History and foundation

The area was used for the discovery of America by Europeans using tribes belonging to the Susquehannocks. After the European colonization, Baltimore gradually emerged in the English colony of Maryland, founded by George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. The British colonists who settled around the Bay of Chesapu were mainly selling tobacco grown on plantations. A large port was not necessary because there were several small ports or berths around the Bay which were visited by British merchant ships. In later times, just before Baltimore was recognized as town, the tobacco was collected in boats and taken to the British ships that were in deep water at North Point. In Maryland, more than 100 towns were recorded in the 17th century. Two of them, which were mentioned in 1683, were possibly on the Patapsco, where Baltimore was founded later. These sites were not mentioned by name, possibly because they were so small that they were not considered worthy of name. Many of these towns concerned places where tobacco quality was monitored. In 1729, the ensemble of buildings at the port, which was called Bassin, was legally recognized as Baltimore Town. The site developed slowly in the first instance: in 1750, the site consisted of only a few hundred inhabitants, who lived across groups of houses along the river.

1750 - 1814

Look at Baltimore (1817 reconstruction of a 1752 kit).

Map of Baltimore at the Chesapu Bay in 1781

Development

In the first period, Baltimore was not distinguished from the many small settlements that had emerged around Chesapeake Bay. Thanks to a revolution in agriculture in Maryland and Pennsylvania and to the turmoil in the Atlantic trade, Baltimore started to grow very strongly after 1750. It grew up with, among other things, Fells Point on the East. In 1790, the place had become the fourth largest in the Republic, after New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Baltimore Town can be described at this time as a pre-industrial city. In the 20 - political - years since 1790, the situation remained stable.

War of Independence

Baltimore was an important stage in the American War of Independence with various events. Following rumors about a planned British invasion of Philadelphia, on December 20, 1776, the Second Continental Congress - the meeting of the 13 colonies - with Independence Hall chairman John Hancock in Philadelphia, headed to Henry Fite House in Baltimore. This house was referred to by Congress Hall, but it burst in the 1904 urban fire. Baltimore residents refused to pay British taxes during the war, and Baltimore traders did not want to trade with the British under any circumstances. A British blockade of Baltimore harbor in response to these 'disturbances' was broken by the Dutch merchant Claas Taan who took his 17 merchant ships across English lines. His Zan company Claas Taan and Zn. had suffered heavy losses following the 1781 British declaration of war. For Baltimore, his arrival with flour and other ingredients came at a crucial time as a rescue. This made an important contribution to the revolution.

Biscale and urban rights

In Maryland, there was a relatively large group of Roman Catholics. After the United States was confirmed as an Apostolan prefecture in 1784, Baltimore became the center of the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1789, the Diocese of Baltimore was created, which covered the entire country. When four biscuits came in in 1808, Baltimore became archbishops.

In 1796, Jonestown (later Old Town) and Fells Point were formally merged with Baltimore the settlements near Baltimore, after which the site was officially declared a city.

1812 riots

After US President James Madison declared war on the United Kingdom on 18 June 1812, the extremely federalist newspaper Federal Republican, which had its headquarters in Baltimore, strongly criticized it. This led to major riots in the city of residents who turned against the newspaper. In November 2008, the newspaper identified Baltimore with Mob Town, a name that remained in use in the city due to the many upheavals that followed. Where city Baltimore tried to shake the nickname off, it was increasingly assumed by residents as a common name.

Drawing of Fort McHenry's 1814 bombing, part of the Baltimore Battle in the 1812 War

Image of the Battle Monument published in The History and Topography of the United States (vol. 2) (1834)

Battle of Baltimore

In 1814, the Battle of Baltimore took place, which is considered to be one of the cornerstones of the 1812 War. The British army had successfully delivered the Battle on Bladensburg and then put the government buildings in Washington, D.C. into ruins. Baltimore was seen as the next military target because it was a large commercial center and a base for cape shipping. The hostile reputation that the city had built up in the War of Independence also contributed to the desire to invade the city.

5 000 British soldiers are setting foot on shore to continue the road towards Baltimore. On 12 September, however, they met with resistance from North Point. This Battle of North Point killed British General Robert Ross. The British were able to continue the journey after that, but with Baltimore's battles in sight, they stopped and waited for a sign from Admiral Alexander Cochrane, who led the attack on Fort McHenry. He bombed that fort with the Royal Navy on September 13. During a 25-hour firefight, the Americans, with the regular military and militias fighting side by side, managed to keep British ships at a distance with guns, under Major George Armistead. After these failed attempts to take over Baltimore, the British army was drowning.

Francis Scott Key based his Defense poem of Fort McHenry on Fort McHenry's defense. The poem formed the basis for the current American anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. The Battle Monument set up at the Battle of North Point came as a symbol of the city on its seal.

1815-1865

Map of 1860 B&D railway lines

R&D railway

After the wars, domestic trade increased as a result of the growth of the Western States and the emergence of means of transport such as steam ships and trains. The cities on the east coast took an important position and grew strongly as a result: Between 1812 and 1850, the population of these cities increased fivefold. Baltimore even grew into the third largest city in the United States. Developments led to the establishment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which built railway lines to various wind directions. The B&O Railroad was the first railway company in the United States to allow passenger trains to travel for a fee. The major society has had a major impact on Baltimore's economy.

In 1851, Baltimore City became an independent city (Independent city), which had its own administration, separate from the Baltimore County.

Election riots

Cartoon of Mobtown, showing a gang during the election riots between 1856 and 1859.

Between 1856 and 1859 riots took place between supporters of different parties, who met in groups and gangs. Associated gangs of the Know Nothing anti-immigrant party fought to prevent immigrants from, among others, Ireland and Germany from voting. At the same time, they recruited drunk men to cast multiple voices on the Know Nothing party. The Mobtown term was once again used by the gangs to describe Baltimore. In 1856, the mayor elections in the vicinity of Lexington Market involved the gangs of Rip Raps and Plug Uglies for hours in a firearms fight with a firearms corps called the New Market Fire Company. Later on the day, a fire fight was followed around Mount Vernon Square. At the same time, around 10 people died and 250 were injured. The governor repeatedly threatened to send the militia to put its house in order. However, elections later that year and in the years after that were followed by new riots. The police chief in Baltimore, Benjamin Herring, said that harsh intervention would have little effect, as he believes that the rebels picked up were released by the judge the following day.

US Civil War

Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon line, which ranked it among the southern States and Baltimore was officially the largest city in the south. However, Baltimore's position at just 40 miles from this border made it known that the city was the northernmost city of the south and the southernmost city of the north. The city was divided on political issues such as slavery, state power (enshrined in the States' rights) and secession from the United States. From 90,000 to slave in Maryland, by the way, only 2118 were in Baltimore, and the city had one of the largest groups of free black people in the country, with a number of 25,000. However, the issue has been raised several times. The Baltimorean rabbi David Einhorn had to flee to Philadelphia after he strongly opposed slavery. But, remarkably, another rabbi, Bernard Illowy, just spoke out before slavery, and he moved to New Orleans in the south. In Baltimore there were also recruits from the south, who were flying the flag of South Carolina, the version with the palm tree that was added to the flag after the state's separation.

Pratt Street riot (1861)

Massachusetts Environment Draws through Baltimore (1861), gravure of F.F. Walker

The divided city of Baltimore would be known as the place where the first casualties of the US Civil War were. This happened after President Abraham Lincoln feared an attack on Washington, D.C. by rebels who stopped by the Potomac river. On April 15, he decided to send 75,000 troops to Washington to protect the city. Some of the soldiers had to travel by train through Baltimore, with the wagons in Baltimore being pulled through the streets between two stations. On April 19, a waiting crowd stopped the wagons and confrontation took place between the soldiers and the rioters. In the outburst, 17-year-old Luther C came. As the first Union soldier, live through violence. In total, four or five soldiers died and eleven or twelve Baltimoreans. Dozens of people were injured. In the following days, a section of the population was convinced that it was possible to bring Maryland to the federated States under pressure. The Mayor of Baltimore, George William Brown, and the Governor of Maryland, Thomas Holliday Hicks, persuaded Lincoln not to send Baltimore to the next forces. The Union's soldiers have now been taken over to Washington. Maryland did not separate from the Union, and thus held the position of a bulwark at the border with the confederates during the war.

1865-1940

1877 R&D strike

On 11 August 1877, the cover of the weekly Harper's Weekly showed the 6th Regiment of the Maryland National Guard, which is running through Baltimore during the 1877 B&D strike

During the Great Depression (1873-1896), the B&D railway was also in severe weather. After several wage cuts, a strike and uprising broke out in the summer of 1877. The strike took a short time, but was described as the most extensive and deexplorable working man's strike in the history of the United States. The 5th and 6th regiment of the Maryland National Guard were among the members of the group to put an end to the strike. In confrontation with the insurgents, several people died.

Growth, tension and segregation

Baltimore continued to grow fast. Between 1870 and 1890, the number of companies in Baltimore tripled, and the companies invested six times as much as before. The population doubled between 1870 and 1900, from 250 000 to 500 000 inhabitants, a growth that created tensions. In the mid-1850s, Baltimore was already dominated by violence and riots that had been particularly directed against Roman Catholics, but the diversity of population groups was even greater. In the 1880s, the mass emigration of Russian Jews took place, as did the arrival of many Polish and several other, often European, immigrants. After Ellis Island, most European immigrants put foot on American soil at Locust Point. Many continued to travel with the B&O Railroad trains, but large groups also remained behind it in Baltimore. These populations all had their own background and culture, and often clustered in neighborhoods. The new Baltimoreans had little money and did not always find work in Baltimore. Many of them lived in the same house with a lot of people, without water connections and sanitation. The population groups concentrated in areas with cheap housing, which created slumps or ghettos.

The African-American population was small in the early 19th century to the post-civil war, and had lived across the city. In 1860, only 4.2% of the urban population had a dark skin color. With urbanization, this rate grew to 20% in 1890. The majority lived in central, southern and eastern neighborhoods, but these neighborhoods were by no means ghettos. North of the city, African-Americans lived in narrow two-story ridden dwellings.

1904 City Fire

The Great Baltimore Fire in 1904 laid more than 1,500 homes in ashes

Map of urban blocks destroyed by the fire (black)

On February 7, 1904, a fire broke out in the basement of John Hurst & Company's inner city warehouse. In the compact-built city with warehouses where, among other things, kerosene and chemicals were stored side by side, the fire quickly hit itself. The fire lasted 31 hours and planted over 1500 buildings in 57 hectares, almost all of the city's inner city. A fireman who died as a result of pneumonia was the only person killed. The fire cost the city about. $125 million and 35,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the fire. Following the emergency aid, Mayor Robert McLane set up a committee to manage the reconstruction process. In contrast to the old city, broad, paved streets were planned with sewerage underneath them. In the fire brigades, investments were made for expansion and modernization. A building regulation was also drawn up. On May 29, McLane, presumably driven by a combination of continuous pressure and family conditions, attempted suicide. He died a day later. After the reconstruction, the city became an uninteresting one for many. The various monumental buildings that had shown the glorious times were replaced by impressive bricks and bricks.

Segregation Law (1911)

Why not close the door?, cartoon (1909) by McKee Barclay in The Baltimore Sun, in the caption the proposal to stop the influx of African-Americans from the southern states.

As the city continued to grow and the number of African-Americans increased, the social tensions in the city also grew. On May 15, 1911, the mayor of Baltimore, J. Barry Mahool, a law which stipulated that black and white people should be separated as far as possible into separate urban blocks. People with one skin color were not allowed to move to city blocks predominantly inhabited by people with the other skin color. Mahool was convinced that this was better for everyone's well-being in the city. The segregation law, Ordinance 692, was the first law of its kind in the United States, and several southern cities followed similar laws. In 1917, the law was annulled on the basis of the Constitution, but the separation continued to take place subsequently without being enforced by law.

Disadvantaged neighborhoods

As the city was growing, in the first half of the 20th century, the construction of neighborhoods outside the city began, where the white population in particular went. The urban housing market pressures therefore narrowed in a short space of time for the growing black population during the first large African-American population movement. However, the quality of these freed houses was often poor, creating the first deprived districts. A study from 1933 shows that the areas in bad condition were largely inhabited by African-Americans. No waste was collected in these districts, some of which were not connected to the sewerage system implemented in 1914, and some of the homes were inadequately rescued by bribery of building inspectors, sometimes with an illogical classification. Because hygiene in the neighborhoods was a problem and they were potential outbreaks for disease for the city, it was decided to demolish such neighborhoods.

1940-Units

World War II and its consequences

During World War II, Baltimore grew by about 100 feet. 250,000 inhabitants, attracted by the factories and shipyards where warships and bombers were produced. Many of the new residents found fixed jobs here after years of unemployment, and lived in packed houses in the city. When the arms factories closed the doors after the Second World War and the war-related office work came to an end, the economy went downhill. This led to unemployment and vacancy, including in the inner city of Baltimore. A real tipping point was the closure of the department store O'Neills department store in 1954, which for decades was an icon in the inner city. As a miracle, in 1904, the fire had come to an end at this department store after the owner, Thomas O'Neill, asked a sister-in-law manager to pray. Thanks for doing so, he had donated a large amount of money to set up a hospital, high schools and church. The closure of O'Neills came as a big blow to Downtown Baltimore, and then several other stores followed. A few years later, the building would be demolished to make room for the Charles Center. The bad economy has once again caused serious problems for the many immigrants who lived in the city's neighborhoods. The lack of shared icons such as sports clubs and the associated inferiority complex reinforced the division in the city.

The USF&G Building was one of the many construction projects that took place in the 1960s

Many, particularly white, residents went to county, and companies followed. Between 1955 and 1965, 82 companies left the city. The many immigrants who lived in the city did not feel connected to the city either, and the success of competing cities along the east coast reinforced the sense of inferiority in Baltimore. A much shared belief was that when one saw the opportunity to leave the city one had to do so. Large (re-)developments started late in comparison with other US cities, but during the 1960s large buildings were generated every year. It was hoped that a picture of progress would be displayed. Following the One Charles Center (1962) by architect Mies van der Rohe, among others, followed Morris A. Mechanic Theater (1964), The Statler Hilton Baltimore (1966), the USF&G Building (1968) and the Two Charles Center (1969) (see also section Charles Center).

1968 riots

After the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1968, as in many American cities, riots broke out in Baltimore. In Baltimore, this took place in a context of major post-war demographic and economic changes. While the Council President William Donald Schaefer initially compared the riots as mild compared to the more than 100 riots in other US cities, they proved to be irrelevant in the aftermath in particular. On Saturday and Sunday in particular, hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged, and for the first time since the strike at the B&O Railroad, the National Guard was called upon to restore order. A total of six people died and 600 were injured, of whom 19 were serious. More than 5,700 people were arrested. Estimates of the damage caused varied from USD 8 million to USD 13 million. Businesses denounced the reluctance of the mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III to react to the riots.

Charm City

In 1971, the Baltimorean citizen William Donald Schaefer stood for mayor. He concluded that war on poverty and other projects in the 1960s, which focused on the poor areas, had proved unsuccessful attempts. Moreover, the negative image that the city of Baltimore had received and that was frequently automatically taken over was seen as a danger to the city. Schaefer, who appreciated his predecessor, D'Allesandro, was working to strengthen the city's qualities, with the successful neighborhoods having to improve the quality of life in the poor neighborhoods. In 1975, he asked for an (early) urban promotion of four advertising managers and creative directors associated with large advertising agencies in Baltimore. They came up with the title Charm City, and then they processed some of the hidden charms of Baltimore in a short series of advertisements, like the white marble kicking, steamed crabs, Mount Vernon, Babe Ruth and the typical terraced houses. The assumption that the name is based on the texts of journalist H.L. The crews, who also wrote about the hidden charms of Baltimore, are, according to the creators, incorrect. Under Schaefer's leadership, the developments of Inner Harbor, which were largely based on the urban regeneration of the 1960s, began.

Death of Freddie Gray

In 2015, a crowd of people arrived after the death of the police-picked Freddie Gray

On April 17, 2015, 25-year-old Afro-American Baltimorean died, Freddie Gray, after being arrested for possession of weapons a few days before. During his detention, he suffered serious injuries to his spinal cord. Medical research has shown that he had to have sustained the injuries in the police bus, presumably by hitting back and forth during a rough ride. Although a few days before the arrest, a new protocol had been established requiring agents to attach abducted suspects to a belt, Gray had been on the bus loose. After the facts of the police crackdown came out, protests that lasted for days arose. Initially, they were non-violent, but then they went out to riot. For the first time since 1968, the National Guard has again been asked to help maintain public order. President Barack Obama condemned the riots, but believed that the police had to recognize that their handling of civilians was problematic. The police chief at Baltimore was fired after the riots. He was accused of having reacted too cautiously.

Location

• Baltimore Satellite Photo (2020 photo)

• Panorama of Inner Harbor (left) and Outer Harbor (right) at dusk, taken from the HarborView Condominium housing (photo 2016).

The BosWash megalopoly corridor (45° card turned)

As a city in Maryland, Baltimore was part of the 13 British colonies, which gained independence between 1775 and 1783 with the American War of Independence. With the development of the United States, the city was politically divided between the northern and southern states. Maryland, as a border state, was south of the Mason-Dixon line, but remained officially part of the Union. Baltimore could not be clearly classified according to its economy, perceptions or even its climate. Like the northern cities, Baltimore had a large port and heavy industries that attracted many European immigrants, but the land goods with tobacco plantations that African-Americans worked on the land were a distinctive agreement with the southern States. One difference with these states was that the agricultural workers in Baltimore were often not slaves but free men. In addition to the difficult North or South dividability, the city is actually too far east to be included with the United States' Rust Belt, a land area with a particularly industrial past. As a major industrial and port city and the origins of the B&D Railroad, which linked Baltimore to Ohio and many industrial areas on the land, the city is sometimes shaken in this region. Baltimore, like that region, is suffering from de-industrialization and the consequences of unemployment and deprivation. As a city in Maryland, Baltimore is located in the Central Atlantic states, which are by folklorist Simon J. Bronner is called "the least conspicuous of American regions."

Megalopool and metropolitan areas

Baltimore, as a city on the north-east coast of the United States, is part of the megalopoly BosWash corridor or Northeast Megalopolis. This term was introduced in 1961 by social geographer Jean Gottmann in his study Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. The area is almost 600 miles (965 km) long, with a population of 30 million at that time, representing almost one sixth of the United States. Gottman recognized in the area many features of a large, cohesive city with a leading population that had no such good conditions anywhere in the world in terms of wealth, education, housing and amenities. A study in 1963 found that 90% of traffic movements in Baltimore were entirely within the megalopoly.

Baltimore is included in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area by the US Bureau of Management and Budget for Statistical purposes. This includes an area of the Baltimore city, Baltimore County and five other counties. The area had an estimated 2 800 053 inhabitants in 2019. The metropolitan area, together with Washington, D.C., among others, is part of the larger metropolitan area of Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. This is a so-called Combined Statistical Area. In 2012, the number of inhabitants was estimated at 9 331 587.

Satellite photo of Chesapeau Bay (2005)

Chesapeakebay and Patapsco

The Baltimore region was part of the Susquehannock tribal distribution area for colonization, named after the Susquehanna river which flows into the Chesapeakebay. The site was created on a slope along the Patapsco, west of the place where the watercourse Jones Falls came out. This stream took a large amount of sludge with it, which meant that the depth of the river was not sufficient for vessels with a large depth. In some cases, the Jones Falls created a large supply of water, flooding the banks at Baltimore. In addition, the coastline was full of marshes. This context was not ideal for trading activities, which meant that there was no significant development. The Chesapeakebay and the Patapsco are nevertheless a natural port. At Fells Point, east of the Jones Falls, the water was a lot deeper. The site was therefore directly suited to trading. In 1706, the Bay was designated as an import port by the General Assembly of the British colony of Maryland.

The coastal position was also vulnerable to hostile ships. The landtongues in and around the Bay then provided strategic fortification sites. In 1776, Fort Whetstone was built on Whetstone Point (Locust Point), a peninsula in the Patapsco River. In 1793, between the American War of Independence and the 1812 War, Maryland handed over the management of Fort Whetstone to the federal government. It began in 1794 with the construction of a series of Atlantic forts, including Fort McHenry at Fort Whetstone. During the 1812 war, this fort proved its service.

Independent City

Since 1851, Baltimore City has been an independent city (Independent city), with its administration completely separate from the Baltimore County. In the beginning, this had benefits for the city, but in later times it started to cause problems. First of all, the possibility of enlargement was very limited. The last border increase took place in 1918, while the population was growing. The area of the city, 210 square kilometers, is one of the smallest of the big American cities. The fact that on the other side of the border, in the county, there was space and, in addition, lower taxes could be levied meant that the city was doomed to run empty. Apart from the physical constraint, the city is administratively weak, with its relatively low representation in the Maryland State and more difficult access to federal government resources. Baltimore City is considered a county for statistical purposes without any connection to a county.

Districtive division		Mode

Urban layout

Baltimore is divided into 131 districts, but there are over 300 neighborhoods to distinguish. The police are dividing the city into 10 districts. The diversity of neighborhoods is recognizable in different (sub-)cultures, but also in the variety of (drug-)gangs. The districts are also characterized by great differences in race and income (see also the section Social geography. Between 1970 and 2000, 89% of the population in Guilford was white, while 99% of the Mondawmin area in Western Baltimore was black-colored. The average income in the northernmost neighborhood of Homeland was 103,570 dollars, compared with 17,650 dollars in Waverly, a little south.

In the Canton district, developments in various areas ensured that the population was growing there in the first decades of the 21st century. In other districts with historic buildings such as Arcadia, Ashburton, Marble Hill (Upton) and Roland Park, the population also increased. Between 2000 and 2013, Baltimore, together with six other American cities, was responsible for half of the genetic engineering in the whole of America. This demographic change took place particularly in the Inner Harbor neighborhoods. It was remarkable that in Baltimore, genetic engineering was mainly carried out in white neighborhoods, while in other cities it was mainly in black neighborhoods. In East Baltimore, the Latin American population grew with average income and house prices.

Social geography

Map showing the grid composition and distribution in Baltimore (2010). Each dot represents 25 people. Black or African-American, White, Hispanic, Asian and Other (yellow)

The urban geographical map shows a clear segregation in neighborhoods. The forms also refer to "Black Butterfly" (Black Butterfly) and "White L" (White L), concepts introduced by Lawrence Brown (linked to Morgan State University in Baltimore).

Around World War II, the Italian population lived in Little Italy, a little north of the port. The Poles, Germans, Greeks and Slovaks were each placed in their own neighborhoods to the east. Jews were able to find a house almost exclusively in the northwest, and Chinese were living in a China Town that was focused around Marion Street, near the Lexington Market on the edge of the inner city. The black population was mainly living in western neighborhoods. The Druid Hill and Rosemont neighborhoods in West Baltimore and Cherry Hill south of the harbor had been occupied by the majority of African-Americans before the 1960s. Other neighborhoods followed the white flight, the post-war mass movement of the white population to the suburbs (see section Migration to the county)

Parks

The Patterson Park Observatory, a pagoda-style observatory

Cash building in the botanical garden in Druid Hill Park

Unlike Philadelphia, among others, Baltimore had no major public squares and parks for a long time. In parallel with the city's expansion, the need for open green space grew. One of the first places that offered was the rural cemetery (rural cemetery) Green Mount Cemetery, which opened in 1839. This gleaning area was meant to be a landscaped urban park where Baltimoreans could flank on Sundays. This was certainly not enough to meet the need for satisfactory accommodation, and the need for more inurban areas was also recognized from a hygiene point of view. The Baltimore Sun, among other things, was heavily criticized for Baltimore's policy, pointing to New York and Philadelphia, which were much better placed to deal with these issues. Others found that parks were a valuable asset for neighboring dwellings. The speculator brothers James and Samuel Canby from Wilmington (Delaware) acquired 32 hectares in West Baltimore, of which they sold 2.5 hectares to the city for one dollar in 1939 for a city park. The construction of the first homes and the construction of the park, Franklin Square, were ongoing, but the park was visited intensively before its completion.

The geographical substrate with valleys and watercourses such as the Gwynns Falls and the Jones Falls which culminate in the Patapsco and the Chinquapin Run and the Herring run which are heading towards the Back River have given rise to various parks and recreational areas. In 1904, the landscape design agency Olmsted Brothers wrote an urban-wide park, in which the underlying landscape and existing parks were an important inspiration.

Patterson Park is a park of 55.5 ha (137 acres) east of downtown. The park is on the ground around the Hampstead Hill where 12,000 American soldiers and residents defended the city during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814. It opened in 1853 as one of the first official city parks in the United States. The Olmsted Brothers expanded and added various leisure facilities. Druid Hill Park is one of Baltimore's older big parks. The Maryland Zoo is located in the park, whose history dates back to 1876. The Gwynns Falls/ Leakin Park is made up of two separate parks of origin. In the Olmsted Brothers' parks, the entire area of the Gwynns Falls watercourse was kept free of construction. Leakin Park was born when the city owned the Crimea estate in 1940, located on the Dead Run, a side river of the Gwynns Falls. The park became widely known as a large number of dead bodies were found in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Herring Run Park is a long-stretched park located in the valley of the Herring Run, a watercourse that ends through the Back River into the Chesapeake Bay. The park was also part of the urban vision presented by the Olmsted Brothers in 1904, and followed the park near Lake Montebello, a built-up fresh water reservoir. In the 1920s, various land was acquired.

Federal Hill Park

Flight photo by Federal Hill Park

Federal Hill Park is lying on the hill in the Federal Hill district on the south side of Inner Harbor. From here, there's good vision of the port and downtown Baltimore. In 1788, the Baltimoreans celebrated Marylands's ratification of the American Constitution by launching the self-built ship called The Federalist. In the 19th century, merchants built an observatory tower to increase the visibility of inland vessels. In the 1812 war, too, the tower had an important role. In the US Civil War (1861-1865), the hill was the strategic location for a fort, which was dismantled immediately after the war, in 1866. In 1880, the area was designated as a park by the city. A new observatory tower placed in the park as a prominent object in 1887 proved unable to withstand the time: in 1902, it was blown down by a wind.

Climate

The city is also on a climatological divide in the United States. The city has hot summers like in the southern cities, but cold winters like the north. In the climate classification of Köpps, Baltimore is classified as a humid subtropical climate. In January the average temperature is 0,5 °C, in July it is 25,0 °C.

Baltimore still has strong links with the industrial past between the Democratic Party and the workers. In addition to Montgomery County and Prince George's County, Baltimore City is one of the most important Democratic units in Maryland. In 2019, Jack Young became acting mayor after Catherine Pugh stepped down as a result of pneumonia. At the same time, she was under investigation into fraud in connection with the financing of a children's book which she herself wrote.

Leading position

Migration to the county

The white flight in the mid-20th century caused vacation in downtown Baltimore

In 2010, it was estimated that 19,000 homes were empty in the city, of which 14,000 were considered uninhabitable.

After the Second World War, suburbanization in the United States was high. Baltimore also saw an increase in the number of removals. However, Baltimore, as an independent city, operated completely independently of the Baltimore County, losing all revenue in the form of tax and not having any say in the developments or any annexations. Baltimore County had its own government, its own rules and a tax that was twice as low as in the city. According to the 1950 census, the city of Baltimore reached 949,708 inhabitants in that year, after which the number of inhabitants started to decline.

The suburbanization had several causes. The return of war veterans seized the economic prosperity that characterized the post-war years to start a new family life outside the busy, industrial city. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the county had been presented as the place to enjoy the "pure, fresh air of the country" but at the same time the city's convenience was preserved. The changing mobility with the rise of the car significantly reduced the step towards county. This change has been greatly exacerbated by the collapse of the city's public transport, see the section on urban and regional transport.

Blockbusting and redlining

Baltimore has many areas of decline and vacation. It is estimated that 19 000 homes were empty in 2010.

The inhabitants of the newly developed outskirts were almost exclusively white. In the first two decades, the migrant population was somewhat absorbed by the Second Large African-American Movement, leaving the population above 900,000. Social cohesion in the city was reduced, often due to tensions between race, ethnicity and social class. Afro-Americans and the white population were almost never in direct social contact with each other. Makers responded to the rise of the black population and the feelings of many white urban communities through blockbusting. In this process, brokers set up an African-American family in a white neighborhood with the aim of provoking a white flight. By convincing local residents of the fall in the value of their homes, the brokers were able to buy the homes at a low price and then sell them to the black population, which is looking for their homes at a high price. Baltimore City was increasingly seen as a ghetto for the black population, and was increasingly in contrast to the suburbs as white enclaves. The board of Baltimore County did everything it could to keep black Americans out and was corrupt. Spiro Agnew was elected as the Executive of the Baltimore County as the Governor of Maryland and then appointed as Vice President under Richard Nixon. In 1973, he was removed from the latter post after it became known that he had taken bribes, including during his time at Baltimore County. In 1974, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Agnews successor Dale Anderson accused of strangling Baltimore City socially and economically with his way of working. He was convicted of extortion, tax evasion and conspiracy.

Meanwhile, there was a growing demand among the black population for equal rights, more jobs, better housing and reasonable wages. In the 1960s, the African-American middle class grew thanks to the work of NAACP with civil rights activist Lillie Carroll Jackson. However, the result of this was that the wealthier black population also switched the poor neighborhoods to suburbs, further impoverishing and neglecting urban areas. This was added by redlining: In poor neighborhoods, which were "red-defined," banks stopped lending mortgages.

Lease and eviction

In the 1970s, the African-American people's move came to a standstill, while the city continued to migrate to county. In the 1980s and 1990s, the population fell by record numbers and the contrast between the city and the county increased further. A factor that further displaced people's homes was ground rents on the ground under many homes in Baltimore. A similar concept would have been common in England. Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, also leased his land to settlers. In Philadelphia, which was developed earlier than Baltimore, the renting of land under the dwellings was also common practice; In Baltimore, it was applied from the mid-18th century. In England, where the country has often remained in family ownership, Baltimore has become a very profitable investment asset. An additional security for the investor was the rule that, in the event of late rent, not only the land but also the dwelling on it would be owned by the owner of the land. This was not the case in the first instance, but studies by The Baltimore Sun show that, between 2000 and 2006 alone, almost 4 000 lawsuits were brought by landowners against property owners. Although these were sometimes minor rental cases, the dwellings were often allocated to the creditors due to the fact that the debtors were unable to pay the lawyer's fees. In more than 500 cases, the value of the dwelling was disproportionate to the outstanding debt.

Poverty

In 2019, 18.9% of the population is identified as living in poverty. Poverty leads to low access to healthcare, which greatly prevents a large number of problems such as child mortality, AIDS and teenage pregnancy.

Drug trafficking and addiction

Baltimore has strategic facilities for importing and exporting drugs by ship, car, train and aircraft. Baltimore occupies an important position on the north-south route along the east coast. Baltimore is itself a large market. It is estimated that there are 55,000 drug addicts in Baltimore, most of whom use heroin. In 1950, a number of 300 heroin addicts were named, growing to 38,985 in 1997. Other traded drugs include crack, cocaine, cannabis, methamphetamines, morphine and codeine. Polydrug use - the combination of different drugs - is common practice. Drug trafficking is the main source of crime in Baltimore by 85-90%. Money laundering programs make money (indirectly) a major driver of the local economy. The drugs problem is preventing companies from settling in the neighborhoods or even in the city because they are afraid of finding suitable staff.

Violence and murder

Baltimore is suffering from violence almost all of its history. Even outside the many riots that have taken place in and around the city, murder was sometimes literally the order of the day.

In the second half of the 20th century, the number of murders in Baltimore has grown to extreme heights compared to other US cities. From the late 1980s to the 1990s, a wave of violence took place, with a record number of deaths of 353 in 1993. Almost half of the killings were drug related. In total, between 1989 and 1993, the number of violent crimes in Baltimore rose by 75%.

In 2015, the year when Freddie Gray died in police custody, another significant increase in the number of killings took place. Many people saw the Ferguson effect, a term that emerged as a result of the increase in violence after Michael Brown's death in Ferguson in 2014. Fear of charges would make agents more restrained and avoid confrontations. Journalist David Simon, also the author of the The Wire series, also ascribes the increase in the number of murders to the influence that the commotion about Gray's death had on the political expedience. Chief Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby had made strong words before a national press conference: She told the cops not only to sue for death, but also to charge three agents for wrongful arrest.

"What Mosby basically did was send a message to the Baltimore police department: ‘I’m going to put you in jail for making a bath arrest.’ So officers figured out: ‘I can go to jail for making the wrong judgment, so I’m not getting out of my car to clear a corner,’ and that’s exactly what post-Freddie Gray?’

— David Simon in The Guardian

According to Simon, the police have since been awakening large-scale and significant actions, such as detecting murder suspects, for fear. In December 2017, the number of murders was again so high that there were fears that with 113,000 inhabitants less than in 1993, the record of that year would be matched.

The Baltimore Sun is keeping track of the murders in the city on a dedicated website. More than 90% of the victims have a dark skin color.

Population development

From 1790, Baltimore had an irregular but continuous growth until 1950. Just before Baltimore could be called a millionth city, the population began to decline: in 1950, the city had a population of almost 950,000, and then fell continuously. In particular, the number of white residents who moved to the Baltimore County after 1950 was significant. These losses were largely absorbed in the first two decades by the influx caused by the Second Large Afro-American Movement, leaving the population above 900,000. In the 1970s, however, this popular move came to a standstill, while the migration from the city to the county continued. The city was shrinking, and there was a great contrast between the city and the county. In the city, the population grew by 83% with a dark skin color, while in the county the white population grew by 83%.

In 2013, the population grew slightly for the first time in over 50 years, and in 2014 the population was 2200 more people than in 2010. Following the death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent protests, the decline in the population continued to turn into a new low in a hundred years. In 2019, the city had about 593,500 inhabitants. In July 2000, natural growth was 19,351, with 78,867 births and 59,516 deaths compared to April 2000. The migration balance during the same period was -46 278; the domestic migration balance was -62,834, while migration to and from abroad resulted in a location surplus of 16,556 people. Taking into account the natural crop and a residue (other cases not included in any of the components), the population of Baltimore fell by 27 280 over this period.

Population composition

In 2019, an estimated 62.7% of the population of Baltimore had a dark skin color and 31.8% was white. In 1950, before the mass relocation of mainly white residents to the surrounding county, this was 23.7% and 76.2% respectively.

Port

Baltimore port is a key engine of Baltimore's economy

Fells Point, which was just east of Baltimore, had deep waters that allowed access to large merchant vessels. In 1773, it became part of Baltimore. In 1785, for the first time, trade between China and Canton was mentioned, a place even further east than Fells Point was. During the war of independence, the port was a center for trade with Western India. At Fells Point, many shipbuilders appeared because of the accessibility to shipping. During the War of 1812, they built — at his speed — the first clipper, the Baltimoreschoener.

In the mid-19th century, the port of Baltimore was a transport hub of various goods and contributed to the development of various industries. Freight trains supplied coal on the B&D railway lines from western Maryland for the steam engines in the many factories. Tobacco was still transported from southern Baltimore to Europe via Baltimore, or was manufactured in factories in Baltimore. The production of cereals and flour was another important part of the economy. In 1711, there was already a grain mill in the Jones Falls valley, and thanks partly to the large production by Irish immigrants at the end of the 18th century, the region was America's leading supplier of flour until 1830. The grain was first traded with Great Britain, and since the 1840s again, and later it was shipped to South America. Substances were supplied from the United Kingdom to the clothing factories, after which the clothes were shipped by ship to the south and by train to the west. The return journey from South America was accompanied by coffee as one of the main import goods, along with guano for the local fertilizer industry, iron ore and copper. A number of food products caught and produced around the Bay of Chesapa were also landed by boat, packaged or processed at factories in the city and distributed as new products throughout the country. Finally, ships from Europe brought several immigrants in search of jobs in the thriving economy.

The Baltimore port provided 13,659 people with direct jobs in 2016. In Maryland, 127 600 jobs are linked to port activity.

Legg Mason's office building

Companies and institutes

Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital are the city's largest employers alongside port-related companies. Despite its status as a major port, Baltimore does not have any headquarters in a company located in the Fortune 500. This is unique to an American city of this size; For example, Detroit, which is also a victim of industrial activity, has eight Fortune 500 farms on its territory. According to critics, Baltimore's second-class position has been one of the causes of the city's decline. The biggest companies in Baltimore, which are on the Fortune 1000, include Under Armour and T. Rowe Price. The investment company Legg Mason, which was set up in Baltimore in 1899, was based in various buildings in the city with its headquarters. In 2020, it became part of Franklin Templeton Investments.

The Sun Iron Building (1851), former headquarters of Sun newspaper (precursor to The Baltimore Sun), was the first major building in the country with cast iron to be built

In Baltimore, several large buildings of famous architects are featured. Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820) designed Baltimore's Basilica and the no longer existing Merchants' Exchange Building. Robert Mills (1781-1855) shaped the Washington Monument to the City, as he would do for Washington, D.C. The French-American architect Maximilian Godefroy (1765-1838) designed the Battle Monument and the First Unitarian Church. Richard Upjohn (1802-1878) drew the design for St. Paul's Episcopal Church. James Bogardus (1800-1874) was the designer of the Sun Iron Building (1851), which was the first major U.S. building where cast iron was used in the construction. The building became an attraction for tourists and architectural students, and several offices and factory buildings in the city followed in the same building and style. In 1904, the building, along with many other buildings, was destroyed by the urban fire. John Russell Pope (1874-1937) was a designer of the Museum of Art (1926-1929).

Driving homes

Stairway rhythms with marble and some covered with formstone, in the Harlem Park district

And what's characteristic of Baltimore is the large amount of driving homes. The British-style driving homes have become the top runner in the Baltimorean street image. In no other American city was the ridden home so widely used, and typology developed so much as in this city.

There are indications of previous driving homes in America, but the first larger American rowhouses appeared in the 1790s. These were derived from the driving homes and terraces that were considered palace buildings in prosperous neighborhoods in London in the mid-eighteenth century, with the most famous example of Adelphi Terrace (1769). The Baltimorean terraced house is built in its basic form on a 18-foot map of 21 feet and has two floors. In the early 19th century, the dwellings were made up of 2.5 layers of construction, and they were characterized by the federal architecture. In the mid-19th century, the late-neoclassicist Greek Revival style emerged. After the civil war, thousands of homes were built every year, most of them by small-scale builders. In the 1870s and 1880s, Italian-style dwellings appeared around the working-class areas at the port, which became increasingly modest in size. Yet even the simplest dwellings had features like a vestibule. About the 1880s, the construction projects became larger-scale.

Typical formstone driving homes in Baltimore

All that time, the facades were drawn from brick and red brownstone (a type of sandstone), whether or not painted. And that changed dramatically in the 1930s with a Baltimorean invention. Albert Knight patented Formstone in 1937, a gypsum tablet that was advertised as a maintenance-free facade cover. The structure could be produced in various colors and shapes, and could easily mimic other kinds of masonry. The stone became popular in other cities, but Baltimore clearly sprung the crown. However, since the last decades of the 20th century, more and more facades have been stripped of the facade. The main reason was the ease, which meant that the facade was no longer watertight. It was also criticized that this "fake facade" did not reveal the architecture of the original facade, and when the Formstone was applied, the facade was often damaged or stripped of original elements. On the other hand, for decades, Formstone has set the street in such a way that, from a visual quality and historical point of view, it was sometimes advocated that Formstone should be maintained.

The ground of the dwelling is almost always above the spawning ground. So the front door is a tear. And what's distinguishing is the white steps that were made out of Marble that came from Cockeysville, in the Baltimore County.

Special buildings

• Basilica of Baltimore

• First Unitarian Church

• Lloyd Street Synagogue

• Phoenix Shot Tower

• St. Paul's Episcopal Church

• Hollins Market

• City Hall

• Former headquarters of B&O Railroad

• City Circuit Courthouse

• Pratt Street Power Plant

• United States Custom House

• Fidelity Building

• Bromo-Seltzer clock tower

• Bank of America Building

• One Charles Center

• World Trade Center

Commemorative monuments

Drawing of the Washington Monument in Ballou's monthly magazine (1867)

When the court relocated in 1809 created an open space in the inner city, the people felt the wish to place a monument to George Washington in that place. The government gave its immediate approval, but the 1812 War delayed it. When the plans were retracted after the war, because of the fear that the high monument would fall on neighboring houses, the site was changed to the Mount Vermont. Robert Mills was the architect. Above the pillar, which was based on the Colonne Vendôme, there is an image that depicts Washington at the time when he lodged his mandate as Chief of the Continental Army in Annapolis. The monument was created thanks to the financial, material and physical support of many Baltimore residents and entrepreneurs. The Washington Monument was the first in the United States. At the same time, a second major monument was built. After the 1812 War, the inhabitants had decided that a memorial should also be set up for those who fought at North Point. This monument could still be built in the open place where the Washington monument would not arise. The design came from the French immigrant and architect Maximilian Godefroy, and the implementation was done by sculptor Antonio Capellano. The first stone was laid on 12 September 1815. In the following years, funds were recruited to take off the image, on which the picture was ready in 1825. The image consists of a phase correlated with a band that has cut out the names of the defenders in the Battle of North Point. The relieves represent the fight, the death of General Ross and the bombing of Fort McHenry. At the top, there's a picture of Lady Baltimore with a hand on a rudder and in the other, a laurel. The pride of embracing the Battle Monument is illustrated by the fact that it came to the city stamp as a symbol of the city. In 2013, Lady Baltimore's image was moved to the Maryland Center for History and Culture to protect the aggravated marble from further degradation. A concrete replica was placed on the monument.

At the end of a visit to the city in 1827, President John Quincy Adams Baltimore praised in a speech like The Monumental City. This name was introduced in 1823 by the Washington newspaper Daily National Intellingencer, in a document in which the author criticized Baltimore's - he believes - lack of cooperation in the planning of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The term was quickly taken up by other newspapers and used by Baltimoreans themselves. The name was more associated with the Washington Monument, which, because of its appearance and primeur, had a national image than the more modest Battle Monument. In the 20th century, the name was systematically re-used as a nickname for the city.

The War Memorial Building was built in 1927 at the War Memorial Plaza versus the city hall to commemorate soldiers from Maryland who died during World War I. The Baltimorean soldier Henry Gunther was probably the last soldier killed during this war. He was later set up a separate monument. In 1977, the War Memorial was reconstituted as a memorial site for Marylanders who had died in any war.

• Washington Monument (1815)

• Battle Monument (1815)

• Grafmonument to Edgar Allan Poe (1875)

• Beklad Francis Scott Key Monument (1911)

• Lafayette monument (1925)

• War Memorial Building (1927)

• Johns Hopkins Monument (1935)

The Walters Art Museum is a museum in the Mount Vernon district that has many valuable artifacts. The museum collection was left by William Thompson Walters' son in 1931, when he died. In 1934, the museum opened for audiences.

• Fort McHenry

• The Peale Museum

• Baltimore Museum of Art

• Walters Art Museum

• Roundhouse, part of the B&O Railroad Museum

• Baltimore Museum of Industry

• Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum

• Enoch Pratt Library

• National Aquarium

• American Visionary Arts Museum

The Hippodrome Theater (photo 2004)

Former Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, demolished in 2014

North Station is a district in the Charles North, Greenmount West and Barclay districts where several cultural facilities such as theaters are located, as well as the Charles Theater which first opened its cinema in Baltimore in 1892.

Since the early 18th century, performances have taken place in Baltimore, but the focus at that time was more on Annapolis who called himself "The Athens of America." In 1782, Baltimore opened the first theater of greater importance to East Baltimore Street. In 1794, theatrical producers Thomas Wignell (1753-1803) and Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809) founded the Holliday Street Theatre, which remained an important playground in the 19th century. John T. Ford (1829-1894) was recruited as the manager of this theater in 1854, and he also founded his own theater, the Ford's Theater. In 1894, the Lyric Opera House was built, along the lines of the Amsterdam Concert Building, which was later extended to the Modell Performing Arts Center with construction.

In the 20th century, Baltimore was an important playground. In 1911, the Empire Theater, which formed the basis for the later Town Theater and Everyman Theater. In 1914, the Hippodrome Theater was built, which presented Vaudeville performances and films to the audience, among other things. It's to the influential theater architect Thomas W. Lamb-related building fell in the 1970s and closed in 1990. In 2004, it was restored and reopened with 2,300 seats. In 1916, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was created, which has had its own space since 1982, the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. This music theater has 2,443 seats.

The Center Stage is Maryland's state theater, which produces theater pieces itself. The theater was created in 1963 and received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts from 1965. After the housing burst in 1974, the theater continued in the renovated 541-seat Pearlstone Theater on the campus of the Loyala College and High School. In 1991, a second smaller room was opened, the Head Theater.

The Ford's Theater was dismantled in 1964, to which Morris A was discontinued in 1967. Mechanic Theatre opened, who as a brutalist building on Charles Street took a prominent place in the city. This theater closed in 2004, and the building was demolished despite protest in 2014.

In 1981, at Pier 6 in Inner Harbor, the Pier Six Pavilion was built. This pavilion has 3,133 places.

• One Charles Center

• Panorama of Inner Harbor and the skyline of Baltimore from the Federal Hill district (photo 2014).

Charles Center

Where many American cities grew and blown after the war years despite suburbanization, downtown Baltimore was the first major urban regeneration in the late 1950s. These started with the Charles Center, a large-scale commercial development. This project was a collaboration between the urban authorities and the investors group Greater Baltimore Committee, led by developer James Rouse. The city invested 35 million dollars, and then private parties put 140 million dollars into it. One of the buildings in this district is the One Charles Center of the architect Ludwig Mies of der Rohe. With the prospect of completing the Charles Center, the city adopted an official urban regeneration plan in 1959. This included the port front.

Development Inner Harbor

The redevelopment of the Inner Harbor was an example project for several cities in America

At the end of the 1970s, the Inner Harbor project, which is about an area of around 70. 250 hectares of land were released by declining trading activity. The Rouse Company of James Rouse has again played a key role here. However, the way in which it was developed was relatively new in America, primarily because of the reuse of old buildings and structures. The combination of recreational functions, museums, shops and dwellings in different price categories has also been low. In addition, the public authorities were largely responsible for financing: The federal government contributed 180 million dollars, the city of Baltimore 58 million and the private sector only 22 million. The plan included the shopping center Harborplace, the Baltimore Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The plan gave Baltimore a new face, and the project was followed with interest by other cities and planologists. Since Rouse had also been involved in the redevelopment of the Faneuil Hall port area in Boston, a project similar to the Baltimore project, this form of urban regeneration in the planning process was called Rousification. In the same vein, developments followed in several other US industrial cities. However, due to the clear aim of attracting and entertaining tourists, similarities were also drawn with Disneyland (disneyfication). It was argued that urban regeneration created a city-as-a-traineeship, with the city no longer representing the original real urban life, but an idealized version.

Port Covington

In 2000, plans were made for the redevelopment of a Patapasco site in southern Baltimore, a site that is largely cut off from the rest of the city by the I-95. These initial plans were very limited to exports. In 2016, Kevin Plank, the owner of a clothing company under Armour, bought about 50 hectares in the area. However, the company’s sales growth stagnated, which led to a financial turmoil. At the end of 2016, the government decided to invest USD 500 million in a project called Port Covington. The project area covers 1.1 million square meters where offices, apartments, shops and parks are planned. The city of Baltimore and Plank even attempted to house Amazon.com's second national headquarters in Port Covington, but failed.

Baltimore has two sports clubs that practice one of the four largest American professional sports: Baltimore Orioles is the baseball club, the Baltimore Ravens play football. The Baltimore Bullets from 1944 to 1954 and the like club from 1963 to 1973 were top-level basketball clubs. Baltimore did not have an ice hockey club at the highest level.

The Memorial Stadium was the home base of the American football club Baltimore Colts and Baltimore Orioles baseball club. The building was demolished in 2002.

Although the Orioles, the Colts and the Bullets (1963-1973) had a successful sporting experience in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were dissatisfied with the situation in their Baltimore home base. The Bullets left the number of spectators and television attention in Baltimore, which moved them to Washington in 1973. The Orioles and the Colts were dissatisfied with the facilities, properties and condition of their homes, the Memorial Stage. The owner of the Colts threatened to relocate his club to another city as well. A proposal by the city to build a new complex at the harbor collapsed after a popular vote in 1974, and two years also left a plan for a stadium in the county dead. After years of impending departure, the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984. In 1986, the Maryland Professional Sports Authority made available 200 million dollars to build Oriole Park at Camden Yards. In doing so, the city secured itself from the presence of Orioles, and even managed to attract an American football club with the Baltimore Ravens.

Baseball

Standard of the Babe Ruth Ball from Baltimore, for Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

By the end of the 19th century, Baltimore already had several baseball clubs, including the Maryland Base Ball Club, the Lord Baltimores, The Monumentals and the Baltimore Orioles (1882-1899). In 1903, a baseball club from Montreal moved to Baltimore, which also assumed the name Baltimore Orioles and arrived at the Minor league baseball. The club played in Waverly neighborhood in north-east Baltimore. In 1914, George Herman Ruth, who became known as Babe Ruth, debuted. Another baseball club, the directly successful Baltimore Terrapins, was also established in that year, which came out of the newly created Federal League. As a result of competition, the Orioles club owner, Jack Dunn, sold various players. Babe Ruth, who became the most famous baseball player in Baltimore, went to Boston Red Sox. The remaining players then moved to Richmond as a team. Later, the club Syracuse Mets (Syracuse, New York) emerged.

Following the rapid demise of the Baltimore Terrapins, Jack Dunn moved the Jersey City Skeeters from Jersey City to Baltimore in 1916, with which he started another Baltimore Orioles. The club had several successes. The Orioles teams from 1919 to 1924 were declared in 2001, at the 100-year life of the Minor League Baseball, as six of the 100 largest Minor League teams of all time. In 1953, the Major league team moved St. Louis Browns van St. Louis to Baltimore and moved the Baltimore Oreoles (still playing as Minor League team), just like the club in 1914, to Richmond. The new Major league club in Baltimore went on as Baltimore Orioles next. Since 1992, this club has been playing its home matches in the stadium Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

American football

Stand by Johnny Unitas, an influential player of The Baltimore Colts, at the M&T Bank Stadium.

The first football clubs were linked to schools. Some of these are the Navy Midshipmen (forepr. 1879) and Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (ex. 1881). The derby between the football team at Baltimore City College and the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (City vs. Poly, since 1889) is one of the oldest high school derbies in the United States.

In 1947 the football club Baltimore Colts was set up in the city, but it ceased to exist in 1950. In 1953, a new club was created under the same name, which did not lose any season between 1956 and 1971. A club phone in this time was Johnny Unitas. Art Donovan was also among the more famous players. On December 28, 1958, the club played its first National Football League Championship Game against the New York Giants at the Yankee Stadium in New York. This competition, which was finally won by the Colts with Unitas in the main role, came to be known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played". In 1971, the club won the Super Bowl V. In 1984, the Colts Baltimore exchanged for Indianapolis, where they went on as Indianapolis Colts.

After the Colts left, Baltimore tried to bring a new club within the city boundaries. After several fruitless attempts, the owner of the Cleveland Browns decided to house that club in Baltimore as of the 1995-1996 season. However, this led to protests and legal actions by Cleveland and seasonal cardholders. In the end, this resulted in a compromise whereby the Cleveland Browns, with its club history, stayed in the city, and the Baltimore Ravens were allowed to start in the NFL as of 1996. The club won the AFC Championship in 2000 and 2012 and then also the Super Bowl (XXXV and XLVII).

Basketball

In 1926, for one season, basketball club Baltimore Orioles played professionally at the American Basketball League. From 1939 to 1942, the Baltimore Clippers came to the same level. The Baltimore Mets could not join the ABL as a completely black club. In 1944, the Baltimore Bullets were set up, which was already successful in the first year. In the 1947-1948 season, they became NBA champions. In the 1954-1955 season, the team was dissolved. In 1963, the Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore where they also assumed the name Baltimore Bullets. This NBA club was moved to Washington in 1973 because of the little local interest, where she went to play under the name of Washington Wizards.

Ice hockey

Baltimore had its own ice hockey league between 1896 and 1898, the Baltimore Hockey League, which included a team from Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore Clippers (1962-1977) played most of his existence in the American Hockey League. The Baltimore Blades played in 1975 and moved to Seattle after one season. The Baltimore Skipjacks (1979-1993) were initially also called Baltimore Clippers, but changed their name. They also played most of their existence in the American Hockey League. In 1993, they went on as Portland Pirates. The Baltimore Bandits (1995-1997), also playing the American Hockey League, moved to Cincinnati after two seasons.

Other sports

Since 1870 the equestrian runway Pimlico Race Course has been in Baltimore, where for the first time in 1873 the annual horse race Preakness Stakes took place. This sporting event for three-year full-blooded people is the second of the three races that must be won to win the Triple Crown.

The long absence of football in Baltimore after the departure of Baltimore Colts led the entrepreneur Jim Speros to establish a Canadian football club. The Baltimore Stallions have been playing two seasons since 1994, when the Baltimore Ravens came to the club.

Catholicism

An important starting point for the Maryland colony was that it would be a refuge for Roman Catholics, a group that was persecuted in England. The first wave of British settlers to arrive in Maryland in 1634 was a distribution of Roman Catholics and Protestants. In 1649, Maryland Governor William Stone adopted the Tolerance Act, a law on religious freedom for all Christians. This followed a decade of Protestant Revolution. The puritans took control of the colony and revoked the law on religious freedom. After a fight in 1655, Lord Baltimore Maryland lost its property, but rights were restored in 1660. Thereafter, the Catholics were once again wind-winners, until the Glorious Revolution (1688) in England and John Coode's appointment as Maryland's Governor (1689).

In 1784, the United States was recognized as an Apostolan prefecture, headed by John Carroll. Baltimore became the largest city in Maryland, the center of the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1789, the Diocese of Baltimore was created, which covered the entire country. When four biscuits came in 1808, Baltimore became a metropolitan archdiocese. For the south-east of the United States, it continued to play this role until 1962, the year when Atlanta became its own archbishop.

Judaism

The B'nai Israel Synagogue on the 1875 Lloyd Street is still in use.

Catholics and Protestants were free in Maryland, but dissenters could not count on protection. In the first century after formation, Jews avoided the colony for that reason. After the Revolution, several Jewish families came to Baltimore, including from Philadelphia. The community that emerged was characterized by incoming and outgoing members. In 1826, the Jew bill was drafted in Maryland, which gave Jews equal rights, allowing them to hold public office without taking the Christian oath. In the 1830s and 1840s, the first great wave of Jewish immigrants, mainly from Germany, took place. They've been knocking down at the port of eastern Baltimore, where they founded the Lloyd Street Synagoge in 1845, the country's third synagogue. In 1860, the first Jewish immigrant population had grown to 8 000. In 1875, B'nai Israel Synagogue was built, also on Lloyd Street. During the Civil War, the Jewish community was deeply divided between supporters and opponents of slavery. After the 1880s, a new stream of Jewish immigrants started to live in the eastern neighborhoods. They were called Downtown Jews. The Jews who have lived in Baltimore for some time left these districts right, and were considered as Uptown Jews. In the 20th century, a smaller group of Jewish immigrants from Nazi Germany sought refuge in the city. At the end of the 20th and early 21st century, the city welcomed Jews from Iran and the former Soviet Union, and young Orthodox Jewish families from elsewhere in the United States.

Har Sinai from 1842 is the oldest continuous Liberal Jewish congregation in the United States. The most famous Jewish neighborhood is Upper Park Heights, which is located in the northwest of the city. The main synagogues are also based there. The diverse Jewish education system in Baltimore attracts pupils from a large region. For 90 years, Upper Park Heights had been based at Baltimore Hebrew University until it became part of Towson University in Baltimore County in 2009. This institute was the only one in America where a doctorate title in Jewish community work could be obtained.

Black churches

For the black community of Baltimore, the church has to date been at the center of social, political and cultural life. The oldest municipality was the Episcopal Church, where black slaves were attending services separate from the white community. The first fully black Episcopal municipality, St. James Epsicopaalse Church, was founded in 1824. The first black baptist church in Baltimore opened in 1837. This family grew into the biggest of Baltimore. The first independently organized black baptist church in the city was opened in 1852.

Universities

Johns Hopkins University

The Gilman Hall at Johns Hopkins University campus

In 1867, the prosperous John Hopkins (1795-1873) was authorized by the Maryland State to perform a university and hospital. Hopkins, with investment in the B&O Railroad, made a lot of money, and as a Quaker and a metabolist, he made 7 million dollars, divided into two equal parts, available to the institutions. Johns Hopkins University opened after his death in 1876. After a slight delay, the medicine study, which is linked to Johns Hopkins Hospital, was launched in 1893.

Other universities

Johns Hopkins Hospital

With John Hopkins' legacy, the hospital was opened in 1889, much later than the university. Hopkins' desire to set up a hospital was partly due to the fact that he had almost died in the cholera epidemic of 1832. In the same year as the hospital, the School of Nursing also opened, the hospital's training institute, which was a wish of Hopkins that he had specifically documented. The Johns Hopkins Hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in the United States and is highly respected.

Newspapers

General newspapers

The most famous newspapers before the war of independence were the Baltimore Advertiser and the Maryland Journal, published in 1773. After independence, a large number of other titles appeared. The Baltimore Intelligent Caller from 1798 was the first newspaper to be more successful, and was published under different titles until 1964. In that year, the successor Baltimore American merged with the Baltimore News-Post into the Baltimore News-American, which last published its 1986 edition. After that, the Baltimore Sun was the only remaining general newspaper in Baltimore. From 2006 to 2009, a free newspaper was published under the title The Baltimore Examiner, which was completely connected to advertising.

The Baltimore Sun published its first tabloid-sized newspaper in 1837. The founder was Arunah S. Abell, an educated printer from Rhode Island. In its first edition, the newspaper reported on decisions made by the municipal council, something which other newspapers did not mention. During the American Civil War, the newspaper innovated in news gathering. As one of the first newspapers, it used telegraphy a lot of times, bringing daily news from Washington, D.C. The Baltimorean journalist H.L. Mencken joined the newspaper in 1906. Until 1910, the newspaper was owned by the Abell family and transferred to the newly created A.S. Abell Company. From that year onwards, in addition to the emergency call, an independent edition, the Evening Sun, was published in the evening. In 1924, it opened an overseas office in London. During the Mexican-American War in 1947, the newspaper reported the US victory before the federal government knew about it thanks to a Pony Express between Baltimore and New Orleans. In 1986, the newspaper was owned by the Times Mirror Company, which handed over the newspaper to Tribune Publishing in 2000. The newspaper won a Pulitzer prize several times, three of which was awarded by the cartoonist Edmund Duffy (1899-1962).

After Donald Trump Baltimore, in 2019, called, among other things, a "repulsive rat and rodent-forgiven gang", the international newspaper reported "Better to have a few rat than to be one" (You may be more affected by what rats are than one).

Target group specific newspapers

Front page of The Afro-American, January 4, 1902

Baltimore has had a lot of newspapers focusing on particular populations. In August 1892, the first edition of the Afro-American appeared. The newspaper came from the National Home Protector, which was founded in 1889 by pastor and civil rights activist William Allexander. In this time, several weekly newspapers were created to help African-Americans improve their position. After it had been owned by several owners, it came into the hands of John H in 1897. Murphy Sr. Under the decades-long leadership of the Murphy family, the magazine became one of the most important national black newspapers. In 1915, there were 7,500 subscribers spread across the United States.

The Baltimore Jewish Times founded a weekly newspaper in 1919. In 1980, the newspaper had 200 pages and gave it to serve 50,000 readers. In 2006, the newspaper had an average of 120 pages and a circulation of 15,000 copies. In 2012, the Washington Jewish Week took over 1.26 million dollars after bankruptcy.

The Catholic Review was created in 1833 under the name of Catholic Mirror. The newspaper was Maryland's largest paid weekly newspaper until 2012, when it turned to two-weekly editions. The newspaper had 50,000 subscribers in that year, about 12,000 fewer than ten years before.

Radio

WBAL is the region's most famous news channel, whose history dates back to 1925. The radio station was set up as Baltimore News American, and from 1950 onwards it focused on the news. In 2006, it had the largest news staff of all radio stations in Maryland. The oldest radio station in Baltimore is WCAO, which started work in 1922. The radio station has a predominantly Christian signature. The WHFS radio station was established in 1962 and is affiliated to the CBS.

Television

Baltimore has connected seven television channels broadcasting from Baltimore, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and The CW. In October 1947, WMAR TV started as the first television channel in Baltimore, which was the 11th national TV station. The station was set up by A.S. Abell Company, the publisher of The Baltimore Sun. In 1948, the Hearst Corporation's WBAL-TV news channel started broadcasting from Downtown Baltimore. At the end of the same year, the WAAM station, which had no connection with a newspaper, began. In 1957, the station was owned by Westinghouse Corporation and changed its name to WJZ-TV. Two years later, the three stations built together the world's first three-aerial mast.

East-West motorway (I-170) partially implemented (photo 2019)

The plantation around the I-95 at Baltimore had a lot of feet in the earth (photo 2019)

Motorways

Baltimore is located on the Interstate 95, a major highway along the east coast. The I-395 is a side branch of the I-95, which connects to downtown. The I-895 runs south-east along the city, through a tunnel under the Patapsco. The I-695, McKeldin Beltway or Baltimore Beltway is the city's ring road, with the one that forms more than 2.5 km long Francis Scott Key Bridge bridging the Patapsco. On the ring road, several other motorways are connected, such as the I-83 to Harrisburg, the I-97 on the south side of the town to Annapolis and the I-795 to Reisterstown. U.S. Routes running through Baltimore are Route 1 parallel to the east coast and Route 40 from the northwest to the northeast.

Interstate 95

The plantation for the I-95 took place in the '60s and '70s. For this highway that was going to pass through Baltimore, a concrete bypass was created around the inner city. Although it was an Interstate Highway where 90% of the costs were borne by the federal government, Baltimore objected to the - in her view - bad plan. This was followed by years of struggle, where alternatives were not agreed either. When the city finally approved a route through the Inner Harbor, it was met with fierce protest from residents who marched together in a community and were assisted by media and eminent residents. A completely new plan has been drawn up, with one branch of the motorway decoupling the central business district.

Green Line (subway): 1983-1995
Blue line (light rail): 1992
Yellow Line (lightrail): 1992
Camden Line (train): 1830 (rail)
Penn Line (train): 1881 (rail)

Urban and regional transport services

In the run-up to World War II, there was a delicate network of tram and trolley bus lines, which connected the city to the suburbs. During the war, the use of fuel and tires increased as a result of rations. In 1945, however, public transport was owned by National City Lines, a company owned by, among others, General Motors, Standard Oil of California and Philips Petroleum. The company replaced several trams by buses. The remaining lines experienced various problems in the provision of services or caused congestion, which critics suggested that they should also ban these trams from the streets.

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation is responsible for the bus routes called Charm City Circulator (CCC). This bus network consists of 24 free-to-use buses distributed over four routes in and through downtown Baltimore. The first bus line (orange) became operational after 20 years of research in 2010. The transport service was financed by increased parking taxes, advertisement revenues and impact fees for developments that benefited from the line. In addition to the bus routes, a free-to-air bus service was created, consisting of four ships and six berths, the Harbor Connector (HC).

All other public transport in the city is provided by Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). Of a plan for the Baltimore Metro in the 1960s, only the Green Line was partially implemented (more than 24.5 km), the first part of which was opened in 1983. Instead of further expansion of the metro network, the construction of a (cheaper) light rail system, the Baltimore Light RailLink, was chosen. In 2015, the planned Red Line was definitively canceled.

MARC (Maryland Area Regional Commuter) is a suburban railway system in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region. From Baltimore, from Camden Station and Penn Station, the MARC runs over two different lines to Washington, D.C., the Camden Line and the Penn Line respectively.

Train stations and lines

Baltimore has two intercity train stations served by the national railway company Amtrak: Penn Station and Camden Station. Penn Station is Amtrak's eighth station in passenger numbers.

Other former railway stations were President Street Station (1849), which formed a connection to Wilmington and Philadelphia. Since the 1990s, the remainder has provided space to the Baltimore Civil War Museum. Calvert Street Station (1849-1949) offered the opportunity to travel with the Northern Central Railway heading Sunbury (Pennsylvania). The Mount Royal Station (1896-1959) was opened as the second station in Baltimore on the Baltimore Belt Line, which also connected to Philadelphia and New York. This railway line was the first electrified in the world, on which the Royal Blue was going to drive.

Aviation

Baltimore shares an airport with Washington called Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The airport is 16 kilometers south of the city of Baltimore. The former Baltimore Airpark airport (formerly Quinn Airport) to the north-east of the city closed in 2001.

Nina Simone and Randy Newman wrote in the 1970s the number Baltimore, which overcame Baltimore's difficult situation. Newman's version appeared at Little Criminals in 1977. Simone published the song on her own music album in 1978. The film Hairspray (1988), the ensuing musical of the same name (2002; Dutch version: 2009) and the new music film (2007), which is a film of the same name, are in Baltimore.

David Simon wrote the book Homicide in 1991: A year on the Killing Streets, inspired by the culture of calculating the drugs world in Baltimore. Based on this book, TV Homicide appeared: Life on the Street (1993-1999) and the film Homicide: The Movie (2000). In 1996, Simon put the book The Corner: A year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, which in 2000 was based on the HBO Miniserie The Corner. From 2002 to 2008, Simon was the main scriptwriter of the HBO series The Wire, which focuses on drug trafficking, with its impact on police, politics, economics, media and education.

Baltimore has eight sister cities:

• (and) Statistics, maps and other information about Baltimore at city-data.com
• Urban administration website

Media files associated with this topic are available on the Baltimore page, Maryland on Wikimedia Commons.