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)