Baltimore

HISTORY

The city of Baltimore was founded at the head of navigation of the Patapsco River, near its mouth on Chesapeake Bayon July 30, 1729. It was named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, (1605–1675), a member of the Irish House of Lords and the founding proprietor of the Colony and Province of Maryland.

Baltimore Town in 1752, (at "The Basin")

When Stephen T. Badin, a French Catholic missionary, completed his studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore in 1793, he became the first Catholic priest to be ordained in America.

In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British failed to capture Baltimore. During the battle, lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor. Key's poem about the event, "Defence of Fort McHenry", which he wrote between September 14-17, 1814, was later set to music and became the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Portrait of Francis Scott Key

Until 1817 the streets of Baltimore were lighted by oil-lamps. On February 7, 1817, it became the first American city with gas streetlights, provided by Peale's Gas Light Company of Baltimore. Peale's lit its first street lamp at Market and Lemon Streets (currently Baltimore and Holliday Streets) on that day.

Baltimore First U.S. Street Gas Light

Work on Baltimore's Basilica of the Assumption was completed in 1821. It is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

America’s first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, was built to compete for the western trade created by New York’s Erie Canal. Its first section opened in 1830. 

The construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and National Road (which later became part of U.S. Route 40) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest. 

The first dental school in the world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was founded in Baltimore in 1840.

A Baltimore machine shop operator, William Painter, invented the crown cap in 1892.

Heavy industrial development began in 1897 in Baltimore with the opening of the Sparrows Point steel mill. 

The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 was a devastating fire that began on the evening of February 7, 1904, and continued into the next day. It is considered one of the most destructive urban fires in US history.

The fire consumed a large portion of downtown Baltimore, destroying over 1,500 buildings and covering an area of about 140 acres. The fire's intensity was so great that it melted cast-iron structures and even warped steel girders.

Despite the widespread destruction, there were relatively few casualties, with only a few deaths reported. The financial losses, however, were substantial, estimated at the time to be around $125 million (equivalent to several billion dollars today when adjusted for inflation).

In the aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire, efforts were made to modernize the city's fire department and improve building codes to prevent similar disasters in the future. The city was eventually rebuilt, and the fire remains a significant event in Baltimore's history.

The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, looking west from Pratt and Gay streets

FUN BALTIMORE FACTS

As of 2020, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,844,510 making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the USA.

Places of interest include Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, the home and grave of the writer Edgar Allan Poe.

The Inner Harbor area is a notable attraction with the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center located there. 

In Baltimore, it is illegal to wash or scrub sinks no matter how dirty they get.

Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia