Locust Point | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
State | Maryland |
City | Baltimore |
Area | |
• Total | .175 sq mi (0.45 km2) |
• Land | .175 sq mi (0.45 km2) |
Population (2009) [1] | |
• Total | 1,858 |
• Density | 11,000/sq mi (4,100/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP code | 21230 |
Area code | 410, 443, and 667 |
Locust Point Historic District | |
Location | Roughly bounded by Fort Ave., B & O RR., Woodall & Reynolds Sts., Baltimore, Maryland |
Coordinates | 39°16′13″N76°35′35″W / 39.27028°N 76.59306°W |
Area | 98 acres (40 ha) |
Architectural style | Late Federal / Greek Revivals, Italianate, Queen Anne, Classical Revival, Gothic Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 12001084 [2] |
Added to NRHP | December 26, 2012 |
Locust Point is a peninsular neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Located in South Baltimore, the neighborhood is entirely surrounded by the Locust Point Industrial Area; the traditional boundaries are Lawrence street to the west and the Patapsco River to the north, south, and east. It once served as a center of Baltimore's Polish-American, Irish-American and Italian-American communities; in more recent years Locust Point has seen gradual gentrification with the rehabilitation of Tide Point and Silo Point. The neighborhood is also noted as being the home of Fort McHenry and the western end of its namesake tunnel that carries eight lanes of Interstate 95 under the river. [3]
Locust Point has been called "Baltimore's Ellis Island" because the neighborhood was once the third largest point of entry for immigrants to the United States after Ellis Island and the Port of Philadelphia. From 1868 until the closure of the Locust Point piers in 1914, 1.2 million European immigrants entered Baltimore through Locust Point. [4]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. [2]
In 1776, with the outbreak of the American Revolution, the citizens of the City of Baltimore, assisted by the State of Maryland, dug fortifications at the end of the "Whetstone Point" peninsula that juts into Baltimore Harbor between the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River on the north and the Middle Branch and the Ferry Branch (now the Southern Branche) to the south. This fort was named "Fort Whetstone". This fort escaped British attack, although it was nearly attacked in August 1777 when a British fleet from New York City sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to the Head of Elk in Cecil County in the northeastern corner of the state. There the ships disembarked troops heading for the new American capital city in Philadelphia, and thus engaged in the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown. However, Baltimore was considered safe enough for the Continental Congress to meet in when Philadelphia was overrun. [5]
Later near the war's end, French troops under Comte de Rochambeau and the American Continental troops under George Washington marched through the area and they camped for several weeks during their southward movement to trap the army of British General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. Hence, Fort Whetstone's batteries of cannon never yet had to fire in anger.
In 1789, there was the reorganization of the Federal Government of the United States in 1789 under the new U.S. Constitution, and the establishment of a new U.S. Army and U.S. Department of War. Then starting in 1793 the Fort was rebuilt from scratch. By 1798, a new star-shaped fortification with additional buildings, barracks, storehouses, and bunkers was constructed under the design of French military engineer Jean Foncin, and it was renamed Fort McHenry for James McHenry of Maryland, third U.S. Secretary of War.
When Fort McHenry blocked the attempted invasion of Baltimore's inner harbor by British warships in September 1814, it was located on a grassy peninsula that was used for pasture. The grassy but jaggedly shaped peninsula point had been known as Whetstone Point, also the name of a park in London, since it was established as a port of entry by the Maryland Colonial Assembly in 1706, twenty-three years before the establishment of the town. Whetstone Point and the future South Baltimore peninsula was annexed by the City of Baltimore in 1816. The peninsula was renamed Locust Point in 1846, for the locust trees growing on the peninsula. [6] [7]
Many of the streets built here during the later half of the 19th century bear the names of local heroes from the War of 1812. [7] The oldest buildings are from circa 1840-1850, two-story houses on Cuba, Clement, and Towson Streets. [6] Portions of the neighborhood were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. [8]
The area of Locust Point played prominently in the second season of the Home Box Office cable TV series The Wire .
On June 10, 2013, a tornado hit the Locust Point area as a part of a severe storm system sprawling across the East Coast. The tornado caused damage to a warehouse nearby. [9]
Procter & Gamble chose the Locust Point neighborhood as the location its second East Coast soap manufacturing plant in the late 1920s, reflecting the strengths of Baltimore's industrial infrastructure in the early 20th century. By 1990, the Procter and Gamble Baltimore Plant was producing only soaps like Ivory and Camay, and synthetic liquid detergents like Joy, Dawn, and liquid Cascade.
In 1993, Procter & Gamble set aside reserves to fund a major restructuring of the corporation, including plant consolidation. On January 13, 1994, they announced that the Baltimore Plant was one of four that would be closed. The Baltimore Plant ceased production in 1995.
In 1996, A&E International, a Korean firm, purchased the property with the intent to manufacture a specialty liquor for shipping to the Far East. Forced to abandon their plans because of the Asian financial crisis, A&E sold the plant to Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Inc. in 1999.
Struever Brothers Eccles & Rouse rehabilitated the historic waterfront located at the end of Hull Street, calling it Tide Point. It was the first major redevelopment in the neighborhood in decades. When the project was completed in 2002, the former soap factory was turned into Class A office space. It is currently occupied by the sportswear firm Under Armour. Three silos next to the company's campus now display murals of Michael Phelps, Ray Lewis and Cal Ripken Jr. [10]
There are two marine terminals of the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore located within the neighborhood, as well as the massive Domino sugar factory, a reminder that the industrial use of Baltimore Harbor is still a very important component of the local economy.
Locust Point is located in Baltimore City's 11th District, with the current district representative Eric Costello. Locust Point is part of Maryland's 46th Legislative and State Senate District, with the current state senator Bill Ferguson and current delegates Mark Edelson, Robbyn Lewis, and Luke Clippinger. Locust Point is located in Maryland's 3rd congressional district.
Locust Point is home to the Baltimore Museum of Industry, Fort McHenry, and Latrobe Park.. Also located in Locust Point are the Locust Point Recreation Center, a Baltimore Water Taxi stop, South Locust Point Cruise Terminal, and Francis Scott Key Elementary and Middle Grades School.
Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy from Chesapeake Bay on September 13–14, 1814.
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark in Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". The Inner Harbor is located at the mouth of Jones Falls, creating the wide and short northwest branch of the Patapsco River. The district includes any water west of a line drawn between the foot of President Street and the American Visionary Art Museum.
Fell's Point is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland. It was established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. The area has many antique, music, and other stores, restaurants, coffee bars, a municipal markethouse with individual stalls, and over 120 pubs. Located 1.5 miles east of Baltimore's downtown central business district and the Jones Falls stream, Fells Point has a maritime past and the air of a seafaring town. It also has the greatest concentration of drinking establishments and restaurants in the city.
Federal Hill is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, that lies just to the south of the city's central business district. Many of the structures are included in the Federal Hill Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Other structures are included in the Federal Hill South Historic District, listed in 2003.
The Fort McHenry Tunnel is a four-tube, bi-directional tunnel that carries traffic on Interstate 95 (I-95) underneath the Baltimore Harbor. The lowest point in the Interstate System under water, the tunnel is named for nearby Fort McHenry.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, also known originally as the Outer Harbor Crossing or simply as the Key Bridge or Beltway Bridge, is a steel arch-shaped continuous through truss bridge spanning the lower Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor / Port carrying Maryland Route 695 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The main span of 1,200 feet (366 m) is the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world. It is also the longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Canton is a historic waterfront neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The neighborhood is along Baltimore's outer harbor in the southeastern section of the city, roughly 2 miles (3 km) east of Baltimore's downtown district and next to or near the neighborhoods of Patterson Park, Fell's Point, Highlandtown, and Brewers Hill.
Carr Lowrey Glass Company (1889–2003) was a manufacturer of glass bottles.
Westport is a neighborhood in south Baltimore, Maryland. Westport is a majority African-American neighborhood that has struggled with crime, housing abandonment, and unemployment in the past decade. The neighborhood is bordered by the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River on the east, the city neighborhoods of Cherry Hill, Brooklyn and the southwestern Baltimore County community of Lansdowne to the southwest, Hollins Ferry Road and the Mount Winans and Lakeland neighborhoods to the west, and Interstate 95 to the north, along with the South Baltimore communities of Federal Hill and Otterbein. The Baltimore–Washington Parkway runs through the middle of Westport and intersects with Interstate 95, the main East Coast super-highway, north to south, Maine to Florida.
Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's largest port facilities for specialized cargo and passenger facilities. It is operated by the Maryland Port Administration (MPA), a unit of the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Fort Howard was a military installation located on the North Point peninsula, overlooking the main channel of the Patapsco River leading into the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Although militarily important since the early 19th century, its surviving elements and name date to the Spanish–American War. It was named by Elihu Root, Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1902 after Colonel John Eager Howard (1752–1827). The installation earned the nickname the "Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate", serving as the coastal artillery headquarters for Baltimore, Maryland. Fort Howard's historical significance is its military connection with the War of 1812, the Spanish–American War, and World War II.
Southern High School was a former public secondary school on Warren Avenue between William Street to the west and Riverside Avenue to the east, in the Federal Hill neighborhood of the northern side of the larger old South Baltimore community on the Whetstone Point peninsula. With historic Fort McHenry from the War of 1812 (1812-1815), to the southeast at the point itself and additional residential areas surrounding the high school in tightly packed rowhouses and streets known as Locust Point and Riverside to the south and southeast along with the restored Otterbein and Sharp-Leadenhall neighborhoods to the west, also just south of the downtown central business district and famed "Inner Harbor" of the City of Baltimore, in Maryland.
St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, more commonly called Old St. Paul's Church today, is a historic Episcopal church located at 233 North Charles Street at the southeast corner with East Saratoga Street, in Baltimore, Maryland, near "Cathedral Hill" on the northern edge of the downtown central business district to the south and the Mount Vernon-Belevedere cultural/historic neighborhood to the north. It was founded in 1692 as the parish church for the "Patapsco Parish", one of the "original 30 parishes" of the old Church of England in colonial Maryland.
Procter and Gamble Baltimore Plant is a historic factory complex located at Locust Point in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a compact industrial complex built by the national corporation Procter & Gamble comprising five major three-story brick buildings spread over 10 acres (40,000 m2). These major buildings are the Process Building (1929), the Soap Chip Building (1929), the Bar Soap Building (1929), the Warehouse (1929), and the Tide Building (1949).
Polish Home Hall is a historic building located in the waterfront industrial/commercial/residential and heavily ethnic community of Curtis Bay in southern Baltimore, Maryland,. Built on the southwest corner of Fairhaven Avenue and Filbert Street near the top of the commanding heights overlooking to the east the sloping streets of the neighborhood of Curtis Bay, about four city blocks wide and 15 blocks length.
Fort Smallwood Park is a in northeastern Anne Arundel County county park near Riviera Beach and Pasadena, Maryland, United States. It is located on the outer Patapsco River as it meets the Chesapeake Bay, on a peninsula known as Rock Point.
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census, it is the 30th-most populous city in the United States. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today it is the most populous independent city in the nation. As of the 2020 census, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,838,327, making it the 20th-largest metropolitan area in the country. When combined with the larger Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA) has a 2020 U.S. census population of 9,973,383, the third-largest in the country.
Federal Hill Park is a 10.3 acres park located in Baltimore, Maryland on the south shore of the Inner Harbor. The park is a signature Baltimore landmark and offers visitors some of the most noted views in the city often photographed looking north to the downtown skyline of skyscrapers across the Inner Harbor of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River / Baltimore Harbor. The Federal Hill surrounding neighborhood to the west and south is named for the prominent hill and is also known as old South Baltimore. The now graded grass lawn hill and park, was originally a jagged cliffs and bluffs of red clay which was mined in the 18th and 19th centuries after being first sighted and described by Captain John Smith of England on his voyages of exploration of the Chesapeake Bay from the first English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1608. The noted famous site today is bounded by Francis Scott Key Highway along the waterfront to the north, Battery Avenue to the west, Warren Avenue to the south, and Covington Street to the east. Baltimore city acquired the hill as public property in 1880 after it was used and fortified as a fort with heavy artillery by the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It was established then as a city park operated and maintained by the city Department of Recreation and Parks.
Hollins Market is a neighborhood in the Sowebo area of Baltimore. It takes its name from the Hollins Market, the oldest public market building still in use in Baltimore City, which is located in the heart of the neighborhood.