|
BALTIMORE , a city and seaport, and the metropolis ofSee also: Maryland, U.S.A., the 7th city in population in the See also: United States
.
It is at the See also: head of See also: tide-See also: water on the Patapsco See also: river and its See also: middle and See also: north-west branches where they See also: form an estuary 12 M. from the entrance of their See also: waters into Chesapeake See also: Bay, in See also: lat
.
390 17' N. and long
.
76° 37' W., about 172 M. by water from the See also: Atlantic Ocean, 40 M. by See also: rail N.W. from See also: Washington, 26 m
.
N. by W. from See also: Annapolis, 97 M
.
S.W. from See also: Philadelphia, and 184 m. from New See also: York
.
Pop
.
(189o) 434,439; (1900) 508,957 of whom 79,258 were negroes, and 68,600 See also: foreign-See also: born (of these 33,208 were natives of See also: Germany, 10,493 of See also: Russia, 9690 of See also: Ireland, 2841 of See also: England, 2811 of Poland, 2321 of Bohemia and 2042 of See also: Italy); (rgro, census) 558,485
..
It is served by the Baltimore & See also: Ohio, the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington (the Pennsylvania See also: system), the Baltimore & Annapolis See also: Short See also: Line, the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic; the See also: Northern Central; the Western Maryland and the Maryland & Pennsylvania See also: railways; and by steamship lines See also: running directly to all the more important ports on the Atlantic See also: coast of the United States, to ports in the West Indies and See also: Brazil, to See also: London, Liverpool, Southampton, See also: Bristol, See also: Leith, See also: Glasgow, See also: Dublin, See also: Belfast, Havre, See also: Antwerp, See also: Rotterdam, See also: Bremen, See also: Hamburg and other See also: European ports
.
The city extends nearly 62 m. from E. to W., and except on the W. See also: side a little more than 5 M. from N. to S., covering an See also: area of about 32 sq. m
.
The ground on which it is built is for the most See also: part gently See also: rolling; originally some portions were swampy and others were marked by precipitous heights, but the swamps have been drained and filled and the heights rounded off, See also: Jones's Falls, a small stream shut in between granite walls several feet in height, crosses the N. boundary line a short distance W. of its middle, flows S
.
E. to the S.E. corner of the
See also: main business quarter, and there meets the north-west branch of the Patapsco, in which lies the harbour, defended at its entrance by the historic Fort McHenry, built at the S.E. extremity of See also: Locust Point, an irregular peninsula extending S.E., on which are grain-See also: elevators and a number of wharves, including those of the Baltimore & Ohio railway
.
That part of the city which lies E. of Jones's Falls is known as See also: East Baltimore, and is in turn nominally divided into Fells' Point to the S. and E., now a See also: shipbuilding and manufacturing quarter, and Old See also: Town to the N. and W
.
In the Old Town still remain a few specimens of eighteenth century architecture, including several old-fashioned See also: post-houses, which used to furnish entertainment for travellers starting for the Middle West by way of the old See also: Cumberland Road beginning at Fort Cumber-See also: land, and from Baltimore to Fort Cumberland by a much older See also: turnpike
.
The more inviting portion of the See also: modern city lies on the western side of Jones's Falls, and the See also: principal residential districts are in the northern See also: half of the city
.
A little S. from the centre of the city, Baltimore Street, running E. and W., and See also: Charles Street, running N. and S., intersect; from this point buildings on these two streets are numbered N., S., E. and W., while buildings on other streets are numbered N. and S. from Baltimore Street and E. and W. from Charles Street
.
Baltimore Street is the chief business thoroughfare; S. of it as well as a little to the N. is the wholesale,
See also: financial and See also: shipping See also: district; while West See also: Lexington Street, a short distance to the N., and North See also: Howard and North Eutaw Streets, between Fayette and See also: Franklin Streets, have numerous department and other See also: retail stores
.
In North Gay Street also, which runs N.E. through East Baltimore, there are many small but busy retail shops
.
North Charles Street, running through the district in which the more wealthy citizens live, is itself lined with many of the most substantial and imposing residences in the city
.
See also: Mount See also: Vernon Place and Washington Place, intersecting near the centre of the city, Eutaw Place farther N.W., and Broadway running N. and S. through the middle of East Baltimore, are See also: good examples of wide streets, having squares in the middle, adorned with lawns, flower-beds and fountains
.
The buildings of the principal business quarter have been erected since 1904, when a fire which broke out on See also: Sunday the 7th of See also: February destroyed all the old ones within an area of 150 acres
.
Within a See also: year after the fire, however, 225 places of business were again occupied and 170 more were See also: building
.
A city See also: ordinance prohibited the erection of any building more than 185 ft. in height, and prescribed a See also: uniform height for those in the same neighbourhood; a large portion of the new buildings are of either three or four storeys, but a few tall ones range from ten to sixteen
.
The principal materials of which they are built are See also: limestone, granite, marble and bricks, and terra-cotta of various See also: colours
.
The city See also: hall, the post-office and the
See also: court-See also: house, See also: standing in a See also: row, and each occupying a See also: separate See also: block along E
.
Fayette Street in almost the exact centre of the city, are three of Baltimore's most imposing buildings, and all of them narrowly escaped destruction by the See also: great fire
.
The city hall, completed in 1875, in the See also: Renaissance See also: style, consists of a centre structure of four storeys surmounted by an iron dome 26o ft. high, and two connecting wings of three storeys surmounted by a mansard roof; the entire See also: outer facing is of See also: white Maryland marble
.
The post-office, completed in 189o, is built of Maine granite
.
The court-house, completed in 1899, is of white marble, with mural paintings by La
.
Farge, E
.
H
.
See also: Blashfield and C
.
Y
.
See also: Turner
.
Two of the principal library buildings—the See also: Peabody and the See also: Enoch Pratt—
are faced with white marble
.
Among the churches may be mentioned the See also: Roman Catholic See also: cathedral, surmounted by a dome 125 ft. high—Baltimore being the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric, the highest in See also: rank in the United States; the First Presbyterian See also: church (decorated
See also: Gothic), with a See also: spire 250 ft. high; the See also: Grace Episcopal church—Baltimore being the seat of a See also: Protestant Episcopal bishopric; the First Methodist Episcopal church; and the synagogues of the Baltimore See also: Hebrew See also: Congregation and the Oheb Shalom Congregation
.
Other notable buildings are the See also: custom-house, the Masonic See also: Temple, the Maryland See also: Club-house, the Mount Royal station of the Baltimore & Ohio railway, and the buildings of the Johns See also: Hopkins hospital
.
There are several good See also: bridges across Jones's Falls
.
On an elevated site at the intersection of Washington Place—a continuation of N
.
Charles Street—with Mount Vernon Place stands a white marble monument in honour of See also: George Washington, the eldest of the monuments in his honour in the United States
.
The corner-See also: stone was laid in 1815 and the monument was completed in 1829
.
The
See also: base is 50 ft. sq. and 24 ft. high; on this stands a Doric See also: column, 25 ft. in diameter at the base and 130 ft. high, which is surmounted by a statue of Washington 16 ft. high
.
A winding stairway in the interior leads to a parapet at the top
.
In the square by which the monument is surrounded are also statues of George Peabody by W
.
W
.
See also: Story (a replica of the one in London), See also: Roger See also: Brooke See also: Taney by W
.
H
.
Rinehart, and See also: John Eager Howard by
See also: Emmanuel See also: Fremiet; and See also: bronze pieces representing See also: Peace, War, Force and See also: Order, and a figure of a See also: lion by See also: Antoine L
.
See also: Barye
.
The See also: Henry Walters collection of paintings, mostly by modern French artists, and of
See also: Chinese and See also: Japanese bronzes, ivory carvings, enamels, See also: porcelain and paintings is housed in the Walters See also: Art Gallery at the S. end of Washington Place; at the See also: south-east corner of the square is the Peabody Institute with its conservatory of See also: music and collection of rare books, of See also: American paintings, and of casts, including the Rinehart collection of the See also: works of See also: William H
.
Rinehart who was a native of Maryland
.
In Monument Square near the post-office and the court-house is the white marble
See also: Battle Monument, erected in 1815 to the memory of those who had fallen in defence of the city in the previous year; it is 52 ft. high, the column being in the form of a bundle of Roman See also: fasces, upon the bands of which are inscribed the names of those whom it commemorates; and the whole is surmounted by a See also: female figure, the emblematical See also: genius of the city
.
To this monument and the one in honour of Washington, Baltimore owes the name " The Monumental City," frequently applied to it
.
A small monument erected to the memory of Edgar Allan See also: Poe stands in the See also: Westminster Presbyterian churchyard, where he is buried; there is another monument to his memory in Druid See also: Hill
See also: Park
.
In Greenmount Cemetery in the north central part of the city are the See also: graves of Junius Brutus See also: Booth, Mme See also: Elizabeth Patterson
See also: Bonaparte (1785-1879), the wife of See also: Jerome Bonaparte, Johns Hopkins, John McDonogh and See also: Sidney See also: Lanier
.
In 1908 there were in the city under the jurisdiction of the department of public parks and squares 13 parks of to acres or more each and 33 squares, and the See also: total acreage of parks was 2188 acres and of squares 86.53 acres
.
Chief among the parks is Druid Hill Park in the N.W. containing 672.78 acres and famous for its natural beauty
.
See also: Clifton Park, of 311.26 acres, 2 M
.
E. of Druid Hill and formerly a part of the Johns Hopkins estate, passed into the possession of the city in 1895
.
Patterson Park in the extreme S.E., of 125.79 acres, is a favourite resort for the inhabitants of East Baltimore
.
See also: Education.—Baltimore ranks high as an educational centre
.
Johns Hopkins University (q.v.) is a leading institution of the United States for graduate study
.
The Peabody Institute, founded in 1859 by George Peabody, who was for some years a See also: resident of Baltimore, is an important factor in the promotion of science, literature and the See also: fine arts
.
Goucher See also: College (Methodist, 1888) for See also: women, is one of the best institutions of the kind in See also: southern United States
.
The older of the two See also: state normal See also: schools, opened in 1867, is located here
.
See also: Morgan College (Methodist), opened in 1876, offers the advantages of a
The McDonogh See also: farm school, about 12 M
.
N.W., with a farm of 835 acres, a printing-office, and See also: carpenter and machine shops prepares poor boys to enter any college in the country
.
The institution owes its origin to a bequest See also: left by John McDonogh
.
Among the professional schools are the university of Maryland and Baltimore University—each of which offers courses in See also: law, See also: medicine and dentistry—the Baltimore Medical College, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Woman's Medical College, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the Maryland College of See also: Pharmacy (since 19c4 part of the university of Mary-land), the Baltimore Law School, St See also: Joseph's Seminary and St Mary's Seminary, which, established by the Society of St Sulpice in 1791, is said to be the See also: oldest Catholic theological seminary in the United States
.
The city also has a Polytechnic Institute, as well as high schools for white and for coloured pupils
.
The principal See also: libraries are those of Johns Hopkins University, Peabody Institute, Maryland See also: Historical Society, and the See also: Bar Association; and the Enoch See also: Pratt, the New See also: Mercantile, and Maryland Diocesan (Protestant Episcopal)
.
The charitable institutions of Baltimore are numerous
.
Several such institutions supported wholly or in part by the state of Maryland (q.v.) are located here, and besides these there are scores of others . A representative See also: list includes:—the Charity Organization Society, the See also: primary See also: object of which is to organize the See also: work of the others; the Baltimore Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, which seeks to discourage indiscriminate See also: alms-giving; the Bay View See also: asylum or city poorhouse; the See also: Children's Aid Society; the See also: Thomas
See also: Wilson Fuel-Saving Society, for furnishing
See also: coal at low rates; the Woman's See also: Industrial See also: Exchange, for assisting women in need to support themselves; Johns Hopkins hospital, noted for the excellence of its equipment especially for See also: heating and ventilating; See also: Saint Joseph's general hospital; hospital for the women of Maryland of Baltimore city; nursery and See also: child's hospital; Baltimore See also: eye, ear and throat charity hospital; Maryland hospital for the insane; the See also: Sheppard asylum, intended especially for the cure of the insane; the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt hospital; the Baltimore See also: orphan asylum; Saint Vincent's infant asylum; the Thomas Wilson sanatorium for children, intended for children under three years of age, who are suffering from disease, during the warm summer months; the See also: Free Summer Excursion Society, for affording a change of air to the indigent sick; home for the incurables; homes for the aged; homes for friendless children; institutions for the See also: blind; and institutions for the See also: deaf and dumb
.
Water for the city taken from Jones's Falls and See also: Gunpowder river a few See also: miles N. of the city limits, is brought through tunnels, and is stored in eight reservoirs having an aggregate capacity of 2275 million gallons
.
The whole system is owned by the See also: municipality and can furnish about 300 million gallons daily
.
After the fire $1o,000,000 was appropriated for a new sewage system (begun 1906)
.
In 1900 the Maryland legislature empowered the city to See also: borrow $1,350,000 to establish a municipal See also: lighting plant, but in 1909 private concerns still supplied the streets with See also: light
.
Commerce.—The harbour, which consists of three parts, is excellent
.
Its entrance at Fort McHenry is a channel 600 ft. wide, with a minimum draft (1907) of 31 ft. of water
.
The See also: depth is continued with an increased width for a mile and a quarter to near Fells' Point, where the width is contracted to one-See also: fourth of a mile with a depth of 16 ft
.
Above this entrance it widens into an ellipse a mile long, half a mile broad and 15 ft. deep
.
The third or inner harbour has a depth of 14 ft. and penetrates far into the city
.
Vessels of the largest class can lie at the Locust Point wharves and See also: Canton, and vessels of 4000 tons can use the inner harbour W. of the mouth of Jones's Falls
.
By 1905 $5,000,000 had been appropriated since the great fire for new docks . In 1908 the city ranked fourth among the Atlantic ports of the United States in the amount of its exports ($82,113,496), and fourth in the amount of its imports ($23,722,045) . Ir That Baltimore has grown rapidly as a manufacturing city since r88o is seen from the fact that in that year there were but 3683 manufacturing establishments, with a total See also: annual product valued at $78,417,304, as compared with 6359 establishments (of which 2274 were tinder the factory system) in 1900 producing commodities valued at $161,249,240 ($135,107,626 under the factory system); in 1905 there were 2163 establishments under the factory system with a total annual product valued at $151,546,580, an increase of 12.2 % in the five years
.
The city ranked eighth among the manufacturing centres of the United States, as regards the value of products, in the three successive censuses of 188o, 1890 and 1900
.
In 1905 it was ninth
.
Baltimore is noted particularly as the most important centre in the United States of the canning and preserving industry
.
The output in 1905 ($5,981,541) of the city's establishments for the canning and preserving of fruits and vegetables was 7.7 % of that of the whole United States; in 1900 it had been 15 °Jo of the country's total
.
What seems to have been the first See also: oyster-canning establishment in See also: America was built in Baltimore (by a Thomas See also: Kensett) in 182o, and oyster-canning as a distinct industry on a permanent footing was begun here in 185o
.
The See also: term "See also: cove oysters," now applied to canned oysters every-where, was originally applied to the oysters found in the coves on the W. side of the Chesapeake Bay, above the mouth of the See also: Potomac
.
Up to 1900, after which year oyster canneries began to be built in the southern states, especially in See also: Mississippi, Baltimore was the centre of the oyster-canning industry
.
Baltimore is also a well-known centre for the manufacture of clothing, in which in 1905 ($22,684,656) it ranked fourth among the cities of the United States; for See also: cigar and cigarette-making (1905, $4,360,366); for the manufacture of foundry and machine See also: shop products (1905, $6,572,925), of tinware (1905, $5,705,980), of shirts (1905, $5,710,783), of See also: cotton-See also: duck (the output of See also: sail-duck being about three-fourths of the total for the United States), bricks (about 150,000,000 annually), and fertilizers; it also manufactures furniture,malt liquors,and confectionery, and many other commodities in smaller amounts
.
The markets, especially the Lexington market, are noted for the abundance and great variety of their produce
.
The proximity of coal-mines, the abundance and variety of See also: food supplies furnished by the state, the great quantity and variety of the city's manufactured goods, the excellent shipping facilities, and the consequent low cost of living, are prominent features of the See also: physical See also: life of the city
.
See also: Government.—Although the charter under which Baltimore is governed came into effect as See also: late as 1898, it is only the second one for the city, the first one having been in force for rot years
.
The mayor is now elected for a term of four years; he must be at least twenty-five years of age and must have See also: property in the city valued at $2000 or more, on which he shall have paid taxes for two years preceding his election
.
Great responsibility is centred upon him by giving him power to appoint the heads of departments and sub-departments, subject to the approval of the second branch of the council, and permitting him to remove at pleasure for six months after an See also: appointment; in appointing a See also: board or commission, however, he is required to choose the members from more than one See also: political party
.
He has five days in which to See also: veto an ordinance, and an affirmative See also: vote of three-fourths of the members of each branch of the council is required to pass an ordinance over his veto
.
The council, constituting the legislative department, consists of two branches
.
The first branch is composed of one member from each See also: ward, elected for a term of four years; the second branch of two members from each of four districts, and a president elected by the city at large, all for a term of four years; a property qualification is prescribed for members of each branch
.
All municipal
See also: officers are elected in May in order to separate municipal' from state and See also: national elections
.
No street franchise can be granted for a longer term than twenty-five years, and the right to regulate the exercise of each and every franchise is reserved to the mayor and council
.
A board of estimate, composed of the mayor, the city See also: solicitor, the See also: comptroller, the president of the second branch of the city council, and the president of the board ofpublic improvements, has control over appropriations, the council having power to decrease the amount of any item but not to enlarge it
.
To create a See also: debt for any purpose other than to meet a temporary deficiency, the mayor and council must first obtain the consent of both the state legislature and the city electorate
.
The department of education is intrusted to an unsalaried board of nine commissioners, appointed by the mayor with the approval of the second branch of the council for a term of six years, three retiring every two years
.
This board appoints a See also: superintendent, six or more assistant superintendents, and the teachers of the high schools and the Polytechnic Institute, also the other teachers, but only according to the superintendent's recommendation on the basis of merit
.
See also: History.—Baltimore was named in honour of the Lords Baltimore, the founders of the province of Maryland, but no See also: settlement was made here until nearly Too years after the planting of the colony; meanwhile at least two other town-sites, on which it was' hoped permanent towns might be estabi lished, had received the same name, but nothing came of either
.
Finally, however, while the provincial legislature was still engaged in the practice of directing places to be laid out for towns, where, as events proved there was nothing to give these towns more than a See also: mere paper existence, that See also: body in 1729 directed seven commissioners to See also: purchase 6o acres of land on the N. side of the Patapsco and See also: lay it out in sixty equal lots as the town of Baltimore
.
Three years later, at the instance of the same body, Jones-Town (Old Town) was laid out on the opposite side of Jones's Falls, and in 1745 these two towns were consolidated
.
About the same See also: time the resources of the interior, for which Baltimore was to become a See also: trade centre, were being rapidly See also: developed by the Germans
.
See also: Prior to 1752, in which year there were only twenty-five houses with two See also: hundred inhabitants, the growth of the city had indeed been slow; but only a year or two later See also: wheat loaded in its harbour was for the first time shipped to Scotland; during the war between the French and the See also: English at this time some of the unfortunate Acadians found new homes here; in 1767 Baltimore was made the county seat; by the beginning of the War of Independence its population had grown to 6755; and in 178o it was made a See also: port of entry
.
The city early became an important shipping centre; during both the War of Independence and the War of 1812 many privateers were sent out from it, and in the See also: interval between these See also: wars, the See also: ship-owners of Baltimore had their share in the See also: world's carrying trade, the " Baltimore clippers
becoming famous
.
In 1797 Baltimore received its first charter, having been governed until then from Annapolis and through commissions with very limited See also: powers; at the same time the Fells' Point settlement, founded about 1730 by William Fells, a ship carpenter, was annexed
.
During the War of Independence, the See also: Continental Congress, frightened from Philadelphia in 1776, sat for several See also: weeks in a hall in W
.
Baltimore Street near Liberty Street; during the same war also fortifications were first erected on the site of the See also: present Fort M`Henry
.
This fort effectively protected the city in 1814 when attacked by the See also: British, and it was during the attack that See also: Francis See also: Scott See also: Key, detained on one of the British attacking vessels, composed the "
See also: Star Spangled Banner." In 186o all three of the candidates opposed to Lincoln—Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell—were nominated here, and here in 1864 President Lincoln was nominated for a second term
.
The city has been the meeting-place of other important conventions, and is sometimes called "The See also: Convention City." At the outbreak of the See also: Civil War on the 19th of See also: April 186r, the See also: Sixth Massachusetts regiment, while passing through Baltimore, was attacked by a See also: mob and several men were killed on both sides; in the following See also: month the city was subjected to military See also: rule and so continued until the close of the war
.
From 1856 to 186o Baltimore was under the control of the American or Know-Nothing party, and suffered greatly from election riots and other disorders, until as a remedy the control of the police system was taken from the mayor and council and exercised by the state government . Soon after the Civil War a Democratic " machine " gotSee also: firm control of the city,
and although a struggle to overthrow the machine was begun in earnest in 1875 by a coalition of the reform See also: clement of the Democratic party with the Republican party, it was not till 1895 that the coalition won its first decisive victory at the polls
.
Even then the efforts of the Republican mayor were at first thwarted by the council, which passed an ordinance over his veto, taking from him the power of appointment and vesting it in themselves; the Maryland court of appeals, however, soon decided that the council had exceeded its powers, and an important outcome of the reform See also: movement was the new charter of 1898
.
Annexations of suburban territory in 1888 and 1890 greatly increased the area of the city
.
AuruoRIT1Es.—J
.
H
.
Hollander, Guide to the City of Baltimore (Baltimore, 1893) ; T
.
P
.
Thomas, " The City Government of Baltimore " (in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Baltimore, 1896) ; St G
.
L
.
Sioussat, "Baltimore, the Monumental City " (in L
.
P
.
See also: Powell, Historic Towns of the Southern States, New York, 1900) ; J
.
T
.
See also: Scharf, See also: Chronicles of Baltimore (Baltimore, 1874)
.
|
|
|
[back] BALTIC SEA (Scand. and Ger. Ostsee; Russ. Baltiysko... |
[next] 1ST BARON GEORGE CALVERT BALTIMORE (C. 1580—1632)... |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.