Silo Point, formerly known as the Baltimore and Ohio Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator, is a residential complex converted from a high-risegrain elevator on the edge of the Locust Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. When the original grain elevator was opened in September 1924, it was the largest and fastest in the world. The condominium now rises to 300 feet (91 meters). The original 206 foot tall grain elevator was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1923–1924, with a capacity of 3.8 million bushels (134 thousand m3).[4] Between 2004 and 2009 the structure was converted from a grain elevator to a condominium tower containing 24 floors and 228 condominiums by Turner Development Group and architect Parameter, Inc.[5][6]
Silo Point Condominiums consist of 228 Bins (or Condos). There are forty-six condominiums constructed in the Sky Tower, the old Workhouse Tower. The Parking Garage (the West Wrap) and lower portion of the Workhouse (the East Wrap) are “wrapped” by 155 glass-clad one-story condominiums. Twenty-seven two and three-story Sky Towns with courtyards are on the garage roof, the Tenth Floor Silo Terrace. The finished complex included five commercial spaces; a fitness center; a game room; a two-level Sky Lounge, management and maintenance spaces, and a lobby soaring twenty-five feet high. The original Silo Point project also included the two adjacent townhome communities, Key Overlook (53 townhomes opened in 2014) and McHenry Pointe (121 townhomes opened in 2005). [11] [12] [17] [6] [13]
History of The B & O Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator
The B&O Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator was placed in operation on 19 September 1924, a little more than two years after Elevators B and C were destroyed by fire. The Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator was the first new elevator designed and built entirely in accordance with the regulations adopted in 1920 by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The new 206-foot tall reinforced concrete grain elevator stood five hundred feet back from the water and serviced the piers and ships using a covered overhead gallery and belt conveyor system. The 1924 elevator used shafts and long belt conveyors to transfer grain from railcars to the silos and from storage bins in the Workhouse to the ships at the piers. [5] [3] [1] [9] [18] [20] [14] There were originally four B&O grain elevators in Locust Point. The first, Elevator A was built in 1872, on the north end of the terminal and destroyed by fire in October 1891. Elevator B, built 1874 and Elevator C, closest to Fort McHenry, built 1881, both destroyed by fire on 3 July 1822. The fourth and last elevator is now the Silo Point Condominium, built in 1924 to replace elevators B and C. [4] [14] [5] [6] [8] Construction began in May 1923. The John S. Metcalf Company of Chicago, grain elevator construction specialists, prepare the specifications and plans for a new grain elevator (the future Silo Point Condominium). Construction of the new elevator was performed by the M. A. Long Company of Baltimore. Machinery for elevating and conveying grain was made by Webster Manufacturing, Chicago. [5] [1] [9] [8] [14]
The new facility consisted of a fifteen-story Workhouse, Silo/Storage Annex (182 concrete silos), enclosed steel Overhead Gallery System, Drip Shed, Dryers, Dust Collectors, and an eighty-nine foot tall Marine Tower on Pier 7. The fifteen-story Workhouse, now the Sky Tower, where the major portion of grain handling took place, was sixty-one feet wide and stretched 246 feet along the tracks, and towered 206 feet above the tracks. The upper floors of the Workhouse contained the mechanical equipment for lifting and distributing grain to the various storage bins and silos. Total storage capacity of ninety-seven rectangular storage bins in the lower portion of the Workhouse was 800,000 bushels. (an example of these storage bins were left in the Crossover Lobby between the Parking Garage to the Tower) [3] [18] [5] [11] [15] The Grain Silo/Storage Annex consisted of a two-story cupola on top of 182 concrete reinforced cylindrical silos, sixteen feet in diameter and ninety-six feet deep. Arranged in thirteen rows of fourteen, the silos occupied an area 225 by 209 feet with a storage capacity of three million bushels. The Silo Storage Annex had 156 interstitial spaces, the four-sided star-shaped bins formed by the intersection of four round silos. The interstitial spaces could be used for supplemental storage and each compartment could hold TWO carloads of grain. Each silo held 13,572 bushels and each interstitial bin could hold 3,478 bushels. The entire complex had a total storage capacity of 3,800,000 bushels (three million in the silos and 800,000 bushels in the Workhouse storage bins). [3] [18] [5] [11] [15] [20] [1] The Covered Overhead Gallery System extended from the Workhouse 2,500 feet to the most distant berths on Piers 6 and 7. The Gallery System was elevated on trestles, forty feet above the ground. Grain could be loaded into ships at a rate of 25,000 bushels an hour per ship. Grain could be delivered simultaneously to six vessels (4 at pier & and 2 at pier 6). The belt conveyors were arranged and operated so the flow of grain could be diverted to any spot on the piers. In addition to grain, fresh water and other supplies could be delivered to the ships. [18] [3] [5] [1] [9] [8] The B&O operated the Locust Point Terminal until January 1964, when the Maryland Port Authority (MPA) Note MPA did not become Maryland Port Administration until 1971) signed a forty-year lease for the piers and the surrounding terminal area. The railroad retained operational control of the 1924 Grain Elevator, the Silos, the Overhead Gallery System, and Pier 7 and control over the 3,750-car railway yard. When the MPA leased the B&O facility, it was still the largest privately-operated railroad marine terminal in the world. [20] [10] [1] [6] [7] The B&O sold the Grain Elevator along with seven acres and adjacent track in January 1967 to the Minneapolis Peavey Grain Company (later acquired by ConAgra Foods, Inc.). Indiana Grain (a division of Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative) bought the Locust Point Grain Elevator from Peavey Grain in June 1970. [6] [7] MPA purchased the 85-acre Locust Point Marine Terminal outright in June 2001. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the final commercial owner, continued to operate the Grain Elevator and its associated piers. Three days after the MPA purchase the Locust Point Facility on 30 June 2001, the outer portion of Pier 7 and the eighty-nine-foot-tall Marine Tower linking the Grain Elevator to the waterfront collapsed from storm damage. Old age and deterioration contributed to the collapse of the pier and conveyor system. [10] [11] [12] [1] [17] [5] The B&O Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator, the last operating grain elevator in the Port of Baltimore, ceased operating on 30 June 2001. marking the first time in over 125 years, ships hauling grain did not call on Locust Point. [10] [6]
Silo Point Condominium History
In September (2001), developer Patrick Turner of Turner Development Group, became interested in the Grain Elevator and its potential. At the time, the facility and its fifteen acres of land was not for sale. [12] [13]. In March 2002, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) announced it was closing the Locust Point Grain Elevator, rather than repair the Locust Point pier and overhead galleries. Ending a 130-year shipping tradition that played a defining role in Baltimore and Maryland’s economic development. Grain once accounted for twenty percent of the Port of Baltimore’s exports. The year before Pier 7 collapsed, the Locust Point Grain Elevator processed over forty-seven million bushels of grain. [10] [6] [13] Turner and ADM settled on 13 August 2003, and the fifteen acres were rezoned residential on 23 June 2004. The former Baltimore & Ohio Locust Point Grain Terminal Elevator for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP #04001379) in December 2004. [15] [6] [17] [1] Turner opened Silo Point Condominium for property sales in October 2009. After 5 years, the $150 million conversion project, sitting on fifteen acres of waterfront property, was finally completed. Built in 1924, the B&O Grain Elevator was now a twenty-four-floor luxury condominium containing 228 units with 17,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space. Separated from the waterfront by the Maryland Port Administration/Locust Point North Terminal and the CSX tracks–the building still has unobstructed harbor views of the working waterfront, MPA activities at the Locust Point North Terminal, and the Maryland Cruise Terminal (opened in 2006). The last units (both Penthomes) finally sold in late 2016. [11] [12] [18] [6] [13]
Converting a Grain Elevator to a Condominium
Transforming the structure into a residential complex while respecting the building’s industrial character took over four years. Retrofitting a building designed for a very distinctive industrial purpose into living space was a challenge. The new construction was adapted to the original structure. The building presented several physical constraints. Among them, the 182 concrete cylindrical silos adjacent to the Grain Elevator, the huge concrete support columns in the lower portion of the building, and the sixteen-by-sixteen-foot grid created by the interior concrete storage bins. [12] [1] [6] [11] The sixteen-by-sixteen-foot concrete storage bins inside the Workhouse created a grid that was retained and integrated into the new construction. [11] [12] [1] The massive columns, original footers and foundations were used to create and define space throughout the building. This maintained the structure’s integrity and meant all the condominium units, stairs, elevators, common areas, etc., would have to be built around this sixteen-by-sixteen-foot pattern. The condominium units were designed to conform to the unusual structure, resulting in over thirty-six floor plans. [11] [12] [1] The lobby is the same as the original first floor of the building, with soaring twenty-five-foot high ceilings and octagonal columns. The immense octagonal concrete columns are chipped, cracked, and peppered with location numbers and empty electrical boxes. The openings in the lobby ceiling that once emptied grain into railcars are covered with grey doors. [11] [18] [1] Columns in the lobby extend into the lower level creating catacombs, an underground space. The space once housed equipment used to move grain, now –gym, game, room maintenance space, offices. Users of the catacomb spaces are surrounded by cement footers. [11] [17] [1] [12] The pockmarked concrete, the exposed steel, and the large panes of glass are all tributes to the building’s past. Old machinery, cable pulleys, gears, and other parts were redeployed throughout the building as artwork or furniture. The sculpture on the south side of the Silo Point Condominium building was fabricated from sections of the Metcalf Dumper, the tilting mechanism used to empty grain from the railcars [11] [17] [6] The 182 windowless concrete cylindrical silos 113 feet tall, solid concrete, did not lend themselves to any (residential) use. The original plan was to retain an outer ring of silos to disguise the 540-car Parking Garage, hence the name Silo Point. But in the end, only thirteen silos were left standing as “bookends”, displaying relics of the building’s industrial past. [11] [12]
Gallery
Silo Point viewed from East Fort Avenue at Fort McHenry, December 2011
A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits it in a silo or other storage facility.
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.
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The Historic Ely Elevator, also known as the Woitishek-King-Krob Elevator and Feed Mill, is an "iron-clad" wood-cribbed grain elevator, located in Ely, Iowa. The Historic Ely Elevator was built in 1900 along the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway. It is a contributing property of the Dows Street Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
4] Baltimore and Ohio Magazine, Vol 9 Number 3, July 1921, Our Grain Elevators at Locust Point, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. Location [5] Baltimore and Ohio Magazine, Vol 10 Number 11, March 1923, New Grain Elevator Facilities at Locust Point by L. P. Kimball, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. Location [6] Sun Paper Online Archive, 1908 –1930 and 2001- 2007 [7] Keith, Robert C, Baltimore Harbor-A Pictorial History (1991), The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. Call Number: HE554.82K24. [8] Harwood, Herbert H, Jr., Impossible Challenge-The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Maryland (1979), Barnard, Roberts and Company, Inc., Baltimore, MD. Call Number: TF25.B2 H37. [9] Railway Review, Vol 77 Number 6, August 1925. Locust Point Grain Elevator, B & O Railroad. Simmons-Boardman Publishing Co. [10] The Sentinel, Vol 23 Number 1, Second Quarter 2002. The End of Grain by Ship from Baltimore by John Teichmoeller. [11] Interviews with Eric Turner, Turner Development Group, Baltimore, MD [12] Interviews with Pat Turner, Turner Development Group, Baltimore, MD [13] A Point Well Taken, March 2009 by Martha Thomas. Baltimore Magazine. [14] Baltimore and Ohio Employee Magazine, Vol 10 Number 13, July 1922. Disastrous Fire at Locust Point July 2, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. [15] Port of Baltimore (March 1952), Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, Baltimore, MD. (PR Booklet). [16] Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, The Catalogue of the Centenary Exhibition of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 1827-1927 (1927), Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, Baltimore, MD. Call Number: TF6.B38F. [17] Silo Point Sales Website and Various Silo Point Sales articles and brochures. [18] Marine Terminal Facilitates (May 1930) 17th National Foreign Trade Convention, Los Angeles, CA, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. [19] The New Grain Elevator, Vol 1 Number 4, April 2, 1923. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, Internal Publication. [20] Port of Baltimore Handbook (June 1959), Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, Baltimore, MD. (PR Booklet). [21] Port of Baltimore Magazine (Special Edition) June/July 1991. Moving the Port Forward: Port of Baltimore Terminals: Indian Grain, The Maryland Port Authority, Baltimore, MD.
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