Branches of Baltimore History

Druid Hill Park (Map) has an array of historic structures within its boundaries.  Built just before the Civil War, the enormous public estate features monuments, installations and buildings from a time before ours…

George A. Frederick’s Moorish Tower stands at the southeast edge of Druid Hill Lake.  After designing City Hall, Frederick worked as an architect for the Baltimore Park Commission from 1863-1895.  The Turkish style observatory and Chinese Station (now removed) were two of his creations in the park.

Another George Frederick design is the Palm House (or Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens) located at McCulloh and Gwynn Falls Parkway, near the zoo entrance.  Built in 1889, the Victorian style building is the last of Baltimore’s greenhouses still standing.  Carroll Park, Patterson Park and Clifton Park all had similar buildings at one time, each eventually falling victim to decay and demolition.  The Druid Hill Conservatory was restored in 2004, the process linking the five structures that make up the complex.  The facility is open to the public with two dollar donations appreciated.  The John Cook Memorial Sundial rests in a garden on the main building’s east side.

The headquarters for Baltimore’s Department of Recreation and Parks is housed in the restored Druid Hill bathhouse.  The building was segregated until 1956, and later abandoned when the city’s public bath system was closed a few years later.  After a $2.6 million renovation in 1994, the white marble structure was opened as the Dr. Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, Jr. Building.

The Mansion House sits on a hill over-looking a vast open set of fields.  Built in the early 19th century the building was the former residence of Nicholas Rogers.  Son of the Scotsman Lloyd Nicholas Rogers, Nicholas sold the mansion and estate to the city of Baltimore around 1860.  The English style residence and corresponding country landscape was preserved when the city began designing and constructing the park.  John H. B. Latrobe made alterations to the mansion during the park’s early development.  The building now contains the main office of the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

Completed in 1871, Druid Hill Lake is one of the largest man-made lakes in the country.  It was a result of the first American earth dam construction, a milestone in our civil engineering history.  The lake is surrounded by a well-paved track and is lined with various statues and interesting architecture.

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In November 1894, (Daniel Coit) Gilman asked William Keyser, former president of the Baltimore Copper Company, for his assistance in securing another site (for Johns Hopkins University). In 1898 Keyser’s cousin, William Wyman, approached him with an offer to donate to the University sixty acres, situated west of Charles Street and south of the intersection with University Parkway (then known as Merryman’s Lane). The two men, together with a group of four friends, worked in secrecy over the next three years to secure options on adjacent tracts, and in early 1901 offered 179 acres to the University, on the condition that it add one million dollars to its endowment. There was a delay as the University proved unable to raise the money, but after renewing their options, the donors offered the land again. This time the only condition was that not less than thirty acres of the property be given to the city for use as a public park. The trustees accepted the offer on February 22, 1902, and the University had a new campus, Homewood.

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The Wyman Park Gatehouse (Map) is located at the corner of N. Charles Street and Art Museum Drive. The Gatehouse once marked the entrance to the Wyman Estate, a vast rural tract of land north of the city.  Samuel Wyman purchased the Homewood property from Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s grandson in 1839. The Wyman family owned the land until 1902 when they presented it to Johns Hopkins University.  Part of the land was preserved as a city park named in their honor. In 1965 the Johns Hopkins News-Letter moved their headquarters into the gatehouse.

John Wilkes Booth was born in Harford County, MD and made his stage debut at Baltimore’s Charles Street Theatre.  The Booth family grave site is located in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery (map) where John Wilkes rests under an unmarked stone. Small and unassuming, the marker sits at the corner of the family plot, dwarfed by the memorial obelisk at it’s center.

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Buried here on January 26, 1869, four years after his death, John’s body went through a series of circumstances before ending up in Green Mount.  Originally inhumed at the Old Penitentiary on the Washington Arsenal grounds, the body was placed in an Army blanket and lowered into a hole that was subsequently covered with a stone slab.  Two years later it was exhumed and placed in a wooden box in a locked storeroom at the prison.  The government was finally persuaded to release the remains to the Booth family in 1869 where it was viewed in Washington and then Baltimore, before finally being placed in Dogwood Plot #9.

Baltimore’s Washington Monument and Museum (Map) is located at Mount Vernon Place near the Walters Art Museum.  The museum is at the base of the structure and includes access to the monument’s spire, its 228 steps leading to a panoramic view of the city’s skyline.  The facility displays various exhibits including a bust of Washington created in the late 1700’s.

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The Washington Monument and Museum at Mount Vernon Place was the Nation’s first civic memorial to George Washington. Built in the neo-classical style, the 178-foot monument was designed by architect Robert Mills and was completed in 1829, fourteen years after construction began. Mills also designed our more famous sister monument in Washington, D.C. which opened in 1855. The Monument held a profound meaning for 19th Century Americans and it is even now recognized as the preeminent symbol of the city of Baltimore.

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The Roland Water Tower (Map) is located in northern Baltimore near the Hoes Heights neighborhood.  It stands in a popular dog walking site at the intersection of W. University Parkway and Roland Avenue.  The tower only served its intended purpose for twenty-five years, but over one hundred years after its completion the structure continues to draw attention.  In the past year a fence has been put up around the tower and it appears plans are in place to renovate the iconic building.

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The Roland Tower, at the corner of Roland Avenue and University Parkway, built in 1905, has faced the prospect of demolition several times within it’s life.  The tower appears to have become inactive in 1930, when Roland Park was connected to the Reservoir system.  In 1940, the property surrounding the tower was turned into a makeshift transit terminal, when trackless trolleys from the newly converted #10 began using the “Water Tower Loop as their Northern terminal, met by streetcars of the #24 line which changed ends in the middle of Roland Avenue.  Use of the driveway as a transit loop continued until 1992.  At times, the tower faced the threat of removal in the interests of developers who sought to create an Apartment Building on the property.  Thankfully, this did not come to pass, and the tower stands on, slightly tattered, but still retaining an overall noble appearance.  It’s original purpose, while long discontinued, is still known by many locals who refer to the structure as the “Water Tower”

Once the farmland of Johns Hopkins, Clifton Park (Map) is a tranquil tract of earth situated in the eastern section of Baltimore City.  Hopkins purchased the land in 1838 and proceeded to make a multitude of improvements including the installation of a lake and sculpture garden.  Farmers grew and cared for crops, while businessmen and politicians hammered out deals amidst the agreeable settings.  Before and during the Civil War strategic planning for the Union force took place at the camp.  Hopkins was an abolitionist and staunch supporter of the North and friend Abraham Lincoln, running counter to Maryland’s political stance at the time.

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“One of the first campaigns of the Civil War was planned at Johns Hopkins’ summer estate, Clifton, where he had earlier entertained many guests, among them the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. During the Civil War, Clifton became a frequent meeting place for local Union sympathizers, and federal officials.”

Mr. Hopkins was a fervent philanthropist and before he died he willed seven million dollars to various educational institutions he wished to create.  It was the largest donation of it’s kind up until that point in American history.  In 1875, just two years after his death, part of this money went to the founding of a University in his name.  The school was originally planned to be located on the Clifton site, but the board managing the estate altered the arrangements.

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In 1915, Baltimore’s first public golf course was built at the park.  It still thrives today amidst its urban settings.  Between the eighth and ninth hole stands Edward Berge’s sculpture On The Trail, a seven foot tall Indian overlooking the landscape with benign intent.

In 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Baltimore fell under Martial Law due to extensive rioting.  Maryland’s Governor at the time, Spiro Agnew, asked the federal government for troops and received them.  Thousands of soldiers descended on Baltimore to quell the increasing violence.  Clifton Park was their campsite, strategically placed near North Avenue, the tree-lined estate provided a safe sanctuary and a necessary staging area.

Today the Park is indeed a different place.  Underfunding has left the municipal land starving for resources.  However, the park still retains a great deal of its former glory and programs are in place to rescue the park.  The Hopkins mansion and gardener’s home are still standing, though in need of repair.  The rolling hills still give the impression of an English countryside.  The lake is gone, now the site of a public high school, and the sculpture garden no longer exists, but the gatehouse and outdoor theatre are still in their original locations.  With a little love and a boatload of money, Clifton can once again be the playground for Baltimoreans it once was.

The H. S. Rippel Spring (Map) is located just east of the corner of Tudor Arms Avenue and Craycombe Avenue in Wyman Park.  Though dried up today and covered with graffiti, the fountainhead is still in decent condition.  The structure was given to Druid Hill Park in 1895 by businessman H. S. Rippel and was later moved to Wyman Park in the 1930’s

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The name of the spring derives from a prominent local builder who donated the fountainstone for the original spring, and whose name is engraved in this stone.  The spring enjoyed healthy popularity among some North Baltimore residents during the 30’s and 40’s, often being bottled by local boys who delivered it to nearby residents.

Druid Hill Park (Map) is as mysterious as it is massive.  Designed by Howard Daniels, the seven hundred and forty-five acres of rolling countryside just north of downtown Baltimore has a surprisingly pleasant vibe. Inaugurated in 1860, shortly after New York’s Central Park, the terrain features the Jones Fall Stream, Druid Hill Lake and what was once known as Boat Lake. For many decades the expanse was an immensely popular location for city dwellers. Patrons could stroll the rolling hills capriciously, relaxing the day away with ease and grace. The city even provided a narrow-gauge railroad for straightforward transport around the estate.

Over time generous farmers and wealthy landowners started donating animals to the park. Habitats were constructed and the creatures were integrated into the overall scene. Primates and reptiles were eventually brought in to accompany the livestock. Opening in 1876 the Maryland Zoo at Baltimore is one of the oldest zoological gardens in America. Over the years it’s size and scope has changed, the zoo’s land has slowly diminished leaving behind remnants of it’s former charm. Large areas have been shut down because of financial and infrastructure problems. Numerous animals have been loaned to other institutions as Baltimore’s menagerie struggles to regain it’s former glory.

Exploring the Zoo’s forgotten installations is amazing. A friend of a friend led us past closed gates and imposing barriers down an old road. We saw the former alligator pond, the vacant emu runs covered in bamboo and numerous waterway installations. At the end of one ominous trail was a stone slab dump. This discarding site for cornerstones was creepy at best. Amongst the granite and concrete pieces were small monuments that aforetime pilgrims had erected coupled with the unforgiving sight of grave markers from god knows where.

George Buchanan inhabited this territory in the post Revolutionary War era. He was one of seven commissioner’s that established Baltimore City. We stumbled upon his family’s funerary grounds during our expedition. Some of the stones dated as far back as the late 1700s. The markers are coming to pieces and the perimeter fence is in bad shape but nonetheless a it’s a pleasant spot.

After traversing the closed back roads of the park we came to a strip of modern pathway. It appears the Jones Falls Trail is being connected through Druid Hill. The tranquil bike path is well built and expanding. With city revenue down it could be some time before the trail is completed, but the idea is paramount. Baltimore needs these paths and park lands to alleviate it’s internal pressures. When this park is restored and reestablished the neighborhoods surrounding it will benefit exponentially, helping revitalize the regal municipal.

We finally made it over to Green Mount Cemetery (Map).  Established in 1839, Green Mount was the first rural burial ground in Baltimore, as the city (and country) began moving cemeteries away from urban developed areas.  Walking (or riding) through the burial grounds takes a while as the area is fairly massive, but what strikes me the most is the density of graves.  The 68 rolling acres includes over 60,000 deceased amongst Gothic architecture and impressive sculptures.  The Booth family and the sideshow star Johnny Eck reside in this playground of the living and deceased.

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