Lost Baltimore

 

Baltimore today is visited by millions of tourists who come to see the world-famous Inner Harbor, sample mouth-watering blue crabs, take in an Orioles game at legendary Camden Yards, or explore the many cultural and higher education institutions. Locals, meanwhile, enjoy living in a city that is large enough to provide great restaurants and plenty of special events, while it retains its small-town attitude that has earned it its “Charm City” nickname. However, many locals and tourists may not know that Baltimore was once a bustling port city where manufacturing, shipping, and shipbuilding dominated the industrial center of downtown Baltimore.

 

Lost Baltimore features rarely published images of homes, buildings, industrial ports, and other commercial entities that have been razed, damaged, and significantly altered over the years, including the large estates of north Baltimore, Merchants’ Exchange, Union Station, Electric Park, Rennert Hotel, Light Street Wharves, downtown theaters, Memorial Stadium, Hutzler’s Department Store, and Bethlehem Steel. Also included are the devastating Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 and the iconic buildings that perished, such as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad headquarters, the Sun Iron Building, and the News American Building.

 

Lost Baltimore also covers important historical events that have shaped the physical landscape and societal fabric of Baltimore—the heartbreaking move by the Baltimore Colts in 1984, Baltimore’s early dominance as the headquarters of national political conventions, Prohibition’s effect on the German breweries, the city’s changing industrial and commercial makeup, as well as some of the most recent hotly contested historical preservation battles. Open these pages and take a step back in time to reveal the Baltimore that once was.