Tyson's Baltimore Chrome Works - Harbor Point's Toxic Past

   Harbor Point has been in the news for the better part of 25 years since the manufacturing plant that processed chrome from chromite ore at this location from 1845 until it was to cease operations under  Allied Chemical in 1989.  Ever since 1999, when Honeywell completed a ten year remediation effort that consisted of a 5-foot multi-acre clay cap, waterside perimeter embankments with a deep vertical hydraulic barrier to reduce flow to the groundwater and Harbor, this peninsula of land has been eyed by developers as another lucrative waterfront location immediately east of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  Despite a City Council go-ahead this summer, environmental questions remain and rightly so.

Harbor Point site (2013),
Courtesy: Google Maps

   The 27-acres was declared by the United Stated Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) as a Super Fund site due to a culmination of 144 years of processing that left the industrial buildings, soil and groundwater contaminated with chromium (including hexavalent chromium - recall, Erin Brockavich fame).  Environmental studies confirmed the chromium was the source of the 'yellow ice' in the harbor in the winter and the MDE entered into a Consent Decree with the final owner to demolish and clean up hazardous contamination which cost a total of $100 million.

Topographic Survey (1898)
Courtesy: JHU Map collection

   The history of this location is quite interesting and it seems that the hazards of chromium production at this location on a small peninsula jutting into the North Branch of the Patapsco River have been not long after it began operation.  Potable water study as conducted by the New York board of health were reported in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer on June 22, 1872 where many European cities were contrasted with Boston, Chicago and Baltimore for parts of inorganic and organic matter - Baltimore, in general, was on par with that of Chicago.  Chemists then (and to this day) would use potassium permanganate as an antiseptic and in treatment of waste water.  The newspaper reported, without much uproar at the time, the amount needed to "decolorize" samples of water from Swann Lake (now known as Lake Roland) requiring four and one half to 1,000 volumes, surprisingly compared with the pump water in Block Street taking 22 volumes!

U.S. Geologic Survey 1960 Map of
Serpentine Deposits where
Chromite Ore was mined.

  Chromite ore is a black to brownish black mineral generally found in combination with iron (2 parts chromium to 1 part iron) within serpentine rock deposits in very limited locations within the United States - northwest of Baltimore and a little just north of the Pennsylvania-Maryland border.  According to a U.S. Department of the Interior Geologic Bulletin, it was Isaac Tyson, Jr. (1792-1861) from a well-known Maryland family line of Quakers, who first discovered chromite.  He realized its chemical significance, began mining the ore as early as 1808 on his farm in Bare Hills, and later Soldiers Delight (just east of Liberty Reservoir, Owings Mills, MD) in 1827.  He bought up many of the deposit locations which supplied all of the world's chromite until the late 1800s. Most of the chromite was refined and processed in England until 1845 when he built the Baltimore Chrome Works on what is now known as the Harbor Point peninsula site.

Jesse Tyson (1826-1906)
Photo Courtesy: Cylburn
Asoociation Archives

   One of Isaac's two sons that carried on the family business, Jesse Tyson, lived at the family's winter home at 6 East Franklin Street, became President of the Chrome Works, yet was a bachelor millionaire at the age of 65. As noted in The Sun, he became the subject of a great deal of high society gossip when he started dating Edith Johns, daughter of a local Baltimore bar owner.  The disparity in their ages caused a bit of a stir given Edith (one of the famed "Ten Beauties of Baltimore" at the time) was nineteen, but it didn't stop their marriage which occurred at her father's home on January 26, 1888.  Shortly thereafter, he moved into what is now known as the Cylburn Mansion that was recently completed as architected by prominent Baltimore architect George A. Friedrich.

Edith Johns Tyson (1868-1942)
Photo Courtesy: Cylburn
Association Archives

   In the mid 1890's the plant was either known as the Tyson or Baltimore Chrome Works.  It's main manufacturing building was on streets bounded by Block, Point, Dock, and Will Streets, where The Sun reported a boiler explosion in January 1875 and and major fire on October 6, 1895 which started at the carpenter shop on Block and Philpot streets burned for over an hour where several thousand tons of chrome ore were in the yard along with chrome in barrels damaged along with nearby rigger shops and two fishing skiffs.  Oddly enough, another fire caused $10,000 in damage on December 5th of the same year.

Allied Chemical (Chrome Works),
Photo Courtesy: Mark Layton, c1980

   Chrome production here was enormous by the early part of the 20th century, effectively supplying chrome to nearly the entire U.S. and most of the world.  The safety record was questionable with such a rigor of capacity as evidenced by two fires in five years, the first being on August 2, 1900 which caused approximately $60,000 in damage however, the value of this plant was not to be underestimated.

   On August 6, 1902 after extended negotiations with two Glasgow, Scotland companies and one of Philadelphia, PA, ownership transferred from Jesse Tyson to the latter, when the Kalion Chemical Company purchased the plant for $1,000, 000.

   Just after midnight on the morning of January 22, 1906, fire erupted at the Baltimore Chrome Works and resulted in a heavy financial loss amounting to near $200,000 of the plants' $1M worth at that time according to Washington's Evening Star.  The event was reported in newspapers across the United States and, along with Jesse's death that year, signaled the end of a prosperous line of
Baltimore families.

$5M Harbor Point Development Concept
Photo Courtesy: Ayers-Saint-Gross

  Shortly before his death, unable to continue operations, it was sold and formally merged in May 1906 with Henry Bower Chemical Manufacturing, the Kalion Chemical Company and the Ammonia Company, all of Philadelphia.  In 1985, it was acquired by Allied Chemical (later known as Allied Signal, and then Honeywell) and we have come full circle around from a messy and toxic past on this once scenic peninsula - the streets are nearly all wiped from the map, having been replaced by an environmental dome of protection.  Developers  and Baltimore's Mayor and City Council see the future as "a jewel in the crown of development that encircles Baltimore's Inner Harbor."  Just how long the glimmer will last is anyone's guess.

References: U.S. Geologic Bulletin 1082-K, 1960; MD Dept. of the Environment; and articles from the Baltimore Sun, Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, and Washington Evening Star.

The Skeletons in Baltimore's Closet

Adam Horn (1792-1843)
NYC (Staten Island) and
Baltimore Serial
"Hatchet Killer"

   Being the time of the Halloween season, when talk of carved pumpkins, baseball playoffs and the World Series are interspersed with that of haunted houses and ghouls, it seemed appropriate to bring to light some of Baltimore's macabre past. While there have been some mysterious visitors to Edgar Allen Poe's grave and odd apparitions that were supposedly witnessed at a few of the city's notable tourist locations like the U.S.S. Constellation, Fort McHenry, and some of the bars in Fells Point said to harbor ghostly inhabitants, there are no historical accounts of documented haunted homes with any notoriety.

  Over the last two centuries, whether their ghostly spirits have remained nearby or moved on to more temperate climates, what is fact is that Baltimoreans have been unearthing skeletal remains with surprising frequency. Slightly more bizarre are the locations where these discoveries have been made - backyards, construction sites, and the basements and closets of Baltimore homes.

   In many cases, urbanization has encountered the city's old or forgotten cemeteries or private burial sites and in earlier times often trumped their preservation only to result in the relocation of what was supposed to have been final internments. For those that believe that ghostly paranormal activities and hauntings are the result of the departed whose eternal rest had been disturbed, be forewarned of the following locations - they may just be the grounds under which you live, work, or walk.

Northwestern District Police Station -
Corner Penna Ave and Lambert St
(Photo: Courtesy, Kildruffs.com)

  Corner of Broadway and Monument Streets (currently bounded on 3 corners by Johns Hopkins University Hospital and Mama Mia's Restaurant and Carry Out on the other) - A Baltimore Sun article from April 1860 eerily described one such event when workmen were laboring for weeks to remove a graveyard and the "disgusting spectacle of exhumed decayed remains has been presented to the gaze of the passer-by...the skull of a human being, evidently a female, with long hair flowing from the bone, was exhumed and exposed to the gaze of the public...It is a shame that such things should be.

   Corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Lambert street (currently a playground) - In April 1873, according to an article in The Sun, workmen engaged in excavating the site where the North-western district police station was being built came across a skeleton from a grave when it was formerly a graveyard.

Old Cemetery Closure - Baltimore Sun
(Notice of April 1873)

   Old Cathedral Cemetery (1816-1876 burials of those from St. Peter's pro-Cathedral) currently in the residential area immediately east of Bridgeview-Greenmount and north of Harlem Park neighborhoods - Newspaper accounts from December 1877 reported on ten to fifteen disinterments each day for over a year.  Among hundreds of skeletons were the remains of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (already transferred once from Dougherton Manor), 28 Sisters of Charity, 13 Oblate Sisters of Providence that were all moved to Bonnie Brae (or the New Cathedral Cemetery). For a year or more, ads (like the one pictured in this post) were placed in The Sun as notice to those whose loved ones may need to have their remains transferred or risk being forever lost.

   In a lot on the 1900 block of McCulloh Street (currently homes between Robert and Presstman Streets) which was formerly the burial place of St. Alphonsus's Church, in April 1881 a Sun article reported a man was engaged in digging to get brick off his lot when he came upon a vault containing a coffin containing human remains. "The man on discovering the skeleton dropped his tools and fled" before the police were called and properly secured the premises. It is said that the celebrated Andrew Hellman (aka Adam Horn), a NYC and Baltimore famous cold-blooded hatchet and ax serial killer of the 1840s, was buried in this long forgotten cemetery location.

   149 North Calvert Street (current location of the Baltimore City Circuit Courthouse) - In July 1883, the bones of an infant were found in a box under the back of a building as reported by The Sun.

   In a Canton lot between Boston, Clinton and Tome Streets, was excavated the skeleton of a human person buried in an upright position about three feet from the surface.  According to a May 1895 Sun news article, the skeleton was that of a body placed in a box and buried on what was the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company.

SW Corner Pleasant St and Courtland St)
(Photo: Courtesy MD Hist. Society)

   City Jail Tower - In the heat of July 1896, inmates of the Baltimore City Jail were put to work removing trash and refuse from top of the central tower when they discovered a human skull which was partially crushed.  It's a mystery as to how it ever got there according to a newspaper account in The Sun at that time.

  432 West Pratt (currently the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards) - Found beneath the kitchen in a home at this location was a four and one-half square foot vault built of bricks containing the full skeleton of a man, according to a July 1897 Baltimore Sun account.

   Southwest corner of Courtland (currently St. Paul) and Pleasant Streets (near the location of Mercy Hospital) - Likely to have been what remained of an earlier horrible murder was the skeleton of a full-grown man  in a coffin located between the ceiling and the roof of the old one-story building.  It was reported by The Sun as found by a carpenter in November 1904 shortly before the referenced photograph.

The Biltmore, Corner Fayette and Paca Sts
(Photo: Courtesy, Kildruffs.com)

   Biltmore Hotel (once at the corner of Fayette and Paca Streets) - In March 1955, a skeleton was
reported in The Sun as being found by perplexed hotel employees in the closet of a room at the Biltmore Hotel.  The 6-foot set of bones had been reported as missing by the 104th Medical Regiment Armory for 19 days but, after two Chicago truck drivers had occupied the room and checked out, it was now suddenly found.  The incident ended when two Armory men retrieved it and, with one holding the head and another its feet, marching the wayward skeleton back along Fayette street to its original resting place.

(Note: Article sources are courtesy of The Baltimore Sun.) 

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)

Baltimore Inventors/Inventions: The Famous and Not So Famous

Ottmar Mergenthaler
(1854-1899)

   Baltimore has had its share of creative and ingenious minds even prior to 1790 when the United States officially began recognizing patents as legally proscribed by the signing of the Constitution in 1785 and, as such, there have been some famous and not-so famous inventors that Baltimore is proud to call its own.

Mergenthaler Linotype - 1886
(Courtesy: U.S. Patent Office)

   One of the earliest documented Baltimore inventions is the Baltimore "Mud Machine", a horse-powered dredger that scooped mud from channels in the Port of Baltimore.  Invented in 1783 by two of three Quaker Ellicott brothers, Andrew and John Ellicott who owned the largest gristmill and flour export business on the east coast of the United States, as a solution for clearing and deepening the departure channels for the many boats from their warehouse and wharf at Pratt and Light Street.

   In 1886, Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899) of Baltimore, designed a "Machine for Producing Type Bars" for Printing Purposes, which went on to be known as the first Linotype Machine.  His company went on to become the Mergenthaler Linotype of New Jersey and New York where numerous improvements were made to this important invention of the U.S. printing industry.

Bates Hoist Machine (1871)
(Courtesy: U.S. Library of Congress)

   From his Iron Foundry and Machine Shop at 1512 Fleet Street, James Bates (1816-1896) invented his "Hoist Machine" (currently in the Baltimore Museum of Industry) which was patented in April 1871. Although Elisha Otis was said to have invented the first passenger elevator ten years prior, this Baltimore inventor's idea for a hand ratchet hoist made it unnecessary to wind a rope upon any drum or cylinder.

Elijah Bond's
"Toy or Game" - 1891
(Courtesy: U.S. Patent Office)

   By the end of what is known as the Victorian Era, between 1891 and 1892, when spiritualism was nearly fifty years mature and popular within the U.S., a total of three Baltimore inventors filed patents for their "talking boards."  It turns out that the Ouija Board, invented by Isaac and William Fuld of Baltimore, was not (as some Baltimore-based blogs have postulated) the first of the lot.  Elijah J. Bond of Baltimore invented his "Toy or Game," filed for patent in May 1890 and receiving U.S. Patent No. 446,054, for a psychograph/game rendition having a suspicious likeness to the model later made famous by the Fulds.  The other Baltimore inventor by the name of Moritz Schirman patented his "Talking Board" (Patent No. 520,616) from a 1892 filing.

Joseph Shapiro
Cake Cone Design - 1920
(Courtesy: U.S. Patent Office)

   In January 1894, while the world was still opening chewing gum having the form of flat sticks, George M. Harsh of Baltimore, filed and shortly afterwards patented his "Design For a Tablet of Chewing-Gum," (Patent No. 23,096).  The design consisted of a circular disk or tablet having a diametrical ridge or bead extending across one side and dividing the surface into two equal parts; the surface of the reverse side being plain.  The "Chiclets" tablet came into production 11 years later, possibly as a candied perfection to this Baltimore invention.

   According to the New York Times, at the turn of the 20th Century, when eating was still a formal affair, ice cream was served as a delicate sliver on a plate and savored with a teaspoon.  During the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, that changed when it is said the first waffle was rolled into a cone allowing the ice cream eater to walk-about.  While there are many such stories on the first to invent an ice cream cone, a Baltimore inventor by the name of Joseph Shapiro invented a design for a cake cone, filed for patent in April 1920, which was likely the first ornamental design of its kind.

   In the 21st Century, the origin of one of the more modern inventions was that of Robert D. Morrow of Baltimore who, as a 38-year-old electronics engineer working at the Martin Company, designed and invented his "Video Tape Recorder Using Amplitude Modulated Carrier and Saturated Tape."  He, along with Andrew S. Hegeinan, received a patent (No. 3405232) in May 1965 and (according to a June 5, 1965 Baltimore Sun article) it was available at market by the Christmas of 1966 as a home TV recorder at the price of $400.

Faded Hints of the Past Series: Border State Savings Bank

North-facing, Backside of
4 Park Avenue,
Photographed: 11 Sept 2013

   I realized that evidence from Baltimore's history is slipping away in front of our very eyes - we go about our business and daily lives not realizing that those remaining ties to the past are unraveling by the day.   A new investigative series of the Charm City History blog will be known as "Faded Hints of the Past" which will capture the slightest remnants of markers, fading painted (or ghost) ads , cornerstones, doorplates, or any other descriptor that provide small clues that offer a small window into a piece of Baltimore's past.

(Photo credit: Google street view)

   We begin with a building situated at 100 Park Avenue, the downtown Baltimore corner of W. Fayette Street.  While standing on Marion Street and next to the old SS Kresge building, one can look south upon the back side of its plain, exterior brick wall.  Almost obscured by the elements from numerous years, one can barely make out the white background, dark letter painted painted ghost ad on the north-facing, backside, of this late 19th-century four-story brick building - it reads "BORDER STATE SAVINGS BANK".

   Currently, occupied by the Barenburg Eye Associates, we set out to determine whether this ghost ad clue had anything to do with the beautifully architected corner building with a victorian-styled roof, adorned with a single conical dome, upon which it is painted.

Border State Savings Bank ad, 1892,
announcing an impending relocation.

  As it turns out, a single legal notice appeared in the "Special Notices" section of the Baltimore Sun on July 17, 1875 announces to its readers:  "Save Your Money in the Border State Savings Institute of Baltimore City.  This institution, incorporated during the year 1874 for the purpose of a SAVINGS BANK for the receipt of deposits of money and allowing interest on the same, has opened an office at No. 646 West Baltimore Street."  [The location is currently occupied by the buildings of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry]

  Shortly after its incorporation, it moved to a three-story brick building at the southeast corner of S. Poppleton and W. Baltimore Streets which was demolished and replaced by a building that is part of the University of Maryland, BioPark campus.  By 1892, according to an ad in the Directory of Charitable and Beneficient Organizations, the Border State Savings Bank was preparing for a move further west in Baltimore.

1907 Advertisment
(Courtesy: MD State Archives)

Henry F. Brauns
(Photo Courtesy:
BaltimoreArchitecture.org)

  The American Architect and Building News (Apr-Jun 1892) announced that an architect had been chosen for the location of the Border State Savings Bank's first owned-building.  Henry F. Brauns (1845-1917) who, according to a biography on the BaltimoreArchitecture.org website, was a Baltimore-based architect responsible for numerous building in the city. His   Prior to this building, he architected the William Knabe & Company piano factory building (1869) which was once at the present SW corner of M&T Stadium, and the G.W. Gail & Ax Co. tabacco warehouse (1871) at the NE corner of Barre and Charles Sts. Following his work with Border State, he went on to architect the Mount Royal Pumping Station (1897) at North Ave and McMechen (destroyed for I-83 construction) and the Northern District Police Station (1899) building currently at 3355 Keswick Road which are all characteristically similar in Victorian/French Renaissance design.  Nearing the end of his life, he was also responsible for the Browns Arcade building at 322-328 N. Charles Street (1904).

   Since its opening in 1874, the Border State Savings Bank advertised the "acceptance of $1.00 and upwards received on deposit." Small deposits rack up and as reported in the Annual Reports of the Comptroller of the Treasury, MD Comptrollers Office, the Border State Savings Bank held an average end of year deposit amount anywhere from $222,000 ten years after its establishment to near $900,000 by the time it ceased to exist around 1912.

Baltimore Florists' Exchange - An American First

Florists' Exchange Building,
Corner of Franklin and St. Paul Streets
Aug 2013

   The now abandoned building at 17 E. Franklin (southwest corner of Franklin and St. Paul Streets) was built on a lot that was once owned by the Safe Deposit and Trust Company.  The lot was purchased for $6,000 by the Baltimore Florists' Exchange building committee in January 1906 for the purpose of erecting their own building sizable enough to accommodate its cadre of 40 members that was too large for its 505 North Eutaw Street location.

   Architect J. Edward Laferty was commissioned and construction was completed during the late summer of 1906 by William H. Porter & Son for the sum of $15,000 according to Baltimore Sun articles of the time such that by November 13-16, the Gardeners' Club was able to hold its annual chrysanthemum and horticultural exhibition on the first and second floors. In addition to photographic representations, live palms and ferns were shown, but the most of the exhibition was devoted to public showing of chrysanthemums, roses, and evergreens.  Contests for "best in vase," "best brides' hand bouquet," "best distinct design," "best
basket," and "best wreath"where judged and yielded prizes of $1 to $10.

   The Florists' Exchange roots had been planted as early as 1889 during a time when Baltimore had a plentitude of hobby and interest clubs.  In the area of horticulture, there existed a Florists' Club, Gardeners' Club, and a Maryland Horticultural Society of which an Annapolis florist by the name of Edwin A. Seidewitz had been on the Executive Committee.

   While the many Baltimore clubs served their purpose of bringing people of the day together having a common interest in cultivating or appreciating flowers, Mr. Seidewitz, who had become a well respected florist in Baltimore realized a more specialized need for florists within the trade. Unlike the He conceptualized the idea of a mutual florists' association where local floral dealers could conduct wholesale business by distributing their stock amongst each other regardless of the size of their dealership.

   As a result of this idea, the Baltimore Florists' Exchange was formed having elected the man to conceptualize it as its President.   By February 1890, the Exchange was incorporated and located its first offices in the basement of a building at 120 N. Liberty Street (and later the 505 N. Eutaw Street location) as a depot for cut flowers exclusive to dealers.  It was said to be the first organization in America dedicated to the exchange of trees, plants, flowers, and seeds in addition to the general sharing of horticultural knowledge among horticulturalists and tradesmen who bought and sold flowers.

The hall space inside the
Florists' Exchange

   The building's upper floor was at times used by the Gardners' and Florists' Clubs, often interspersed by meeting locations for everything from lectures on the writings of Edward FitzGerald by the Baltimore Progressive Thought Center (The Sun, April 1908) to a temporary meeting location for the First Spiritual Church (The Sun, Sep 1908), Royal Order of the Moose (The Sun, Jan 1909), National Union (The Sun, June 1909), Knights of Phythia (The Sun, Dec 1909), Retail Grocers' Association (The Sun, Oct 1916), International Bible Students' Association (The Sun, Jul 1917).

   In the preparation of this article, it was perplexing that, beyond 1918, no public documentation exists on the building or the Florists' Exchange itself until May 1942 when it was sold into private hands in the amount of $25,000.

   Perhaps, for historical completeness, we have to pick up with the life of Mr. Seidewitz.  Things were well for Mr. Seidewitz who had become an accomplished Baltimore florist, considered one of the "livest" men in the organization he became President of the Rotary Club, and one of the most prosperous citizens of Baltimore.  By April 1890, he married Adele Wattensheidt and the next year cited in the "Annals of Horticulture" as having registering the introduction of 33 new varieties with the American Chrysanthemum Society: one was called the Adele and the other the Lord Baltimore. Though born in Baltimore County in 1866, he was a resident of Annapolis and eventually served as Mayor of that city from July 1899 to 1901.

Hotel Junker
22 E. Fayette Street

   Unfortunately, Mr. Seidewitz became a cruel victim of a form of bullying by Baltimore Society during the War I period. According to the book "The Illusion of Victory: America in WWI" by Thomas J. Fleming, it all began one night at the Hotel Junker (currently at 22 E. Fayette St.), "shortly after war was declared, the florist met some officers from several German ships that had been trapped in Baltimore's harbor since 1914. They were in a gloomy mood, lamenting their long separation from friends and family and the prospect of internment as enemy aliens until the war ended. Seidewitz bough them beer, and they drank together.  Touched by their plight, the florist kissed one of them on the forehead in an attempt to comfort the man. Word soon swept Baltimore that Seidewitz had "kissed a German." His floral business collapsed. He was expelled from the Rotary Club, after directors refused to let him speak to the members in his own defense."

   Apparently, according to those that knew him intimately, he was said to have suffered for some time with mental and nervous disorders since the United States entered the war, and that conditions had preyed on his mind.  Saddest of all, was his fate when at 52 years old Edwin, on August 24, 1918 he decided upon suicide with a revolver while his family was downstairs in their home on Old Pimlico Road.  It would appear that with his life, so went the Baltimore Florists' Exchange.  Its success, however, having been demonstrated by florists in Baltimore, precipitated similar exchange organizations in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago.

(Sources: Baltimore Sun Newspaper articles; Annals of Horticulture; "The Illusion of Victory: America in WWI" by Thomas J. Fleming; 

Historical Impressions of Baltimore (1849-1981)

   Recently, it was my one year anniversary of being back in Baltimore City as a resident and I decided to provide some updated thoughts about the City, I decided to set out to capture some of the good and the bad impressions from the famous and not-so-famous over Baltimore's earlier years.  Brace yourself for the bad, it ain't too pretty.  Mid-nineteenth Century literary personalities were candid and cold in capturing their thoughts about Baltimore at the time.

North Point Battle (1814) Monument

   Robert Baird (1798-1863), an American clergyman and author, wrote in his book "Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849" that "unquestionably the town of Baltimore is finely situated, and the ladies of Baltimore are very beautiful." Of the 1814 Battle Monument, he stated it "appeared to me a work too elaborate in its design, wanting in simplicity, and displaying little taste."  He had higher favor upon Baltimore's Washington Monument stating that it "is worthy of the state that reared it, and of the great man whose patriotic services it is designed to commemorate." Oddly enough, he found it necessary to point out "of late years, several instances have occurred of persons throwing themselves from the top of the Washington Monument at Baltimore.  In the majority of instances, these victims of madness or of misery have been females."

   George Rose (1817-1882), who according to Wikisource was a dramatist, novelist, and humorous entertainer of London, and wrote under the name of "Arthur Sketchley" in his book "The Great Country: or Impressions of America" of 1868 provided some stark commentary on Baltimore.  "Baltimore takes its name from Lord Baltimore, and is one of the most uphill cities I ever visited.  A line of the great national anthem, "Yankee Doodle" - I am quoting from memory -- states that "Baltimore is the dandy."  I do not know what the American laureate of that day may have meant by this expression, but am happy to endorse the statement as far as saying that the city is well built and very clean.  In spite of its title the City of Monuments, I did not think much of the public buildings.  The Catholic cathedral struck me as a marvel of ugliness; though it boasts the finest organ in America.  I do not think that, rich though Baltimore be in monuments, they would repay the trouble of visiting them.  As national works, they are doubtless very great but, artistically, the less said about them the better."

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

   A February 1874 article in the Baltimore Sun accounted what English Victorian era author Charles Dickens (1812-1870) wrote of Baltimore in his second visit to America: They are very handsome women," he says of the Baltimore ladies, "with an Eastern touch to them, and dress brilliantly I have seen so fine an audience. They are bright responsive people." Owing to the times, he further writes "It is remarkable how the ghost of slavery haunts the town..."  Commenting on the contrast and the comparative state of black americans at that point in Baltimore history, "I strongly believe that they (the negroes) will die out of the country fast.  It seems looking at them, so manifestly absurd to suppose it possible that they can even hold their own against a restless, shifty, striving, stronger race."

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)

   By May 1891, a beautifully dressed, white-bearded, 50 year old visitor by the name of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the world famous Russian composer commented that "Baltimore is a pretty, clean town" in his diary during a one day tour of Baltimore and its Peabody Institute.

   At the turn of the 20th Century, the Baltimore Harbor, as in the case of New York City's Hudson riverfront, was lined with commercial property buildings and wharfs, becoming virtually inaccessible to the common citizenry. There was of course, Federal Hill, one of the only vantage points from where all the industrial city could be seen in near full panorama.  The Kent News of Chestertown, Maryland in August 1898 described it this way: "Every visitor to Baltimore is astonished that the foulness of the harbor if that great city is allowed to continue.  Its offensiveness, its unsightliness, its menace to health--all reflect upon the city authorities."

James W. Rouse, City Planner,
(1914-1996)

   The northwest branch of the Patapsco River took some heavy use and abuse over the several hundred years of development.  Thanks to the genius of men like Mr.James W. Rouse, master city planner, Baltimore's "Inner Harbor" emerged from a dark period with a renaissance opening of Harborplace in 1988.

   In 1913, Dr. Werner Hegemann, the German expert on city planning commented on Baltimore during his visit as captured in the Baltimore Sun. He was enthusiastic over Broadway and could not get enough of the view he got of it as he looked south. Over and over again, he would say "Let me get another look at this beautiful street!"  In East Baltimore, the cleaning of the white marble steps in front of the homes by the housewives or the housemaids.  He was surprised and delighted that were so many marble steps in front of even the modest homes in Baltimore.

   A witty English visitor to Baltimore in 1925 commented in The Sun, "If a Baltimore man asks you to dinner and says that his house is the one with the white marble steps in front, you will know that he has not asked you to dinner, for every house has white steps in front of it." Even the "poorer people have wooden steps and are always painting them white."

   The downtown city streets and its slums webbed out toward the city's northwest perimeter. As late as June 1948, Richard Feldman, a Government official from the Union of South Africa was quoted in the Baltimore Sun as describing their condition being quite strikingly worse than conditions in slums of his own country and in English cities like London and Manchester. "Even 'darkest Africa' was never like this.  I have not seen anything anywhere quite so shockingly bad as I saw this morning." On a brighter note, he expressed delight over the housing projects known as McCulloh and Gilmor Homes.

Today, decades after these comments were made in the 1980's regarding Baltimore's architecture, city planners might want to take a step back to note how well Baltimore has developed over the years.

In February 1981, Paul Goldberger, New York Times architecture critic while not seeing an ideal city he did have high praise for Baltimore as noted in The Sun.  "I hadn't been here for a decade, and my impressions of Baltimore are so positive that I'm a little suspicious. The hills are wonderful...I loved Roland Park too-there's a fabulous fabric of city here."  Of the Charles Center buildings, Mr. Goldberger described the Morris Mechanic Theatre as a "wowed-look-at-me-I'm-funny" building. He praised Mount Vernon square for its cruciform plan incorporating "an extraordinary balance."

Historic Charles Street,
Baltimore MD

  In July 1980, a group of six architects from across the world converged on Baltimore to give the following Baltimore Sun captured commentary: "I was impressed with such an enormous investment of energy and people in the Inner Harbor area, but I felt a kind of disproportion," stated Abu Aldenberg of the Netherlands.  Mr. Drazen Juracic of Yugoslavia commented, "The big mistake in the design concept of the Inner Harbor is that it's not linked to Charles Street" which he thought were "extraordinarily beautiful," reflecting Baltimore's rolling topography.  Mr. Fumio Okuyama of Japan found little harmony between old and new architecture in the city and pointed to lack of green spaces downtown.

  As Earl Arnett of the Baltimore Sun once aptly stated "...perspectives on the visual attractions of our city have always been a mixed bag--perhaps because the city is a mixed bag.  Like America itself, Baltimore is a curious mixture of beauty, richness and poverty--still a bit unsure of itself in a new land whose vastness and significance is not yet fully comprehended."

(Sources: Baltimore Sun Newspaper articles)

The Cost of Breaking the Law in Baltimore - 125 to 200 Years Ago

Baltimore City Hall (c1900)
Detroit Publishing Company
(Courtesy: Shorpy.com)

   One would be surprised as to what you might get arrested for in violation of Baltimore City Ordinances between 125 and 200 years ago in Baltimore City.   Public law in early Baltimore City was written and enacted in response to the pressing issues of the day (health, safety, wrongs against individuals and public property) as was the case in many developing cities within the United States and around the world.  Current Baltimore City laws and ordinances have citations deriving from City Code as far back as 1879.

   What follows is a collection of offenses from the period of 1801 to the 1870s, along with associated fines for violating the ordinance or code.  It has been determined from actual Baltimore City Ordinance of the period or from court judgments and/or arrests as noted in Baltimore Sun legal articles.  So as to impress upon today's reader the magnitude of the fine, each of the fines for offense are indicated by value in today's U.S. dollar.

1801 (as noted in Ordinances of the Corporation of the City of Baltimore)

• Driving a carriage, caravan, wagon, sleigh, cart, etc in the middle (as opposed to the right side) of the street - FINE, $14
• Cock fighting of any kind within the City Limits - FINE, $271
• Gun or pistol which is willfully and needlessly shot or discharged within the City - FINE, $68
• Bringing damaged coffee, hides or other damaged or infected articles into the city limits, by land or water - FINE, $4,070
• Operating the performances or exhibitions without a license (See below, for license cost): - FINE, $13,565

Licenses were required for the following: Circus or theatrical exhibition - $109 / performance; Rope or wire dancing, or puppet shows - $136 / week; Musical parties for gain - $68 / week; All other public exhibitions - $27 / week

1840s (as noted from Baltimore Sun Public Notice, Court Judgments)

• Washing salt sacks in a tub placed under a pump in public - FINED, $37 plus costs
• Throwing rubbish into the street and permitting it to remain there - FINED, $22 plus costs
• Permitting wood to remain upon a wharf longer than 2 days - FINED, $5.50 daily / foot of ground



Baltimore Police from the Mid 1800s

• Purchase or sale of wood without a license - FINED, $44 / each cord sold

1850s (as noted from Baltimore Sun, Public Notice of Court Judgments)

• Throwing stones in public - FINED, $27
• Running wagons without license numbers - FINED, $27-$50
• Improper conduct in the presence of ladies - FINED, $121
• Throwing a nuisance in the street - FINED, $27

1860s (as noted from Baltimore Sun, Public Notice of Court Judgments)

• Allowing a ten-pin alley to be used after 11 o'clock at night - FINED, $252
• Exposing unsound meats for sale - FINED, $504
• Bathing in the Jones Falls - FINED, $17
• Boys were arrested for jumping upon one of the Philadelphia Railroad cars while in motion - FINED, $17
• Running against and breaking a city lamppost - FINED, $85
• Throwing nauseous liquors on the street - FINED, $85
• Immoderate driving in the street - FINED, $85 plus costs
• Gambling on Sunday - FINED, $85 plus costs
• Permitting gambling on premises - $510 plus costs
• Carrying on a distilling business on McElderry's wharf without a license - SENTENCED TO PAY FINE OF $3,236 AND IMPRISONED  UNTIL PAID.  [Of interest: Within 6 months, the convicted, Thomas Carr, received a pardon from the President of the United States, which remitted the fine and he was immediately released]

1870s (as noted in Ordinances of the Corporation of the City of Baltimore or Baltimore Sun)

• Killing or attempting to kill, or in any manner injure or molest sparrows, robins, wrens, or other small insectivorous birds in the city of Baltimore, to include their birdhouses - FINE, $85 per offense
• Playing cards on Sunday - FINED, $24
• Carrying a concealed razor on his person - FINED, $72

These are in interesting contrast to EXISTING ordinances within the City of Baltimore:

• Tossing, throwing, flinging any object capable of being thrown or used as a projectile (excluding paper wrappers) on the playing field or arena, official or any member of the team at a sporting event - FINE, up to $1000 or imprisonment up to 12 months (misdemeanor)
• Playing, singing, or rendering the "Star Spangled Banner" anywhere publicly in the City of Baltimore, except in its entirety in composition, separate from any other melody. Likewise, it cannot be played for dancing or as an exit march. - FINE, not more than $100 (misdemeanor)
• Sell, give away or dispose of a "toy cartridge pistol" within the City Limits of Baltimore - FINE, $10.  
• To discharge or fire a "toy cartridge pistol" - FINE, $2.
• Unauthorized by any person not of the Department of Public Works within the City Limits of Baltimore to remove recyclable materials from designated containers without approval from the owner or operator of the recycling operation - FINE, up to $500 (misdemeanor)

"Reddy the Bull" Predicted Baltimore Motorists' Disgust in Traffic Lights

City Traffic, Early 1920s

   Within years of the automobile being introduced to Baltimore City streets, the issue of traffic had become a major problem where both patrolmen and/or traffic signals were used to control movement at congested intersections.  Besides cars and trucks, traffic included street cars (vehicles traveling on rails) and horse-drawn vehicles.  While they all obeyed a general principle of staying to the right on two-way roads, beyond the confusion at busy intersections, it was becoming outright dangerous.

Baltimore City Policeman with
Semaphore, circa 1920
(Courtesy: Kildruffs.com)

   As was the case in many bustling cities of the day, at first, whistle blowing and arm waving patrolmen attempted to provide order to the chaos. As early as April 1915, the Baltimore City Police Department had traffic police officers operating 'newfangled' signals upon long poles (or semaphores) having narrow paddles which were painted red on two sides with a bold white "STOP" - they were first trial implemented at the corner of Park Heights and West Belvedere Avenues.  Traffic policemen operating semaphores were widely used for a period of five years and often removed depending on the perception of their merit as opposed to the sole whistle and wave of patrolmen.

Gen. Charles D. Gaither
Baltimore City Police
Commissioner (1920-1937)

   On June 1st, 1920, a man by the name of Brigadier General Charles D. Gaither, previously commander of the First Brigade, Maryland National Guard began his duties as the Governor-appointed first Baltimore City Police Commissioner.  Called "The General," he took Baltimore City traffic seriously and would personally drive through downtown city streets observing the manner in which traffic was handled, especially during rush hour.

   By July 1921, under his direction, the Police Department placed fourteen six feet high "lighthouses" on concrete bases which were intended to warn motorists of dangerous curves and bends at night. The flashing lights in the lighthouses were fueled by acetylene tanks (see photo, below and left) - red flashing indicated places where people had been killed, yellow for dangerous curves or bends where caution must be exercised, and green was for danger at intersections where slow, careful driving should be exercised to the right.

Acetylene Traffic Beacon

   The earlier days of traffic lights and warnings resulted in disgruntlement by drivers and even beasts.  Prior to placing the traffic lights on streets with protective bases, they were continually run over by motorists refusing to stop.  On October 16, 1923, the Baltimore Sun reported that a certain Jersey bull by the name of Reddy had created a riot in the middle of the congested intersection of Bryant and Pennsylvania Avenues while being led to slaughter.  A heard of 40 bulls were being driven down the avenue where automobiles stopped in obedience to a blinking red light, but not Reddy who saw it as a challenge and proceeded to charge it.  In the charge, a truck struck and broke its leg before he could reach his "enemy."  Unfortunately, agents of the SPCA needed to kill the Reddy earlier than his originally intended fate.

  General Gaither refused to bring "automatic" electric traffic signals to Baltimore City until the Fall of 1925 since he felt that devices on the market prior to then were inefficient in regulating and safeguarding traffic, effectively still in experimental stages.  On St. Patrick's Day of 1926, all semaphores at congested intersections between the north-south Gay and Greene streets and east-west Center and Pratt streets were replaced by automatic electric signals, interestingly controlled by one manned traffic tower - all changing at exactly the same time.  The Baltimore Sun further reported that thoroughfares like Cathedral and St. Paul streets and Mount Royal, North and Pennsylvania avenues would be operated independently by a traffic tower on each thoroughfare controlling all signals on that street.

Native Baltimorean,
Charles Adler, Jr.
(1899-1980)

Sound-activated
Traffic Light -
Adler Invention

  Automatic signals were a change for motorists as they were used to patrolmen hesitating changing a semaphore against an aggressive driver.  In contrast, with automatic signals, drivers would know that the signal won't hesitate and that drivers in the opposing direction would move the instant they saw their green signal.  Savings were envisioned from reduced manpower, yet for a period policemen were stationed at intersections until motorists and pedestrians were educated  to the necessity of observing the signals.  Initially, the colors used were RED for stop, WHITE for change, and GREEN for go.

   While these traffic lights were "automatic" to motorists, they were still controlled by a patrolman located in a tower.  True automatic traffic signals were actually invented by a gentleman by the name of Charles Adler, Jr. who was native to Baltimore.  An avid inventor, he invented a sound-activated traffic light (see figure, above, right), pavement traffic light sensors, and a list of many other inventions.  For all those motorists passing through Baltimore City streets, beware of camera activated ticket lights. Charge those traffic lights like Reddy the Bull and, while you won't meet his similar fate, you will be certain to receive a citation - you just won't have Charles Adler or General Gaither to blame for it.

(Sources: Baltimore Sun Newspaper articles, and Kildruffs.com)