The J.W. Crook Grocery Store on Edmundson Avenue

I always liked this photo that I found on the Pratt Library website some time ago. It reminds me of the neighborhood I grew up in and how everyone always congregated around the corner stores.

J.W. Crook Stores Co. 1929 From the Digital Collections at Enoch Pratt Free Library

 By the time I was growing up, these corner stores where dying off along with the City itself. The 60's and 70's brought many changes to Baltimore. The industries that supported our city started to leave or go under and little stores like this one became huge chains with "super" stores.
I remember going up to the corner store in Medfield called Rudy's to get freshly butchered meats with my mother or to buy penny candies with my friends. The owners knew us all by name, so if one of us "took" something, it would get back to our parents fast!
J.W. Crook Stores Co. was among one of the first grocery store chains in Baltimore. I found several listings for this chain in the 1922 Polk's Directory for Baltimore. Note the sign on the front of the store at 1626 Edmondson Avenue in this picture. It says "Stores Everywhere". Little did they know what was to come. This row of houses is now all boarded up and dilapidated much like the rest of the West side. I look at this picture and wonder where these people might be now. The children in the picture must still be alive. I wonder if they ever come back to the "old neighborhood". If they do, it must be sad for them. It makes me sad just to compare the "then and now" photos.

Screen shot from Google Maps from a similar perspective.

Photo I took in early Sept 2011

Check out the Digital Collections at Pratt Library here:
Digital Collections at Pratt Library
Take a look at some old and rare Baltimore City Directories:
Baltimore City Directories at University of Maryland

Lone mansard roof house

I stumbled on this house about two years ago while examining my favorite old map of Baltimore.

Franklin Street and Kirby Lane 1869. This was once a beautiful area on the edge of the city.

In 1869, it sat alone, across the street from what looks like a church and down and across the street from an enormous mansion that I was then in process of researching. For some reason I love houses with mansard roofs, so it stuck out. It was near the intersection of Franklin Street and Kirby Lane, a road has has been obliterated almost completely over the years. It wasn't until sometime later that Fulton Street was extended north of Franklin Street and Kirby Lane just didn't fit into the new grid. It can still be found, but now only as a small alley that extends for only a few blocks or so. In any case, the house with the mansard roof kept catching my eye. Since I wasn't having any luck finding info on the big mansion up the street, I took a shot in the dark. I looked on Google maps to see if the mansard roof house was still standing. To my surprise it was! This can't of course be confirmed 100% unless I delve into old property records, but I'm 99% sure it's the same house. All the pieces fall into place. I had the opportunity to photograph the house last weekend. It's now surrounded by rows of houses and a very busy intersection. From the looks of it, it has been incorporated into the church that fronts Fulton Ave. It appears to be in good shape, as well!

The old house is still in good shape.

The surroundings have changed dramatically over the last 130 or so years!

For more info on Kirby Lane, check out this great website:
Baltimore Ghosts, Kirby Lane
This site has not been updated in many years, but is full of information about Baltimore's
lost relics, streets and buildings.

Take a look at the  E. Sachse & Co. map of Baltimore:
Enoch Pratt Library
This map can enthrall me for hours at a time.

A. Aubrey Bodine's Photograph

 While reporting for jury duty on August 23rd, we had a 5.9 earthquake here in Charm City. All the folks working downtown had to evacuate the buildings they were in. We were told to leave for the day from jury duty. I was stuck for the rest of the afternoon because there was no cell phone service and I was dropped off and without a car. Not expecting to be picked up until after 5:00, I walked around and took photographs of the great architecture in Baltimore. I had recently been obsessed with A. Aubrey Bodine's photographs, and remembered one I loved of the old Post Office and old Maryland Casualty Tower building he took from Davis Street. I was right around the corner and thought I would try to capture the same scene on this chaotic afternoon. While the photo I took is not exactly in the same place, it is very similar in perspective. From what I can tell, there is only one building from Bodine's photo that is still standing. I think the smaller houses on the left side in the far distance are the same, but am unable to confirm at this time. Bodine's photo conveys a "feeling" of the past that captured me from the moment I saw it. He took the photo in the late 1920s. I plan on taking more of this view in the future, but for now here's what I took on "quake" day.

Photograph by A. Aubrey Bodine • © Copyright Jennifer B. Bodine • Courtesy of www.aaubreybodine.com

Taken on "quake" day

Second attempt to capture this photo

The old1890 Romanesque Post Office building was torn down and replaced with the lovely Neo-Classical style building you see in my photo to be compatible to the Baltimore City Courthouse on the west side of Monument Square that was built in 1894. 

The wonderful eighteen-story tower building was designed by Otto B. Simonson and built in 1912. It originally housed the headquarters of the Maryland Casualty Company but was sold to William Randolph Hearst in the mid-1920s to house his Baltimore-based newspapers, the Baltimore News and Baltimore American. The building changed hands a few more times before being torn down by the Manekin Corporation in 1986 because of structural instability. The grounds where the building once stood are now a parking lot. 

For more info on A Aubrey Bodine, please check out his daughter's website here:

A. Aubrey Bodine - Baltimore Pictorialist  

For more info on the old Maryland Casualty Tower Building go here:

Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore Architecture: Then and Now  

For more info on the Old Post Office Building see this site:

Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore Architecture: Then and Now

and here:

Old Post Office Marker - The Historical Marker Database

The Sellers Mansion

This old mansion is a passion of mine. I'm not sure what draws me to it, but there is no denying that I am completely taken by its beauty. It is truly unique in our present day city. There are no more like it. While there are other mansions from this time period, there are none with this style of architecture in a virtually unaltered state. The only architectural elements known to be lost are the roof cresting and possibly an Italianate style cupola. Both went missing sometime in the 20th century.  The Sellers Mansion was the first home built on the east side of Lafayette Square in 1868-9. The owners of this once beautiful mansion hold a very interesting place in history. Matthew Bacon Sellers was the President of the Northern Central Railway and his son, also Matthew Bacon Sellers, was a great aeronautical inventor who laid the ground work for what we know today as NASA. His brother and sister, Samuel and Annabelle became recluses in the house and never left the house after 1930. Samuel was found dead in the dusty, dimly lit, high-ceilinged parlor wearing the 20 year old suit he always wore. An article in the Baltimore Sun Magazine written in 1955 states "Its era began in 1869 - and really didn't end until last September, when Matthew's son Samuel, a recluse who was virtually unknown in Baltimore despite his considerable wealth, died of old age among a jumble and tangle of old relics." The Sellers Mansion is now in a state of advanced deterioration. There is no more time left for this old majestic beauty. If it is to be saved, it must be saved now.

When she was still in her prime. Photo courtesy of www.matthewbsellers.com.

The mansion is in a serious state of decay.

Photo courtesy of www.matthewbsellers.com.

A close up from

E. Sachse, & Co.'s bird's eye view of the city of Baltimore

Similar view from Bing maps

For further reading about The Sellers Manison, check out these links:

Biography Matthew B. Sellers, II
This is an incredible website about the son of the original owner. There's a section about the mansion as well.

Maryland Historical Trust

Baltimore Sun Papers

Baltimore Heritage
Baltimore Heritage has been advocating for the Sellers Mansion for a long time. If anyone can save her it will be Baltimore Heritage! Please consider donating your time and/or money to this great non-profit organization!

Wm. Knabe & Co. Piano Forte Factory

A. Hoen & Co. lithograph of the Wm. Knabe & Co. Piano Forte Factory

Close up of the old factory from the E. Sachse & Co.'s 1869 Bird's Eye View map of Baltimore

Similar view in Google Earth

The cupola on the BMI lawn

This is an old A. Hoen & Co. lithograph of the Wm. Knabe & Co. Piano Forte Factory in Baltimore. These buildings used to be where the M&T Stadium is now located. The large building with the cupola was located on Eutaw and West Streets. The cupola now resides at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Key Highway. I've included a close up of the old factory from the E. Sachse & Co. 1869 Bird's Eye View map of Baltimore.
Read about the history of these famous pianos here: http://www.knabepianos.com/
and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Knabe

Welcome to Baltimore History Bits!

Hello and welcome to my blog! My goal is to photograph, research and post little history bits about Baltimore for those of you who love this great city's past (and present, as sad as it currently is). I plan on doing some "Then and Now" photographs and I hope to provide some inspiration to all of us to get involved and save Baltimore's historic places and buildings.