Baltimore, MD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baltimore ( /ˈbɒltɨmɔr/, colloquially /ˈbɔl.mɔr/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is located in the central area of the state along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. The independent city is often referred to as Baltimore City to distinguish it from surrounding Baltimore County.

Founded in 1729, Baltimore is the largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic United States and is situated closer to Midwestern markets than any other major seaport on the East Coast.^[13] Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was once the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States and a major manufacturing center.^[14] After a decline in manufacturing, Baltimore shifted to a service-oriented economy.

At 620,961 residents in 2010,^[12] Baltimore’s population has decreased by one-third since its peak in 1950. The Baltimore Metropolitan Area has grown steadily to approximately 2.7 million residents in 2010; the 21st largest in the country.^[15] Baltimore is also a principal city in the larger combined statistical area of approximately 8.4 million residents.^[16]

The city is named after Lord Baltimore, a member of the Irish House of Lords and the founding proprietor of the Maryland Colony. Baltimore is an anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic phrase Baile an Tí Mhóir, meaning “Town of the Big House.”^[17] However, it should not to be confused with Baltimore, County Cork, which is named Dún na Séad in Ireland.^[18]

The Maryland colonial General Assembly created the Port of Baltimore at Locust Point in 1706 for the tobacco trade. The Town of Baltimore was founded on July 30, 1729, and is named after Lord Baltimore (Cecilius Calvert), who was the first Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. Cecilius Calvert was a son of George Calvert, who became the First Lord Baltimore of County Cork, Ireland in 1625.^[19] Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century as a granary for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean. The profit from sugar encouraged the cultivation of cane and the importation of food.

Baltimore played a key part in events leading to and including the American Revolution. City leaders such as Jonathan Plowman Jr. moved the city to join the resistance to British taxes and merchants signed agreements to not trade with Britain.^[20] The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777, effectively making the city the capitol of the United States during this period.^[21] After the war, the Town of Baltimore, nearby Jonestown, and an area known as Fells Point were incorporated as the City of Baltimore in 1796. The city remained a part of Baltimore County until 1851 when it was made an independent city.^[22]

The city was the site of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. After burning Washington, D.C., the British attacked Baltimore on the night of September 13, 1814. United States forces from Fort McHenry successfully defended the city’s harbor from the British. Francis Scott Key, a Maryland lawyer, was aboard a British ship where he had been negotiating for the release of an American prisoner, Dr. William Beanes. Key witnessed the bombardment from this ship and later wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner“, a poem recounting the attack. Key’s poem was set to a 1780 tune by British composer John Stafford Smith, and the Star-Spangled Banner became the official National Anthem of the United States in 1931.

Following the Battle of Baltimore, the city’s population grew rapidly. The construction of the Federally funded National Road (presently U.S. Route 40) and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest. A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and a unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed. Baltimore acquired its moniker, “The Monumental City” after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by President John Quincy Adams. At an evening function Adams gave the following toast: “Baltimore: the Monumental City- May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant.”^[24] Baltimore suffered one of the worst riots of the antebellum south in 1835, when bad investments led to the Baltimore bank riot.^[25]

Maryland did not secede from the Union during the American Civil War; however, when Union soldiers marched through the city at the start of the war, Confederate sympathizers attacked the troops, which led to the Baltimore riot of 1861. Four soldiers and 12 civilians were killed during the riot, which caused Union troops to occupy Baltimore. Maryland came under direct federal administration—in part, to prevent the state from seceding—until the end of the war in April 1865.

Following an economic depression known as the Panic of 1873, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad company attempted to lower its workers’ wages, leading to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. On July 20, 1877, Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll called up the 5th and 6th Regiments of the National Guard to end the strikes, which had disrupted train service at Cumberland in western Maryland. Citizens sympathetic to the railroad workers attacked the national guard troops as they marched from their armories in Baltimore to Camden Station. Soldiers from the 6th Regiment fired on the crowd, killing 10 and wounding 25. Rioters then damaged B&O trains and burned portions of the rail station. Order was restored in the city on July 21–22 when federal troops arrived to protect railroad property and end the strike.^[26]

On February 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours, leaving more than 70 blocks of the downtown area burned to the ground. Damages were estimated at $150 million—in 1904 dollars.^[27] As the city rebuilt during the next two years, lessons learned from the fire led to improvements in firefighting equipment standards.^[28]

The city grew in area by annexing new suburbs from the surrounding counties, the last being in 1918, when the city acquired portions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.^[29] A state constitutional amendment approved in 1948, required a special vote of the citizens in any proposed annexation area, effectively preventing any future expansion of the city’s boundaries.^[30]

The relative size of the city’s black population grew from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970.^[31] The Baltimore riot of 1968 occurred following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. Coinciding with riots in other cities, public order was not restored until April 12, 1968. The Baltimore riot cost the city of Baltimore an estimated $10 million (US$ 63 million in 2012). A total of 11,000 Maryland National Guard and federal troops were ordered into the city.^[32] Lasting effects of the riot can be seen on the streets of North Avenue, Howard Street, Gay Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue where long stretches of the streets remain barren.^[33]

During the 1970s, Baltimore’s downtown area known as the Inner Harbor, had been neglected and was only occupied by a collection of abandoned warehouses. Efforts to redevelop the downtown area started with the construction of the Baltimore Convention Center, which opened 1979. Harborplace, an urban retail and restaurant complex opened on the waterfront in 1980, followed by the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland’s largest tourist destination, and the Baltimore Museum of Industry in 1981. In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, located downtown near the harbor. Six years later the Baltimore Ravens football team moved into M&T Bank Stadium next to Camden Yards.^[34]

The city has 280 properties identified as historical in the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] Geography

Baltimore is in north-central Maryland on the Patapsco River close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The city is also located on the fall line between the Piedmont Plateau and the Atlantic Coastal Plain, which divides Baltimore into “lower city” and “upper city”. The city’s elevation ranges from sea level at the harbor to 480 feet (150 m) in the northwest corner near Pimlico.^[35]

According to the 2010 Census, the city has a total area of 92.052 square miles (238.41 km²), of which 80.944 square miles (209.64 km²) is land and 11.108 square miles (28.77 km²) is water.^[9] The total area is 12.07 percent water.

[edit] Climate

Baltimore lies within the humid subtropical climate zone (Cfa), according to the Köppen classification.

July is typically the hottest month of the year, with an average temperature of 81.7 °F (27.6 °C). Summer is also a season of high (generally, not consistently) humidity in the Baltimore area. The record high for Baltimore is 107 °F (42 °C), set in 1936.^[36] January is the coldest month, with an average temperature of 36.8 °F (2.7 °C). However, subtropical air masses can bring periods of springlike weather, and Arctic fronts push nighttime low temperatures into the teens (< −7 °C) and more rarely, single digits (< −12 °C). The record low temperature for Baltimore is −7 °F (−22 °C) in 1934 and 1984.^[36] Due to an urban heat island effect in the city proper and a moderating effect of the Chesapeake Bay, the outlying and inland parts of the Baltimore metro area are usually cooler than the city proper and the coastal towns.

As is typical in most East Coast cities, precipitation is generous and very evenly spread throughout the year. Every month typically brings 3–4 inches of precipitation, averaging around 42 inches (1,100 mm) annually. Spring, summer and fall bring frequent showers and thunderstorms, with an average of 105 sunny days a year. Winter often brings lighter rain showers of longer duration, and generally less sunshine and more clouds. Snowfall occurs occasionally in the winter, with an annual average of 20.8 inches (53 cm).^[37] In the northern and western suburbs, temperatures tend to be cooler, and winter snowfall is more significant, where some areas average more than 30 inches (76 cm) of snow per year.^[38] Freezing rain and sleet occurs a few times each winter in Baltimore, as warm air overrides cold air at the low-mid levels of the atmosphere. When the wind blows from the east, the cold air gets dammed against the mountains to the west and the result is freezing rain or sleet.

The average date of first frost in Baltimore is October 29, and the average last frost is April 11, allowing a growing season of 200 days.^[39]

NOTE: The temperature data presented below was recorded at Inner Harbor; all other data recorded at BWI Airport.

Neighborhoods

Baltimore is divided officially into nine geographical regions: Northern, Northwestern, Northeastern, Western, Central, Eastern, Southern, Southwestern, and Southeastern, with each patrolled by a respective Baltimore Police Department district. However, it is common for locals to divide the city simply by East or West Baltimore, using Charles Street as a dividing line, and/or into North and South using Baltimore Street as a dividing line.

The Central district includes Downtown Baltimore, the city’s main commercial area. Home to Harborplace, The Camden Yards Sports Complex (Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium), the Convention Center, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the area also includes many nightclubs, bars and restaurants, shopping centers and various other attractions. Many of Baltimore’s key businesses, such as Legg Mason and Constellation Energy are based here. In addition, the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus is housed in this area, with the long-associated University of Maryland Medical System adjacent to the school. The downtown core has mainly served as a commercial district with limited residential opportunities. However, since 2002 the downtown population has doubled to 12,000 residents. The Central district stretches north of the downtown core up to the edge of Druid Hill Park. This northern portion of Central, between downtown and the park, is home to many of the city’s cultural opportunities. Maryland Institute College of Art, the Peabody Institute of music, the Lyric Opera House, The Walters Art Museum, The Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, as well as several galleries are located in this region.

Crime in the Inner Harbor and Mount Vernon neighborhoods of the Central district became of greater concern in 2009, as an increasing number of random assaults on tourists were reported.^[61][62]

The Northern District lies directly north of the Central district and is bounded on the east by The Alameda and on the west by Pimlico Road. Loyola University Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University and College of Notre Dame of Maryland are located in this district.

The Southern District, a mixed industrial and residential area, consists of the area of the city below the Inner Harbor, east of the B&O railroad tracks. It is a mixed socio-economic region consisting of working class, culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods such as Locust Point;^[63] the historic Federal Hill area, home to many working professionals, pubs and restaurants;^[64] and low-income residential areas such as Cherry Hill.^[65] The Port of Baltimore operates two terminals in this district and the old Domino Sugar plant is located here.^[63] Westport is another lower-income neighborhood that has been approved for tremendous waterfront development in the years to come. (See Westport Waterfront^[66])

East Baltimore consists of the Northeastern, Eastern, and Southeastern districts.

The Northeastern district is primarily a residential neighborhood, home to Morgan State University, bounded by the city line on its northern and eastern boundaries, Sinclair Lane, Erdman Avenue, and Pulaski Highway on its southern boundaries and The Alameda on its western boundaries. It has undergone demographic shifts over many years and has become predominantly African American.^[67][68][69]

The Eastern district is the heart of what is considered East Baltimore and is home to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Located below Erdman Avenue and Sinclair Lane, above Orleans Street, it is an almost exclusively African American area, made up of low-income residential neighborhoods. Entire blocks of abandoned buildings and its chronic problem with drug trafficking made this area a frequent on-site film location for The Wire, a television drama produced from 2002 to 2008.^[70]

The Southeastern district, located below Orleans Street, bordering the Inner Harbor on its western boundary, the city line on its eastern boundaries and the Baltimore harbor on its southern boundaries, is a mixed industrial and residential area. The demography of individual neighborhoods varies widely, from predominantly black O’Donnell Heights, where 66 percent of the population was measured below the poverty line in 2000, to predominantly white Fells Point, with less than 17 percent below the poverty line. Yet, even these two neighborhoods have a significant mix of other races and cultures, a common characteristic of Southeastern neighborhoods.^{[71][72][73][74]}

West Baltimore consists of the Northwestern, Western, and Southwestern districts.

The Northwestern district, bounded by the county line on its northern and western boundaries, Gwynns Falls Parkway on the south and Pimlico Road on the East, is home to Pimlico Race Course, Sinai Hospital. Its neighborhoods are mostly residential. Formerly the center of Baltimore’s Jewish community, the district’s Park Heights neighborhood, has undergone white flight since the 1960s, becoming an almost exclusively black.^[75][76]

Northern Parkway divides the Northwestern district into two distinctly different demographic areas. Neighborhoods to the north of the parkway, such as Mount Washington and Cheswolde are predominantly white, with low-density suburban housing. South of the parkway, the neighborhoods are mostly black. Some of the neighborhoods south of the parkway also have suburban housing,^[75] but several are high density urban communities, with greater percentage of residents reported below the poverty level in the 2000 census.^[77]

The Western district, located west of downtown, is the heart of West Baltimore, bounded by Gwynns Falls Parkway, Fremont Avenue, and Baltimore Street. Coppin State University, Mondawmin Mall, and Edmondson Village, located in this district, have been historic cultural and economic centers of the city’s African American community. Once home to many middle to upper class African Americans, over the years the more affluent residents have migrated to other sections of the city or beyond the city line into Baltimore County and Howard County.^[78]

Income levels below the poverty line were reported by the 2000 census for more than 45 percent of residents in some of the district’s neighborhoods, which are almost exclusively black.^[79][80] Like East Baltimore, the area’s crime problems have provided subject material for television series, such as The Wire.

Local organizations, such as the Sandtown Habitat for Humanity and the Upton Planning Committee, have been steadily transforming formerly blighted areas of the Western district into clean, safe and well-kept communities.^[81][82]

The Southwestern district is bounded by Baltimore County to the west, Baltimore Street to the north, and the downtown area to the east. St. Agnes Hospital is located in this district, amid a mix of industrial parks and residential areas. Economic and demographic characteristics of Southwestern district vary greatly. Almost exclusively black, the Uplands neighborhood, near the Central district, had 39.9 percent of its residents measured below the poverty line by the 2000 census.^[83] Predominantly white Violetville, at the city’s southwest edge, had only 6.4 percent of its residents reported below the poverty line.^[84]