Pigtown

Like with all the great communities in Baltimore, Pigtown is no different. When people here Pigtown most things that first pop into most minds are the running of the Pigs down Bayard St. However, Pigtown was much more then the running of the Pigs. Pigtown has a rich history unlike the other communities in Baltimore. Pigtown has the B&O Railroad, Mount Clare Mansion, and Housewerks and what about the bars and restaurants that are located within the boundaries of Pigtown and lastly there is the Historical Hollins Market. Pigtown went even so far as to change the communities name to Washington Village just to bring in a new set of people that would make help make Pigtown the place to go. But Pigtown was not let go, Pigtown stayed and the name stands as Washington Village/Pigtown. Pigtown will always be Pigtown to the residents that lived and worked in this neighborhood.

Housewerks I did not know that Pigtown was so historical

After the 1888 gas company merger, Bayard Station continued to produce gas for a few more years before all processing moved to the Spring Garden site. By 1904, the Baltimore Gas Appliance Manufacturing Company had leased the former plant buildings to assemble the famed Oriole Stove; a fixture in many of Baltimore's kitchens. Over the years Consolidated maintained the Valve House for various purposes ranging from offices and record keeping facilities to classroom space. Period photographs show how the building changed over time: a vault was added after 1890, an addition enlarged the west wing, and its floor was lowered to accommodate a street-level entrance in the 1910s. In the 1920's a large motorized blower assembly was featured on the main floor before being modified again to teach apprentice gas fitters in the 1950's. Most of the Bayard Street Station was torn down by the mid-1960s, leaving only the Valve House and Retort House. Consolidated, now BGE, continued to hold the property surrounding the Valve House until the mid-1980s when it was sold into private hands and used as a photography studio over the next decade. We are delighted to become a part of this storied building's future, and are proud to say that Bayard Station is Housewerks' home.

Pigtown is much more then just the running of the pigs at pigtown festival

Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, America’s first common carrier, was chartered on February 28th 1827 by a group of Baltimore businessmen to ensure traffic would not be lost to the proposed Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Construction on July 4th 1828 with the laying of the first stone in a grand ceremony attended by the honorable Charles Carroll, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. The early horse drawn rail lines were made of wood rails with iron straps laid upon stones. The first stone, now located in the B&O museum in Baltimore, contained a copy of the original charter. President John Quincy Adams, believing that canals where the way of the future, broke ground the same day at a ceremony for the C&O Canal. By the end of the 19th century the B&O had achieved almost 5,800 miles of track and connected Chicago and St. Louis to Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York City. Depressions and hard times brought receivership of the B&O to the Pennsylvania Railroad on February 29th 1896. Improvements continued with a tunnel under the streets of Baltimore and new lines purchased. The US government took control of America's rail lines in 1917 during the First World War and left them severely weakened by 1920. The B&O however continued to grow and in 1927 acquired a 40 percent share in the Western Maryland Railway. The railroad celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1927 with two events, a private dinner in February and The Centenary Exhibition and Pageant of the Baltimore & Ohio in September. Some of the B&O's original locomotives and equipment were on hand as where replicas of the first steam engines, along side the latest in steam technology found on the B&O, Pennsylvania, and NYC. Total attendance for the three-week event was over 1.3 million people.

Looking a Pigtown in a new way

This outstanding Georgian mansion, built between 1754 and 1768, was the home of Charles Carroll, Barrister and framer of Maryland’s first Constitution and Declaration of Rights. Carroll and his wife Margaret Tilghman made Mount Clare a center of enlightened colonial living and the heart of a flourishing plantation, which once supported wheat fields, orchards, racing stables, flour mills, brick kilns and a shipyard. Since 1977, Mount Clare has been the subject of a major archaeological investigation into life in the Tidewater region between 1750 and 1850.
Standing loftily atop the hill, the mansion was an impressive sight to ships sailing up the Patapsco. Rolling pastures and fields stretched up from the river to wide terraced gardens leading up to the house. These gardens and the exotic fruit trees cultivated in the “orangery” were the work of Mrs. Carroll, a noted horticulturist who supplied George Washington with trees and plants for Mount Vernon by sending them down the Patapsco on a sailing vessel. In the 19th century, industrial development began to encircle Mount Clare as railroad tracks crisscrossed the northern section of the property and the Washington Turnpike sliced through the southern portion.

Pigtown coming to life. Youtube is priceless.

Look at this from the B&O Railroad.

Photos I could not get into the posting.

Baltimore’s historic Pigtown community lies along Washington Boulevard, from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Carroll Park, south and east of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad yards. Developing initially as a community for railroad workers in the 1840’s, along Columbia Avenue (now Washington Boulevard), Ramsay, McHenry, and Poppleton Streets, the area grew rapidly to the south during the industrial expansion of the 1850’s and 1860’s. Small two-story houses were built for workingmen on the narrow streets running south of Washington Boulevard, with three-story gable-roofed, and then early Italianate houses lining Washington Boulevard and Scott Street to serve as housing for shopkeepers and upper-level managers.

The development of Pigtown was intimately linked with hallmark events of the Industrial Revolution in Baltimore, particularly the growth and development of the Baltimore&Ohio, America’s first railroad. Location of the B&O on West Pratt Street in 1830 and the rapid growth of related industries around it, like locomotive works and car-building shops, directly resulted in the growth of the nearby working class community. Pigtown is one of the earliest examples in the city of a mainly two-story working class neighborhood developed around a specific factory or industrial site. Examples of every form of urban vernacular residential architecture built in Baltimore between 1830 and 1915 can be seen in the district.

The industrial history of Pigtown begins with the brickyards established in the late
1700’s on land belonging to the Mount Clare plantation owned by Dr. Charles Carroll of
Annapolis. Dr. Carroll acquired some 2,368 acres southwest of the fledgling settlement
of Baltimore Town in 1732 and soon put it to both agricultural and industrial use. Rich
in natural resources, the Mount Clare Plantation became one of the nation’s first agricultural and industrial complexes, complete with a sawmill, brick kilns, and an iron foundry, one of the state’s earliest iron furnaces. In 1754 Dr. Carroll’s son, Charles Carroll, Barrister (1723-83) inherited the Mount Clare estate and proceeded to turn his father’s modest farmhouse on the property into a grand Palladian country seat. Overland travelers from Alexandria and Georgetown passed through Mount Clare on their way to Philadelphia. Mount Clare Mansion, the oldest house in Baltimore City, is now a museum in Carroll Park.

After the Barrister’s death, a number of brickmakers and brickmaking firms bought parcels of the original estate and established brickyards and kilns. Several of these entrepreneurs, like George Warner, James Berry, and Alexander Russell gave their names to streets later laid out near the location of their brickyards, most of which were located on either side of the Washington Road, an area then known as “Carroll’s Field.” The 1798 Federal Property Tax List identifies fourteen brickmakers working in south Baltimore.

First off I would like to send out my apologies for not posting anything. I have not had the fees for parking so I could not get to the Maryland Room at the Enoch Pratt Library as of yet, however need week I will be going. Plus I just got back into town from my trip to Deep Creek. I would like some one to tell me if “ Negro Mountain” is politically correct? I had to ride past it and this mountain is one of the largest mountain or pikes in the world. There is a story behind it but I will want until class to let everyone know what it is about. Professor sorry, things are about to pick up with Washington Village/Pigtown. The Maryland Room is the next stop on the round to finding out more about Washington Village/Pigtown.

I am changing my story that I will be follow on this blog. My report will be on Wahsington Village Pigtown.

The Question

It seems as the rest of my classmates really like the topic that I have come up with. I will have information and pics on this by next week more to come after that. This is going to be a good thing.

Just the Beginning good luck!!

Things are going to get crazy with this blog for our research paper in paperless form. I have great hopes for my History classmates that have not had the opportunity to do something like this. If any of you need help let me know.

Royce