BALTIMORE HISTORY

Baltimore's History (Click on any picture below to view it at a larger size.)

Baltimore, the 12th largest city in the United States, is named "Charm City" for its residents well-established concern for the quality of life. Long considered a southern town, Baltimore owed much of its early growth and prosperity to its desirable location. It lay farther west than any other major Atlantic port, endearing its harbor to shippers. Baltimore now ranks fifth among United States ports, with major railways and trucking lines carrying cargoes to and from docks at Canton and Curtis Bay, as well as raw materials to the city's many factories.

Baltimore's economy and cultural life, in addition to its geography, influenced its local development. Baltimoreans tend to have roots in clearly identified neighborhoods, and this sense of local identification
has helped counter the alienation associated with modern city life.

Baltimore's history, however, goes back farther than that of its neighborhoods, originating in the economic needs of 18th century Maryland farmers. Nature blessed the future site of Baltimore City with a natural harbor on the Chesapeake Bay and a number of potential mill sites on the streams dropping over the fall line. Farmers bringing cereal crops to the mills for grinding were impatient with requirements that made them carry their goods to previously established ports. They, along with Baltimore County's tobacco growers, were anxious to have a customs house built in a convenient spot. Local landowners, led by the prominent Carroll family, petitioned Maryland's governor for such a house, and on August 8, 1729, a bill establishing Baltimore as a town was signed into law.

Gradually, the new town took on a life of its own. Local entrepreneurs, conscious of northern Maryland's and southern Pennsylvania's grain fields, were quick to take advantage of Baltimore's swift-flowing streams, a rarity in coastal Maryland. Shipwrights and merchants, preparing to carry flour milled on Jones Falls and Gwynns Falls to the distant reaches of the British Empire, settled along the fringes of the harbor. By 1768, the town had grown large enough to become the seat of Baltimore County.

The growing city acutely felt the Anglo-American tensions which led up to the American Revolution. As a seafaring and trading community, it suffered from commerce regulations which the British government attempted to impose. When the revolution erupted, it was evident where Baltimore's sympathies were. Her citizens not only served in the Continental army, but also participated enthusiastically in the government -licensed piracy known as "privateering." British merchants suffered losses they would long remember, and Baltimore's size and wealth burgeoned accordingly. Its population doubled between 1776 and 1790, and by 800 had doubled again.

Baltimore thrived during the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to preventing Europe from feeding itself, the conflict also used the ships which could have gone to foreign markets. Baltimore had both foodstuffs to sell and ships to carry them and continued to find enormous profit in overseas trade.

Both the British and French governments saw this as opportunism, and the British tried everything short of violence to cripple America's efforts to supplant her as ruler of the seas. In response to what was seen as harassment, America declared war in 1812. A British admiral said, "Baltimore is a doomed town".

The British, however, were unable to make this promise good. After burning Washington, DC. in the summer of 1814, they attacked Baltimore by land and sea. Thanks to the guns and heroism at Fort McHenry and North Point, Baltimore held off the British. Francis Scott Key's poetic commemoration of the fort's bombardment was later set to music to become America's national anthem.

The war ended early in 1815, having achieved little beyond ending British attempts to regulate American commerce. For Baltimoreans, however, that was enough. They resumed their vigorous foreign trade, especially in flour. By 1825, there were some 60 flour mills within a few miles of center city, as Baltimore became the second largest municipality in the United States. Her leading citizens, however, could see the clouds on the horizon.

The advancement of the American frontier, and the ongoing economic and social changes of the port's leading trade countries, South America and the Caribbean, threatened Baltimore's prosperity. In addition, other American ports were already making efforts to keep in touch with the West.
New York completed the Erie Canal; in 1825.

Philadelphia was organizing what would become the Pennsylvania Railroad, and even smaller cities like Richmond and Charleston were reaching westward. The state of Maryland concentrated its efforts on completing the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, designed to link the Potomac and Ohio River Valleys, but the city of Baltimore supported an overland link in the form of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad.

Baltimore was infrequently touched by military operations, but the end of the Civil War found it suffering nearly as much as many of the cities of the former Confederacy. The collapse of the South's economy naturally affected one of its leading ports of entry, as did the loss of many vessels during the war. The city gradually recovered, however, helped by an influx of displaced Southerners, as well as by the tremendous amount of grain which the B&O trains brought to port from the Middle West.

The canning industry also became important in Baltimore, as the riches of the Chesapeake Bay began, for the first time, to be preserved and shipped to other parts of the country. Older industries, such as shipbuilding and transportation, remained industrially strong, and the city continued as an active port of entry for European immigrants and rural residents from the upper South.

In 1904, however, the city's progress suffered a rude setback when a fire consumed most of its business district, including a number of historic structures. The devastated area was rapidly rebuilt, and Baltimore prospered through the First World War and into the 1920s. The Depression, however, was too great an obstacle for local initiative to overcome. Economic distress and controls imposed during World War II retarded physical development in the city. After the war, Baltimore's economy began to thrive once again, as people spent heavily on consumer goods. As their standard of living improved, city residents were attracted to new housing developments beyond Baltimore's borders, and many people left. The city, which had grown in population every year since the mid-18th century, began to shrink as adjacent counties experienced tremendous growth.

This "suburban flight" also initially depressed the city's economy, particularly the downtown retail district. By the late 1960s, Baltimore's inner city was as financially depressed as it had been during the Depression.

Much to everyone's delight, Baltimore came back strong. A redoubling of effort from the municipal, business and volunteer partnership, as well as a tapping into of ambitious federal programs for urban renewal, gave the city a new look and spirit. While problems remained, the municipality managed to revitalize the downtown area and many neighborhoods by renovating some existing buildings and replacing others.

Special attention was paid to the Inner Harbor area, where hotel, office buildings and entertainment facilities such as Harborplace, National Aquarium in Baltimore and Maryland Science Center replaced dilapidated wharves and warehouses. Other recent additions to Baltimore include the building of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the city's new ballpark, and the establishment of NAACP headquarters in the city.

Today, Baltimoreans take pride in their city, eager to live and work here, and to take advantage of a city rich in culture and history. Influenced by the talent of writers Edgar Allen Poe and H.L. Mencken, musician James Hubert "Eubie" Blake and singer Billie Holiday, Baltimore continues to grow, boasting one of the most remarkable transformations in recent American history.

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Baltimore Area Convention
and Visitors Association
100 Light Street

12th Floor

Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 659 - 7300

(800) 343 - 3468

Fax: (410) 727 - 2308