Union Trust Building - One of the Great Survivors

Union Trust Building,
101 N. Charles Street

 A few weeks ago marked the 109^th anniversary of the Great Fire of Baltimore.  This week,  the Union Trust Building (currently designated as the Jefferson Building) at 101 N. Charles Street, northeast Fayette St corner, which was once destined to be a Staybridge Suites hotel and has been in bank foreclosure.  A display banner was draped around the corner  of its first floor announcing the auction this week noting its “historic” in nature.

  For the nostalgic types and historic preservationists that know just what this building has been through, it’s somewhat sad given that this rather visually uninteresting building is in the truest sense of the word, a “survivor.”

  The Union Trust Building was originally known as the Massachusetts Building Company's building. It was built for $550,000 in early 1899 by the architectural firm Winslow & Wetherill of Boston and then sold to the Atlantic Trust and Deposit Company.  It later transferred to the Union Trust Company in April 1901 and became known as the Union Trust Building.

Union Trust Building, c1902
Courtesy: CardCow Postcards

  On Sunday, February 7th 1904, this eleven-story building, which was originally built a mere five years earlier, stood in the retail district amidst stores filled with much flammable material only to be subjected to a historic fire.  The fire which started a mere four blocks away at the dry goods warehouse of the John E. Hurst Company (at the present southwest corner of Hopkins Place and German Street) reached peak intensity as it approached the Union Trust building.  According to Fireproof Magazine, March 1904, nearly all authorities on the subject agreed that the Union Trust building was exposed to the severest test of any of the skyscrapers during the Great Fire of Baltimore.
  
  The building on the opposite corner at the time was completely destroyed by dynamiting in advance of the fire, but that action also had the result of breaking the glass out of every window in the Union Trust building. According to eyewitness accounts, “for a moment the explosion seemed to deaden the fire and stop its approach, then a burst of flames, rising up from the ruins several hundred feet, lapped across the street and in the same moment entered every window on the two street fronts of the Union Trust building.”

  Since the Union Trust was designed with a central open stairway surrounded on three sides by a corridor extending the entire height of the building, the entering flames raced up what was essentially a great flue for the escape of the fire – in forty minutes there was nothing left but a blackened shell of the building.

1904 Great Fire Ruins Surrounding Union Trust Building

  Despite nearby dynamiting and the intense fire burning throughout it, “the Union Trust Building must be given credit for having stood as the Gibralter” against the waves of fire which finally broke in vain and the fire reached its most northern point here. Unlike the Continental Trust Building, another of the only 10 building survivors from that fire, the Union Trust’s cast iron mullions were in good condition whereas in the former they were almost a total loss. An engineering expert was said to have deemed that the Union Trust’s 800 tons of structural steel was salvageable at 100 percent despite there being a near full incineration of everything else inside.

700 pound stress test, April 20, 1904

  Two months later, on April 20, 1904, tests were accomplished on the second floor structure of the Union Trust by loading with 700 pounds of lumber to which it successfully passed with full integrity. Here's hoping that the Union Trust building can withstand the test of new owner and somehow rise beautifully again in Baltimore like a phoenix from its economic ashes.

(Sources: Enoch Pratt Free Library Photograph Collection, Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage, Fireproof Magazine (March 1904))

The American Odd Fellows - Birthed in Baltimore

Cornerstone, 300 Cathedral St.

  There is a beautifully architected, enormous yet rather externally unadorned, dark red brick building situated on the northwest corner of 300 Cathedral and Saratoga Streets that apparently is “Now Open” for business, presumably luxury apartments.  To look at its imposing grandeur with massive chimneys, one would be hard pressed to determine exactly what was its intended purpose – was it a business? a mansion or residence?   The historical answer can be found on the cornerstone, shown left, which gives a subtle clue “I.O.O.F. 1891 – 1831.”

  As it turns out, George Bunnecke & Son built it according to designs by a talented Baltimore architect, Frank E. Davis and dedicated on April 26, 1892 as the Grand “Temple” Lodge of a rather interesting fraternal organization known as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, I.O.O.F. According to the “History of American Odd Fellowship, the First Decade,” the I.O.O.F. owes some of its roots to its English predecessor, The Ancient Order of the Society of Odd Fellows, begun in London in the 17^th century. 

The Seven Stars Tavern, Second St., 1819

  Its birth in the United States, however, resulted after a few men responded to an ad in the Baltimore American newspaper by an outgoing blacksmith Thomas Wildley and two friends who similarly missed the fraternal companionship. The ad announced the meeting which would be at 7pm on April 2, 1819 at the Seven Stars Tavern located on the south side of Second Street (now Water Street), between Frederick St. and what was then called Market Place, basically where Baltimore City Community College now stands.

Colvin's Stone Tavern, c1823

  On April 26, 1819, they instituted the American Odd Fellows at Washington Lodge No. 1 in a house at South Frederick St and elected Wildley as their Noble Grand. In February 1820, admittance was granted by decree into the Independent Order of Odd Fellowship in England.

  Disgruntled members, members desiring office, and lack of funds withdrew to form a new lodge Franklin Lodge, No. 2.  The Grand Lodge of Maryland and the United States recognized them on Sep 5, 1821.  Columbia Lodge, No. 3 was instituted on 17 Dec 1823 at Colvin’s Stone Tavern.  No further increases in the number of lodges until 31 Jan 1827 when the William Tell Lodge, No. 4 (with authority to conduct business in the German language) was formed.  

300 Cathedral St, Architectural Sketch, c1891

  The Grand Lodge moved on April 26, 1831 to Bridge (now Gay) Street where it remained until being demolished and the moving to the Cathedral Street location in 1892.  This Grand Lodge located at 300 Cathedral Street was built with six Barstow Furnaces and a 100ft basement to roof elevator supplied by electricity which was the first of its kind in the city.  Leading from the Cathedral Street entrance is a magnificent 26ft wide stairway made of oak and ash carved with I.O.O.F and emblems of the Order upon it.

  The first floor Library is 81x61 feet and has room for up to 25,000 volumes of books.  Within it is a “Lovers' Grotto,” which was no doubt popular but contained founders’ relics.  Other rooms on this floor are those of the Grand Secretary and the Grand Master’s room.

I.O.O.F., Baltimore, c1931

  The American Odd Fellows Founder died at the age of 80 in 1861 - there were 42 jurisdictions and 200,000 members at that time.  His gravesite resides in Greenmount Cemetary and a monument was dedicated four years later in his name.  At one time, General Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax were members. U.S. peak membership was reached in the 1950s but the I.O.O.F. continues as a worldwide fraternity for men and women dedicated to making the world a better place through fraternal friendship, charitable love and the pursuit of truth in all their dealings.  They believe that through true fraternity we can build a better world.  An interesting YouTube video can be checked out from this link.

(Source: "Official Programme and Souvenir, I.O.O.F. Dedication of New Temple")

The Baltimore General Dispensary (1801-1959)

  While public opinion of our current health system and Obamacare is still being deliberated, there was such a time when there were Free Dispensaries connected with every College. At one point in Baltimore history, there were also four City Dispensaries where patients received medical aid in Baltimore free of charge and were often visited at their homes by the Dispensary physicians.  Over the 158 years of Baltimore's oldest charity operation, the Baltimore General Dispensary treated a total of 950,310 patients and filled over 1.5 million prescriptions.

Original 1801Location:
127 E. Baltimore Street

  On February 10, 1801, at the old Indian Queen Tavern, which was on the corner of Hanover and Baltimore Streets (currently where the Morris Mechanic Theater sits), a few generous and kindhearted gentlemen had a zeal for the welfare of the poor.  Seeing that there was no organized system of relief, they got together to form by-laws.  Three other meetings transpired that month after which the original consulting and attending physicians and apothecary were assigned.  It endeavored to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and poor, “whether Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic or Jew.”

  A search of the records of the Maryland Historical Society revealed an old painting showing Baltimore Street looking west from Calvert Street and the first home (1801 to 1803) of the Baltimore General Dispensary at No. 127 E. Baltimore Street on the southeast corner of Public Alley (now Grant Street).

  According to the History of the Baltimore General Dispensary, the first case was recorded as being on April 1, 1801 and a total of 300 patients were treated the first year.  In 1802, the hours were 8am to 2pm and 3pm to 6pm every day such that “every case shall be duly attended, whether acute, chronic, surgical, or obstetric” by physicians who were salaried at $300 per year in 1803.

651 W. Lexington St, 1893

  The Dispensary moved to a house on Light Street for several months and then again in October 1803 to a house on Chatham (now Fayette) Street between Charles Street and St. Paul Lane.

  What began as a mere charity, in 1807 the Baltimore General Dispensary proposed to the Maryland General Assembly that it be incorporated and became the third charted institution in the State of Maryland, only to be preceded by the Equitable Fire Insurance Company and the Bank of Baltimore.

  On Dec 7, 1837, the Dispensary moved to a rented house on the northeast corner of Liberty and Fayette Streets (it later built a three story building there in June 1875) where it dutifully provided services until 1893.

500 W. Fayette Street (Photo: Courtesy, Wikipedia)

  In 1893, the Baltimore General Dispensary moved to a house it purchased at 651 W. Lexington Street. By 1900, the City Charter contained provisions giving the mayor and the City Council power to make contracts with it and other dispensaries around the city.

  The Lexington Street property was sold for the purchase of a dwelling on the northwest corner of Paca and Fayette Streets.  The building standing today, shown at right, was architected by Geroge Norbury Mackenzie III, built in 1911, and on Feb 15, 1912 received its first patients until it closed in 1958.  The work of the Baltimore General Dispensary Foundation, while not currently conducted within a building, continues to this day through funds to area hospitals for medicine in their outpatient departments.  

(Source: "A History of the Baltimore General Dispensary", 1963, Baltimore General Dispensary Foundation, Inc. )

The Struggle for Baltimore's First Parking Meters

Parisian women in 1960, not Baltimore, hon.

  To look at the prolific distribution of parking meters across the City of Baltimore, one might think that they've been there near the time of the earliest automobile.  It turns out that the Baltimore City Council first took up the suggestion of installing meters in the Summer of 1937, only to banter about it for close to two decades.

  Baltimore's traffic problem began to annoy city traffic officials by the mid 20's and they had been hearing of the success these devices brought many other cities across America - the first in the U.S., according to "thexpiredmeter.com" was installed in downtown Oklahoma City, OK produced by the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company.

  It became a nearly perennial occurrence that some bill came to the City Council over the 18 years until in February 1955 when it was reported by the Baltimore Sun that it had "adopted a favorable report on a bill authorizing the installation of almost 3,000 parking meters on about 40 business streets."

Duncan-Miller Parking Meter, c1955

   By August of the same year, the Baltimore City Board of Estimates let its first of eventually two contracts for meters to the Duncan (Miller) Parking Meter Corporation of Chicago, IL which produced the first mechanical meters - the Dual Parking Meter Company produced the later automatic meters which operated at the insertion of a coin. The total cost of the original 2490 meters was $114,237.00.

Early Dual Parking Meter ad

  Under the administration of Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. (father of Representative Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi), the first parking meter in Baltimore was installed on North Avenue, followed by Charles Street by the 1st of November 1955. Others quickly followed on Eastern and Pennsylvania Avenues and near Cross Street Market. Closer to the Inner Harbor, the next set of meters were installed in Sam Smith Park, just off of the Pratt Street waterfront - according to a Baltimore Sun article, they had a "rate of a nickel an hour for private autos and 25 cents for two hours for semi-trailers."  By 1956, the Waverly and Highlandtown business districts were added to the city's collection due to the aggressive push of Henry A. Barnes, the City's traffic director at the time.

  Early disapprovals ensued between Federal and City officials as was indicted by a July 22, 1958 Baltimore Sun article that reported "not one red penny of funds from this office will be dropped into the city's new red parking meters on Government property, the U.S. marshal declared.  He was apparently miffed that the City had allotted space on Calvert Street near the Battle Monument for the "Federal Bureau of Investigation (4 spaces) and armed forces recruiting (6 spaces), but not one for the Federal marshal's cars."

(Note: Referenced article is courtesy of The Baltimore Sun) 

Baltimore News - 120 years ago

A few news items from local news of the Baltimore Sun (February 1, 1893) give a sense of commuting issues, criminality, etc from 120 years ago in the city:

Dangerous Place for Horses to Tread - Serious transportation issues ensue due to the railway groove at the corner of Biddle Street and Madison Avenue which has been perilous for horses.  "A horse driven by F. F. Shipley, No. 1843 Mosher Street caught his shoe ... was thrown down and hurt.  A horse fell in the same place a few days ago.  Enough shoes to fill a bushel have been torn from horses ... at this place."

Her Pocket-Book Stolen in Church - While Miss Anna Bartzell, 1713 Bolton Street, was in the Strawbridge Methodist Episcopal Church at (1630) Park Avenue and Wilson Streets, the contents were stolen from her pocketbook as she worshipped in church.

Courtesy: BaltimoreCityPoliceHistory.com

Sentenced for Forging Store Orders - Four years in the penitentiary were the consequence of "John Davis, colored, pleaded guilty to ... forging the name of Mr. Henry A. Parr to several orders ... for merchandise" at Hamilton Easter & Sons, 13 East Baltimore Street (built in 1848, but destroyed by the 1904 Great Fire).

An Astronomical Phenomenon Observed - "..while standing on the Canton wharf of the Bay Line steamers and looking westward across the ice-covered harbor, the attention of [Rev. T. M. Beadenko] and a companion was attracted by a luminous circular spot not far from the sun, but apparently larger and shining with prismatic colors of the rainbow."

Tomorrow is Christian Endeavor Day - What has become Groundhog Day, February 2, was celebrated by the world-wide, inter-denominational,  Christian Endeavor Society in accordance with their manual, "to obtain a thank-offering for some good object."  The Maryland State society executive committee met at the Baltimore YMCA.

(Note: Referenced article is courtesy of The Baltimore Sun.) 

Molasses and Stowaways at Domino Sugar

   Here in Baltimore, one can't help but notice the red, brightly illuminated, iconic Domino Sugar sign atop the sugar refinery building at night, located on the southeast section of the Inner Harbor.  In December, the Baltimore Sun heralded a photo contest sponsored by Domino Sugar to help celebrate its 90th birthday.  Some impressive photos of the sign atop this iconic building were submitted by contestants, judged by a panel of Domino Sugar judges - the winning photo is pictured below.

Photo Courtesy:  Don Vetter

  The Domino Sugar refinery building, one of a few on the east coast was built on a plot of land at the intersection of Beason and Jones Streets on Locust Point in South Baltimore. According to Baltimore Sun reports, the 1/4 mile waterfront location was originally planned for an immigration station but, in January 1920, it was purchased by the American Sugar Refining Company with plans to construct an $8 million plant that would have dock facilities to accommodate a total of four steamships.  

  Carl F. Huttlinger, the refinery's first superintendent who began his career at the Jersey City, NJ refinery facility and was later transferred to Baltimore, witnessed the first shipment which was reported on March 11, 1922 by the Baltimore Sun as carrying 724,936 gallons of crude molasses brought by the tanker Dulcino from Cuba.  On April 3, the refinery was open to begin processing the raw material and, within two days, dealers began receiving the refined sugar.   

Sugar cane harvested from New Orleans, circa 1910

  The raw material used as a foundation for refined sugar traditionally began as sugarcane or sugar beets which was shipped from Cuba, Puerto Rico (and later the Philippines).  During it's early operation, according to plant officials, from the time it was harvested and placed in burlap (as a solid) or liquified within ship containers, it did not touch human hands until it emerged as refined sugar. As reported by the Baltimore Sun, on December 11, 1924, the first shipment of sugar (31,000 bags) from Louisiana plantations arrived into Baltimore on the Domino, a ship in the company's fleet.  Ships would arrive at this dock with raw sugar up to several times monthly and have continued to be shipped to this day.

  Interestingly enough, by the mid-1980s the Domino Sugar sign welcomed immigrants to the America (in the same manner as the Statue of Liberty would in New York Harbor and as this waterfront land was once destined to do) when on August 14, 1986, the Baltimore Sun reported that "nine husky and uncooperative Columbian stowaways" attempted to illegally enter the U.S.  A U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service official was quoted as saying "For spending 10 days at sea on water and sugar, they are extremely fit.  They are big, husky men."

An early Domino Sugar ad, circa 1900

  Nearly a year later, in October 1987, the Domino Sugar refinery docks hosted another ship laden with another crystalline substance - $7 million in nearly pure cocaine. According to the Baltimore Sun, the couriers were arrested only after having wandered around Baltimore with four kilos of cocaine under their jackets (one package of which was accidentally dropped by nervous crewmen along a street in the Mount Vernon Place area. A DEA spokesman stated in the article that it stayed there for several hours).

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