Constructed of tooled Indiana limestone, glass, steel, concrete, and granite, the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery is at the center of the University of Maryland, 91桃色视频 County campus both literally and figuratively. Since the library first opened in 1968, it has served as a focal point of the campus and UMBC students鈥 academic lives.
In 1982, the building was named in honor of Dr. Albin O. Kuhn, the first chancellor of UMBC. Chancellor Kuhn helped to found and plan the University of Maryland campus in 91桃色视频 County and took part in the early administration of the new campus. In 1965, Chancellor Kuhn hired his first full-time employee鈥攖he university鈥檚 first librarian, John Haskell, Jr. Haskell was only 24 at the time, coming to work straight out of graduate school and a few months of active duty in the Army Reserves. He spent many of the early months leading up to UMBC鈥檚 opening ordering books, hiring new employees, and creating a catalog ordering system. The campus master plan from that same year also noted the importance of the library:
鈥淭he building will be viewed on axis from the main approach drive, appearing unquestionably as the major building on campus.鈥
In its early years, UMBC housed the library collections in different locations throughout the campus. Chancellor Kuhn鈥檚 house served as the catalog center for the library鈥檚 20,000 volume collection while other collection materials were held within Academic Building I. As the university鈥檚 holdings continued to grow, the UMBC administration began plans for the construction of a specifically designated library building, which would later become known as the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery.
Campus architects designed the library to grow with the university, making plans to build it in three phases. Phase 1, in 1968, brought all of UMBC鈥檚 library collections, which had previously been scattered across the campus, together into one central location. The new library Brutalist unfinished concrete exterior contrasted with an interior of brightly colored walls and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the pond. 91桃色视频 Chapter of the American Institute of Architects recognized the design with their highest honors in 1975.
Phase II opened in 1975 adding the library鈥檚 Special Collections department and a select collection of state and federal government documents to the library鈥檚 collection and continued the university鈥檚 efforts to expand its holdings. Phase III, the Library Tower, opened in 1995, increasing the library鈥檚 capacity further to 1,000,000 volumes.
As the library has sought to grow and maintain its holdings, the building has also grown as a student-centered space. This role expanded with the completion of the Retriever Learning Center (RLC) in 2011. Student organizations, like the Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Association, advocated for a central group study space as early as the 1980s. The university administration responded by creating the RLC, a space open to UMBC students for collaborative learning and group study. As described by UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski in 2011, the RLC is 鈥渁nother example of UMBC鈥檚 innovation in teaching and learning.鈥
The聽Baltimore Black Musicians Union opened a meeting hall and boarding house at 620-622 Dolphin Street around the 1940s. Due to the discrimination of Baltimore's downtown hotels at that time, traveling black musicians would stay overnight in the rooms located in part of the building. Both locals and traveling musicians also used the building for meetings and socializing.
Even in the late 1970s, the building continued to be used for music education. Former neighborhood resident Catherine Bailey recalled in a recent post on the Baltimore Old Photos Facebook Group:
鈥淚 used to have marching band practice in the basement as a little girl. We were the pride of Baltimore!鈥
The building聽later operated as the meeting hall for the Elks聽fraternal organization and as Mrs.聽Joanne鈥檚聽After Hours club.
The story of the Zell Motor Car Company starts in 1902 when Arthur Stanley Zell established the business鈥攖he first automobile distributor in Maryland started by one of the first people in Maryland to own a car. Before joining the automotive industry, Zell drove in early automobile races winning a number of records on the East Coast. As a member of the Baltimore Automobile Dealers鈥 Association, Zell helped to organize the first automobile show in Baltimore in 1906. He also served as a founding member of the Maryland Automobile Trade Association and, at his farm at Riverwood, he raised Guernsey cattle, Jersey Duroc hogs, and show dogs.
Plans for the firm鈥檚 modern showroom on Mount Royal Avenue first appeared in December 1908 when trade publication "The Automobile" reported that the Zell Motor Car Company had solicited plans for a three-story garage about 50 feet deep by 100 feet wide. The design boasted a large open fireplace (a new feature for showrooms borrowed from examples in Paris), a large electric elevator to carry cars between floors, and a special room for chauffeurs with a 鈥渢elephone connection鈥 to let owners 鈥渂e in touch with their drivers at all times.鈥 The structure, erected by the Baltimore Ferro Concrete Company, cost around $40,000 to build. The Baltimore Sun observed on December 22:
The rapid success of the Zell Motorcar Company in the sale of the Peerless and Chalmers-Detroit motorcars since its incorporation last August has compelled it to seek larger and permanent quarters, its present temporary location at 1010 Morton street being totally insufficient.
The building鈥檚 architect, 35-year-old Edward H. Glidden (1873-1924), brought the same tasteful design sensibility he applied to a growing number of apartment houses in the city鈥檚 growing northern suburbs: Earl Court (1903), the Winona (1903), the Rochambeau (1905; demolished 2006), the Washington (1905-6), the Marlborough (1906), and the Wentworth (1908). Not limited to apartments, the architect鈥檚 designs also included the National Marine Bank (1904) and the Seventh Baptist Church (1905) on North Avenue. Gildden鈥檚 later commissions, often with his partner Clyde Nelson Friz, included the Latrobe (1911; Glidden & Friz), the Esplanade (1911-12; Glidden & Friz), Calvert Court (1915), and Tudor Hall/Essex Arms (1910, with Friz; 1922), Furness House (1917), and the Forest Theater (1918-19). The French precedent for the grand fireplace at the Zell Motor Car Company showroom are likely based on Glidden鈥檚 studies in Paris around 1908 to 1912.
Zell hired Glidden again in early 1914 to expand and improve the showroom on Mount Royal Avenue, according to a February 9, 1914 mention in Industrial World noting that Gildden had 鈥渄rawn up plans covering the same general design and character of building as their present one.鈥 The business thrived as the local dealer for the Packard鈥攁n independent automaker based in Detroit that specialized in high-priced luxury automobiles. The Zell Motor Car Company also operated a service facility nearby (set back from North Avenue on Whitelock Street at Woodbrook Avenue) from around 1901 up until Packard stopped manufacturing automobiles in the late 1950s. The service facility is better known for the last few decades as the location of Greenwood Towing.
Dealerships and service stations on Mount Royal Avenue, Charles Street and North Avenue flourished in the 1920s, endured through the Great Depression in the 1930s and still continued after World War II. Nearby dealers to the Zell Motor Company included Backus Ford, Weiss Ford, Chesapeake Cadillac, and Oriole Pontiac. Unfortunately for the Zell Motor Car Company, whose founder had died in 1935, the end of Packard鈥檚 automobile production in 1956 marked the end of their operation. Like other landmarks on Mount Royal Avenue, such as the conversion of Mount Royal Station into studios for MICA in 1968, the automotive showroom turned into offices and remains in use today. In 2015, the sign above the building鈥檚 Mount Royal Avenue entrance reads 鈥淭he Towne Building鈥 and the structure is up for sale.
This sculpture is depicts Glory, an allegorical figure that looks in this sculpture like an angel, holding up a dying Confederate soldier in one arm while raising the laurel crown of Victory in the other. The dying soldier holds a battle flag. Underneath, the inscription states 鈥淕loria Victis,鈥 meaning 鈥淕lory to the Vanquished.鈥
The Maryland Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy funded the construction of this monument. It was sculpted by F. Wellington Ruckstuhl (also spelled Ruckstull), a French-born sculptor based in New York. It is located in a wide median on Mount Royal Avenue near Mosher Street in Bolton Hill. The inscriptions on the monument are the following:
Inscription on front of base: GLORIA VICTIS/ TO THE/ SOLDIERS AND SAILORS/ OF MARYLAND/ IN THE SERVICE OF THE/ CONFEDERATE STATES/ OF AMERICA/ 1861-1865.
On base, right side: DEO VINDICE
On base, left side: FATTI MASCHII/ PAROLE FEMINE
On base, back side: GLORY/ STANDS BESIDE/ OUR GRIEF/ ERECTED BY/ THE MARYLAND DAUGHTERS/ OF THE/ CONFEDERACY/ FEBRUARY 1903
The Latin phrase on the base is "Deo Vindice, " meaning "Under God, Our Vindicator." The Italian phrase on the base, "Fatti Maschii, Parole Femine" is Maryland's state motto, "Strong deeds and gentle words," although the direct translation is "Manly deeds, womanly words."
This monument bears a striking resemblance to two of Ruckstuhl's other sculptures - one Union, one Confederate. The Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1896) in Major Mark Park in Queens, New York, features the solitary Glory holding the laurel crown. The Confederate Monument (1903) in Salisbury, North Carolina is almost an exact replica of Baltimore's Confederate Soldier's and Sailors Monument, except that the dying soldier is holding a gun instead of a flag.
A native of Goochland County, near Richmond, Virginia, Warner T. McGuinn was born less than two years before the Civil War in November 1859. His parents, Jared and Fannie McGuinn, sent him to public school in Richmond and then he went on to graduate from Lincoln University in 1884. Warner McGuinn studied law at Howard University for two years but finished his degree at Yale, where he served as the president of the Law Club and made friends with Mark Twain before graduating in 1887. Twain even supported McGuinn's education after finding out that the young man was working his way through school.
McGuinn moved to Baltimore in 1890 and was admitted as a lawyer to the Maryland Bar in 1891. The next year he married Anna L. Wallace, a fellow Virginian, and started a family with the birth of their daughter Alma in September 1895. McGuinn started working with Harry S. Cummings, Baltimore's first African American City Councilman in 1893, and moved to 1911 Division Street, just six blocks north of Cummings' house on Druid Hill Avenue.
McGuinn participated in Civil Rights struggles and Republican politics throughout his life in Baltimore. In 1910, McGuinn and W. Ashbie Hawkins worked together to overturn the West segregation ordinance and McGuinn argued against a similar ordinance in court in 1917. In 1911, he voiced his support for women's suffrage by reading an "exhaustive" paper on the issue to an assembly gathered at Bethel A.M.E. Church to inaugurate the Baltimore Historical and Literary Association. The Afro-American Ledger reported that McGuinn reminded his audience of the principle of the consent of the governed found in the Declaration of Independence鈥攎aking it evident that all adults had a right to participate in electing their own representatives regardless of their color or gender.
Warner T. McGuinn served two terms as a Republican on the 91桃色视频 City Council, from 1919 to 1923 and 1927 to 1931. In May 1919, after his first election, the Afro-American quoted the new Councilman who said:
"I shall do my best in the City Council to fulfill every pledge that has been made during the campaign, especially as regards the health and school conditions of the race."
In 1927, the Sun praised his service as a Councilman, writing:
"No member has been more efficient or more earnest in endeavoring to promote public welfare than Warner T. McGuinn... He set an example of nonpartisanship in consideration of measures before the Council, and when he spoke upon them showed that he had taken pains to inform himself. His record deserves commendation."
While visiting his daughter Alma in Philadelphia, Warner McGuinn died on July 10, 1937. His home on Division Street still stands.
A neglected brick rowhouse at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue was once the residence of Baltimore鈥檚 first black City Councilman Harry S. Cummings.
Harry S. Cummings, his wife Blanche Teresa Conklin and their two children Louise Virginia and Harry Sythe Cummings, Jr. moved to 1318 Druid Hill Avenue in 1911. The family hadn't moved far. They had moved to 1234 Druid Hill Avenue in 1898 and Cummings' sister continued to live in the house up through the 1950s. This house, later known as Freedom House for its' role as offices for the local chapter of the NAACP, was torn down by Bethel AME Church in November 2015.
The rowhouse at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue聽was not only a family home but also a place for politics. Cummings campaigned and won re-election to the City Council in 1911 and 1915. In 1912, Cummings hosted the Seventeenth Ward Organization at his home where local Republicans met to endorse President William Howard Taft. Unfortunately, Cummings fell ill at age fifty-one and, on September 5, 1917, the Sun reported that Cummings was "critically ill at his home, 1318 Druid Hill Avenue, of a complication of diseases and a blood clot on the brain. It was said last night that he had not spoken since last Friday."
Cummings died on September 7, 1917, at his home. On Monday, September 10, thousands of people, both white and black, visited the Metropolitan M.E. Church on Orchard Street to see the 鈥渞emains lay in state鈥 and hundreds of people visited his home. Rev. Leonard Z. Johnson, the pastor of Madison Street Presbyterian Church, conducted a brief service at 1318 Druid Hill Avenue, remarking:
鈥淭his life is a token and a proof of Negro possibility in the sphere of life achievement, if given its chances to fulfil itself, and while such Negro possibility shows there shall none, of right reason, decry the Negro people and race and reuse right and a place of common human respect and equal opportunity of strong life in the citizen life of the nation.鈥
Blanche T. Cummings continued to live in the house up until her death on January 12, 1955, and the property remained in family ownership up until 2005. Despite the deteriorated condition of the building today, the backyard still holds a reminder of the Cummings family鈥攁 rare American Elm planted on Harry S. Cummings, Jr.鈥檚 seventh birthday. Neighbors hope to see the history of this home and memories of the聽Cummings family preserved of for generations to come.
The Polish Home Club, known then as the Polish Home Hall, opened to six hundred members of the Polish community on August 11, 1918, in an area of Fell's Point known as 鈥淟ittle Poland.鈥 Baltimore鈥檚 Polish population grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century as Polish immigrants arrived at the port to work on the docks. By the turn of the century, the community was well-established with Polish churches, a Polish-language newspaper and financial institutions that offered loans to Polish people. By 1923, the Polish community had become large and organized enough to gain political representation through Baltimore鈥檚 first Polish city councilman, Edward Novak.
The Polish Home Hall, erected at a cost of $81,000 and affectionately called Dom Polski, opened to great fanfare. Marked by a banquet and speeches by Wladislaus Urbanski and Rev. Stanislaus Wachowiak, the dedication ceremonies revealed a beautiful community hall for future events. The night followed with music by the Polish National Band and dancing. Two years after the hall opened, it hosted the Polish Falcons鈥 Alliance, an international Polish organization, for an annual convention and accompanying athletic contests in Patterson Park.
When financial difficulties nearly led to the close of the Polish Home Hall, the Polish Home Club, organized in 1933 and led a community effort to raise funds for the building attracting around two thousand supporters. The Polish Home Club organized the first Polish Festival in 1973 at the Constellation Dock. The festival featured Polish food, music, dancing, and singing. In the years to follow, the festival enjoyed a long run at Rash Field, then Patterson Park, and currently, Timonium Fairgrounds.
The largest draw to the Polish Home Club is its restored wood dance floor. The club hosts a dance every Friday and Saturday evening where they play traditional Polish music and pop and serve Krupnik, the house drink, at the bar. The hall is also available for community events and gatherings.
The Polish population of Fell's Point has dwindled and a thriving Latino population has filled the void. As the neighborhood around the club changes, some fear that Polish traditions might be lost. However, the Polish Home Club hopes to stick around and be a cultural resource for future generations of people with Polish heritage.
Sudbrook Park is one of only three examples in the country of Frederick Law Olmsted鈥檚 鈥減erfect鈥 suburban community. The other two, Riverside in Chicago and Druid Hills in Atlanta, would make him a pioneer in landscape architecture. Frederick Law Olmsted felt a pull to make suburban communities long before it was in fashion to live in them. He used two styles of creation: pastoral and picturesque. Unlike the pastoral approach, he used a picturesque style to heighten the mysteriousness of the location with a constant play on shadow and light.
Sudbrook Park鈥檚 land originally belonged to the McHenry family and passed to J. Howard McHenry by his grandfather. McHenry had a plan for a suburban community on a large portion of his land but with horse and carriage as the only means of transportation at that time, he deferred his dream. His lifetime efforts ensured the construction of a railroad through his lands. He died in 1888 and the Sudbrook Company bought part of his land. Now with rail access, the company then began planning the community he always desired.
Early on, McHenry reached out to Olmsted to get some provisional layouts on Sudbrook but he focused heavily on the cost and never finalized the project. The Sudbrook Company followed suit and immediately contacted Olmsted for the design, which they immediately adopted. In 1889, the detailed construction began. Sudbrook鈥檚 main design feature focused on Olmsted鈥檚 use of curvilinear lines. The curved roads endlessly pulled visitors deeper to the heart of the community. His revolutionary methods, however, created a dilemma with laying out the stakes for the roads. No one knew how to lay out curved lines, so Olmsted made a special drawing including the radii and tangents of each curve.
Olmsted favored the Sudbrook suburb as a place where the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the city gave way to clean personal and community spaces. He placed emphasis on fences to mark property lines as he blamed the lack of defined personal space as a contributor to the unsanitary practices of the city. He also preferred to have plenty of street and sidewalk space to allow for leisurely strolls or drives through the area. Unfortunately, many of the original sidewalks disappeared when the city widened the street for cars.
Beautiful, park-like spaces created a sense of community and provided ample space for neighborhood activities. In the heart of Sudbrook, Olmsted left a large plot for a church or community building as an epicenter for the area. Once construction finished, Olmsted insisted on 16 deed restrictions for Sudbrook homeowners to protect his master plan and the residential character of the neighborhood.*
In 1973, after years of growth and decline, the National Register officially recognized Sudbrook Park as a National Historic District. While the historic district did not cover later construction at the edges, it preserved the heart of the community. Later, the Maryland Transit Administration, against strong objections from the community, added a subway through the edge of the community which many feel destroyed the alluring entrance way. In response, the community fostered extensive landscaping to bring the area back to its former glory. Currently, the area participates in the Tree-mendous Maryland program which offers trees for public areas at reasonable prices. Sudbrook leaders have also added the 600 block of Cliveden Road and hope to make more additions in the future.
*Considered the first example of comprehensive land-use requirements in Maryland, the restrictions are as follows:
The Munsey Building was erected by and named after the publisher, Frank Munsey, who had purchased the Baltimore News to add to his publishing empire. Though he wanted the paper, he did not like the five-year old building that housed it. So, he had a new one erected more to his liking. Completed in 1911, the newspaper's new offices were designed by the local architectural firm of Baldwin & Pennington, together with McKim, Mead & White of New York.
The Munsey Trust Company, which eventually became the Equitable Trust Company, opened on the ground floor in 1913. The paper was eventually bought by William Randolph Hearst, became the Baltimore News-American, and moved a few blocks away.
The building鈥檚 most recent purpose is to serve as loft apartments that are helping revitalize downtown Baltimore. The renovation of the Munsey included keeping the grand entrance way, with its marble floor, elevators, and grand front door, as well as cleaning and repairing the exterior. Baltimore Heritage recognized the conversion with a preservation award in 2004.
When Baltimorean William Painter invented the bottle cap in 1891, it didn鈥檛 take long for beverage companies (beer brewers in particular) to realize its value, and for Painter to realize he needed to build significant manufacturing facilities to keep up with demand. Painter's enterprise, the Crown Cork and Seal Company, opened its first big production facility in 1897 on Guilford Avenue and not long after expanded by opening a larger complex on Eastern Avenue in Highlandtown in 1906. The Guilford Avenue complex continued as the base of operations for custom building the sealing machinery while the Highlandtown complex acted as the hub of Crown Cork and Seal鈥檚 manufacturing operations.
In 1910, the Highlandtown complex expanded again to include two new buildings. Both used mill construction with brick exteriors and granite trimmings as well as new advances like fireproof elevator shafts, fire escapes and ventilators. The five story building had two massive water towers that held 15,000 gallons each to be released in case a fire broke out inside.
Crown Cork and Seal鈥檚 Highlandtown complex became the base of machinery production in 1928 after the owners abandoned the Guildford Avenue plant. Despite its modern fire protections, however, the added activity at the complex and its constantly whirring electrical machines were at high risk of fire. In 1940, managers at the building made twenty-six calls to the fire department, almost all of which appeared unnecessary, until one signaled a very real five-alarm fire. Despite the loss of $500,000 in baled cork, the company minimized the damage and kept churning out bottle caps for the world鈥檚 beer brewers.
In 1958, Crown Cork and Seal moved its headquarters from Baltimore to Philadelphia and the owners sold a group of thirty buildings, including the Guilford Avenue complex, to the city for $1.5 million. The Highlandtown plant continued to operate for nearly 30 more years, but finally closed in 1987 as use of aluminum and plastic containers rose and the demand for glass bottle caps waned. Today the building houses artist studios and light manufacturing and is occasionally used by movie studios.
The first Patterson Theater to occupy 3136 Eastern Avenue opened in 1910. In 1918, Harry Reddish purchased the building to renovate and redecorate it. He reopened it two years later and renamed it the 鈥淣ew Patterson鈥. The Patterson Theater housed a large second floor dancehall with a wide stage and organ that could only be turned on by climbing under the stage. In 1929, the 鈥淣ew Patterson鈥 closed.
The next year saw a larger Patterson Theater, referred to as a playhouse, built in place of the old building. It opened September 26, 1930, showing Queen High with Charles Ruggles. Built by the Durkee Organization, John J. Zink designed the 85x150 ft building. He used a plain brick exterior (one of the plainest Zink ever designed). But the ornate, vertical sign appealed to the public. The interior color scheme consisted of red, orange, and gold with matching draperies and indirect lighting from crystal chandeliers. The theater鈥檚 low back chairs and spring-cushioned seats held between 900 to 1,500 people at a time. During its construction, designers took great care to ensure crisp 聽acoustics for the showing of talking pictures. The Grand Theater Company, an affiliate of Durkee Enterprises, operated the Patterson Theater.
In November 1958 an usher accidentally started a fire that caused considerable damage to the auditorium. By the spring of 1975 the owners twinned the theater into two 500 seat spaces, but the 聽machinery remained untouched. In 1986, the old machinery proved deadly when a refrigeration company鈥檚 employee asphyxiated on Freon gas in the basement cooling system. The theater filled with firefighters who had to remove the maintenance man and set up large fans to push the colorless, odorless gas from the building. The Patterson Theater continued to operate until 1995, but by then the theater only showed discount films. It would be the last theater operated by the Durkee Organization.
Creative Alliance, a community organization geared toward bringing audiences and artists together, undertook an extensive multi-million dollar renovation of the old Patterson Theater. Renovations began in 2000 when Cho Benn Holback & Associates gutted and rebuilt the building鈥檚 interior. Creative Alliance kept the fireproof concrete projection booth but turned the remainder of the space into a multi-purpose art center with galleries, artist studios, a marquee lounge and a flexible theater. While the historic vertical sign was one of the last originals in the city, extensive deterioration meant it could not be salvaged. Instead, Creative Alliance had it duplicated and replaced just before their reopening in May 2003.
Work continued a few years later with the addition of a caf茅. The original concrete fireproof projection booth remained and became the focal point of the dining room. Gabriel Kroiz, Chair of Undergraduate Design for the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University, recalls when the building showed movies:
鈥淚 have been going to the building since I was a kid. I saw Star Wars there when it came out. I remember when it split in two and started showing the films two weeks after they had been released for less money and then when they closed.鈥
Since the opening of the new building, Creative Alliance has hosted hundreds of new events, including live performances, exhibitions, films and workshops.
1805 Madison Avenue was built around聽1886, when the property was first advertised聽in the聽Baltimore Sun聽as available to rent for聽$35 per month.聽In July 1888, Benjamin and Rosetta Rosenheim purchased the home and moved in with their two young children. 聽Benjamin was a lawyer with an office at 19 East Fayette Street. When Rosetta needed help at home聽in January 1889, the聽Rosenheim household placed an advertisement in the聽Sun seeking a 鈥淲hite Girl, from 15 to 17 years to nurse two children, aged 2 陆 and 4.鈥澛燬imilar advertisements appeared again in June 1889 and March 1890 seeking a caretaker for the two children.聽The family didn鈥檛 stay long, however, and聽on May 29, 1893, Benjamin and Rosetta Rosenheim sold the home to Julia Gusdorff.
The home sold again in 1902聽and聽1914. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, many of the聽German Jewish immigrants聽who had occupied the Madison Avenue homes for the past couple decades began moving northwest into new neighborhoods like Park Circle northwest of Druid Hill Park. Replacing these residents were African Americans聽home-owners and tenants. In 1923,聽Keiffer Jackson, husband of the well known civil rights activist Lille Mae Carol Jackson, purchased 1805 Madison Avenue for $3200.
Lillie Mae Carroll and her husband Kieffer聽Jackson never lived at 1805 Madison Avenue but rented the property to African American tenants from a wide range of backgrounds. In February 1928, Frank H. Berryman, the manager of William 鈥淜.O.鈥 Smith and K.O. Martin, publicly sought to 鈥渁rrange either local or out-of-town bouts for one or both of his fighters鈥 noting managers could reach him at 1805 Madison Avenue.聽Mrs. Lizzie Futz聽lived聽at the house in 1931聽when she was quoted in the聽Afro American聽criticizing a move by the聽Baltimore school superintendent to segregate white and black children on a recent field trip to Fort McHenry:
鈥淚 honestly think that the principal was unquestionably wrong in asking that the two groups be separated. There was no reason for the separation. School children of today get along better than their elders. It鈥檚 such segregation acts that breeds prejudice in the future.鈥
Born in Baltimore on April 29, 1922, Parren James Mitchell moved around as a child. Early on, his family lived on Stockton Street near Presstman Street just south of Saint Peter Claver Church which had stood聽on North Fremont Avenue since聽September 9, 1888.
He was seven years old when his family moved into聽a new home at 712 Carrollton Avenue.聽The new neighborhood had started life as an聽elite suburb built between the 1870s and 1880s within a short walk of聽Lafayette Square or聽Harlem Park. Prior to the 1910s and 1920s, the population of the neighborhood was largely segregated white (although many African American households lived in smaller alley dwellings on the interior of the district鈥檚 large blocks). Segregation in the聽聽was enforced through deed restrictions, local legislation and even physical attacks on black families that attempted to move into the neighborhood.
Parren Mitchell鈥檚 move to the house on Madison Avenue came at an important moment in the nation鈥檚 relationship to struggling cities in the wake of the riots in Baltimore and cities around the country in 1968. The home was a source of pride and provided Mitchell with a perspective on city life that few other representatives in Congress聽could match.聽In June 1974, during a discussion of 鈥渦rban homesteading,鈥 Parren Mitchell shared the success of the聽city鈥檚 new homesteading program (established in 1973) seen from his own front stoop, remarking:
鈥淐ome to my house at聽1805 Madison Avenue聽in the heart of a ghetto in Baltimore聽City and look at the home across the street which was sold for $1 under the Homestead Act. If you do you will see a beautiful and decent residence for a family.鈥
During hearings on the聽, Mitchell repeated the offer:
鈥淚 will take part of my 5-minute time to extend an invitation to visit my home in Baltimore, Md. I live at 1805 Madison Avenue, which is deep in the bowels of the city. It is the ghetto. Four years ago, I purchased a home in the 1800 block of Madison Avenue at 1805, using conventional financing. I have rehabilitated the home, and I think it鈥檚 attractive enough for you to come to visit me on a Saturday morning in the 1800 block of Madison Avenue.鈥
The聽renovation to the house cost $32,000 and combined聽the first and second floor of the building with a new staircase returning the stories into a single unit. He rebuilt the third floor as a rental apartment, a configuration that remains in use at the building today.
The home may have been a source of pride and a sign of his strong commitment to Baltimore but it was also a site of conflict between Congressman Mitchell, the 91桃色视频 City Police Department, and even the Ku Klux Klan. Between 1968 and 1974, before Mitchell鈥檚 move to 1805 Madison, the聽Baltimore Police Department Inspectional Services Division (ISD) kept his home under twenty-four-hour surveillance, illegally bugged his home and office telephones for eight months, and placed paid informers in his congressional campaigns. Beginning in 1971, Mitchell began calling聽for the resignation of Baltimore Police Commissioner聽. When the ISD surveillance program (and its close ties to the FBI) were revealed, Congressman Mitchell extended his criticism to the ISD.
In 1977, Parren Mitchell and his neighbors secured Madison Park聽designation by the 91桃色视频 Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation聽as a local historic district 鈥 the first in an聽African American neighborhood.聽The lead champion of the historic district was聽Michael B. Lipscomb, an aide to Parren Mitchell and office manager at the Congressman鈥檚 Bloomingdale Road office.
Lipscomb was a resident in Madison Park and the vice-president of the Madison Park Improvement Association. In his testimony before CHAP, Lipscomb observed that the district was the 鈥渃ity鈥檚 first all black historic district,鈥 continuing:
鈥淚 came here because I love the house. I love the size of the house, the rooms, the old architecture, the high ceilings, the 10-foot high solid wood doors, the marble fireplaces, the stained glass windows. To get a house built like this would be astronomically expensive.鈥
Other residents in Madison Park were also聽active in the city鈥檚 civic organizations, including John R. Burleigh, II, a resident of 1829 Madison Avenue and director of Baltimore鈥檚 Equal Opportunity program聽and Delegate Lena K. Lee who聽lived at 1818 Madison Avenue. Delegate Lee also supported the historic district designation, testifying:
鈥淲e have been working in this area since 1940 to clean it up and keep the intruders out, to keep it from being overrun by bars, sweatshops and storefront churches that stay a little while and then pack up and go. We want to make it purely residential by getting out all business.鈥
Parren Mitchell sold the property to Sarah Holley in 1986 and moved just a few blocks away to聽1239 Druid Avenue. He remained at that location until 1993 when he returned to Harlem Park and lived at聽828 North Carrollton Avenue where he remained until 2001. This property has been featured on tours of Lafayette Square and is now used as offices for the Upton Planning Council. Sarah Holley lived at the 1805 Madison Avenue聽from 1986 through 1989聽and,聽since 1989, the property has been maintained as a rental property.