrations formed the Gas Light Company of Baltimore (the earliest predecessor of today’s Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E)) and petitioned the Mayor and the Baltimore City Council with a plan to begin lighting some of the city streets.  Franchise rights were granted along with a contract.  On December 2^nd of that year, the General Assembly of Maryland approved the incorporation of the first gas company in the New World. 

  In 1888, rival gas companies merged into the Consolidated Gas Company of Baltimore. Several years earlier, in 1879, Thomas Edison demonstrated his incandescent lamp in Menlo Park, NJ that heralded a new era in light.  While the first electric company in Baltimore was the Brush Electric Light Company, incorporated in 1881, the United Electric Light and Power Company was the primary electric service provider for Baltimore.  When they joined in 1906 with Consolidated Gas to become Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company of Baltimore, it became the city’s first fully integrated gas and electric company.

Gas Electric Company,
NW Corner, Liberty
& Lexington, c1906

  In 1915, the integration was by name only and buildings were not only dispersed around the city but the electric division was separate from the gas division.  In leased locations were The House Electric was at a building on 325 North Charles Street, the legal and claims department was in the Title Building, the gas industrial fuel department was at the corner of Saratoga Street and Park Avenue, the electric office was at the Continental Building (near Calvert and Baltimore Streets). The one owned building on the opposite corner of Liberty and Lexington Streets (shown, left) housed the headquarters of the gas division executive, bookkeeping and accounting offices, and sales and commercial departments.  Consolidation would become a reality.

Prior to the Lexington Building
SE Corner, Liberty & Lexington, c1915

 Negotiations began nine years after Baltimore’s Great Fire for the property at the southeast corner of Liberty and Lexington Streets and what was Little Sharp Street (see photo of the site prior to construction, right). On Feb 24, 1915, the Baltimore Sun reported that Boston architect Parker, Thomas & Rice would design the new office building to be erected by J. Henry Miller, Inc. at what is now 39 West Lexington Street to house its corporate leadership and possibly the Pennsylvania Water and Power Company.  Mr. Miller had also built Union Station in Baltimore.

  While construction progressed, on June 16 and 17, 1916, the company celebrated the American Gas Centenary as it was publicized throughout the country, distinguished scientists and engineers gathered in Baltimore for events surrounding the celebration with great fanfare.  On the first day, City Hall’s great bell pealed 100 times (one for each year since Peale added gas illumination to Baltimore Museum exhibits) followed by a four-mile, two hour long, parade in which 2,500 employees marched along with over 10 bands, 200 horses, and 52 decorated floats (some were 40 feet long) depicting among other themes – “The Evolution of Light”, “ The Evolution of Power”, “The Industrial Growth of Baltimore”, and “Household Economics.”  Nothing like it had ever been seen in Baltimore before.

Early Lexington Building photo
circa 1925

View of the Lexington
Building, from present
Liberty Dog Run, c1920

  In December 1916, the new Lexington Building (later to be renamed the Gas and Electric Building) was occupied.  It was built of granite and terra-cotta layered between floors upon a steel structure.  The entire basement, mezzanine, second and third floors were used for showrooms and retail shops highlighting gas and electric appliances and ornamentals of the day (see photos, below). It boasted eight high-speed elevators, filtered water and fountains on each floor as well as hot and cold washstands.

50 Kilowatt Lightbulb,
redisplayed in 1939

  Interestingly enough, it was on the roof of the 39 West Lex building that in order to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of his incandescent lamp, for the week of October 14-21, 1929, the largest incandescent light bulb in the world at the time was illuminated – 50 kilowatts!  According to the Sun, “the bulb is 20 inches in diameter.  Its output approximately 1,400,000 lumens.” 

Early BG&E sales room,
39 West Lexington Building,
1st Floor, c1950s

  The building continued to be used for sales showrooms and as BG&E's headquarters throughout the 2000s (see photos, left).  It was placed on the National Register of Historic places and, under guidance by the National Park Service, preserved and restored as it was sold by BG&E to Southern Management Corporation for use as luxury apartments.

(Sources: “A History of Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company of Baltimore, by Thomson King, 1950” and Baltimore Sun Articles)

(Photos: Courtesy of Southern Management Corporation, 39 West Lex; Thomas King book; and Flickr.com)