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Baltimore, the 15th largest city in the United States, is named "Charm City" for its residents well-established
concern for the quality of life. A southern town, Baltimore owed much of its early growth and prosperity to its desirable
location. It lays farther west than any other major Atlantic port, endearing its harbor to shippers. Baltimore now ranks fourth
among United States ports, with major railways and trucking lines carrying cargos to and from docks at Canton and Curtis Bay,
as well as raw materials to the city's many factories.
Baltimore's economy and cultural life, in addition to its geography, influenced its local development. Baltimoreans tend
to have roots in clearly identified neighborhoods, and this sense of local identification has helped counter the alienation
associated with modern city life.
Baltimore's history, however, goes back farther than that of its neighborhoods, originating in the economic needs of 18th
century Maryland farmers. Nature blessed the future site of Baltimore City with a natural harbor on the Chesapeake Bay and
a number of potential mill sites on the streams dropping over the fall line. Farmers bringing cereal crops to the mills for
grinding were impatient with requirements that made them carry their goods to previously established ports. They, along with
Baltimore County's tobacco growers, were anxious to have a customs house built in a convenient spot. Local landowners, led
by the prominent Carroll family, petitioned Maryland's governor for such a house, and on August 8, 1729, a bill establishing
Baltimore as a town was signed into law.
Gradually, the new town took on a life of its own. Local entrepreneurs, conscious of northern Maryland's and southern
Pennsylvania's grain fields, were quick to take advantage of Baltimore's swift-flowing streams, a rarity in coastal Maryland.
Shipwrights and merchants, preparing to carry flour milled on Jones Falls and Gwynns Falls to the distant reaches of the British
Empire, settled along the fringes of the harbor. By 1768, the town had grown large enough to become the seat of Baltimore
County.
The growing city acutely felt the Anglo-American tensions which led up to the American Revolution. As a seafaring and
trading community, it suffered from commerce regulations which the British government attempted to impose. When the revolution
erupted, it was evident where Baltimore's sympathies were. Her citizens not only served in the Continental army, but also
participated enthusiastically in the government-licensed piracy known as "privateering." British merchants suffered
losses they would long remember, and Baltimore's size and wealth burgeoned accordingly. Its population doubled between 1776
and 1790, and by 800 had doubled again.
Baltimore thrived during the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to preventing Europe from feeding itself, the conflict also
used the ships which could have gone to foreign markets. Baltimore had both foodstuffs to sell and ships to carry them and
continued to find enormous profit in overseas trade.
Both the British and French governments saw this as opportunism, and the British tried everything short of violence to
cripple America's efforts to supplant her as ruler of the seas. In response to what was seen as harassment, America declared
war in 1812. A British admiral said, "Baltimore is a doomed town".
The British, however, were unable to make this promise good. After burning Washington, DC. in the summer of 1814, they
attacked Baltimore by land and sea. Thanks to the guns and heroism at Fort McHenry and North Point, Baltimore defeated British.
Francis Scott Key's poetic commemoration of the fort's bombardment was later set to music to become America's National Anthem.
The war ended early in 1815, having achieved little beyond ending British attempts to regulate American commerce. For
Baltimoreans, however, that was enough. They resumed their vigorous foreign trade, especially in flour. By 1825, there were
some 60 flour mills within a few miles of center city, as Baltimore became the second largest municipality in the United States.
Her leading citizens, however, could see the clouds on the horizon.
The advancement of the American frontier, and the ongoing economic and social changes of the port's leading trade countries,
South America and the Caribbean, threatened Baltimore's prosperity. In addition, other American ports were already making
efforts to keep in touch with the West.
New York completed the Erie Canal; in 1825.
Philadelphia was organizing what would become the Pennsylvania Railroad, and even smaller cities like Richmond and Charleston
were reaching westward. The state of Maryland concentrated its efforts on completing the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, designed
to link the Potomac and Ohio River Valleys, but the city of Baltimore supported an overland link in the form of the Baltimore
& Ohio (B&O) Railroad.
Baltimore was infrequently touched by military operations, but the end of the Civil War found it suffering nearly as much
as many of the cities of the former Confederacy. The collapse of the South's economy naturally affected one of its leading
ports of entry, as did the loss of many vessels during the war. The city gradually recovered, however, helped by an influx
of displaced Southerners, as well as by the tremendous amount of grain which the B&O trains brought to port from the Middle
West.
The canning industry also became important in Baltimore, as the riches of the Chesapeake Bay began, for the first time,
to be preserved and shipped to other parts of the country. Older industries, such as shipbuilding and transportation, remained
industrially strong, and the city continued as an active port of entry for European immigrants and rural residents from the
upper South.
In 1904, however, the city's progress suffered a rude setback when a fire consumed most of its business district, including
a number of historic structures. The devastated area was rapidly rebuilt, and Baltimore prospered through the First World
War and into the 1920s. The Depression, however, was too great an obstacle for local initiative to overcome. Economic distress
and controls imposed during World War II retarded physical development in the city. After the war, Baltimore's economy began
to thrive once again, as people spent heavily on consumer goods. As their standard of living improved, city residents were
attracted to new housing developments beyond Baltimore's borders, and many people left. The city, which had grown in population
every year since the mid-18th century, began to shrink as adjacent counties experienced tremendous growth.
This "suburban flight" also initially depressed the city's economy, particularly the downtown retail district.
By the late 1960s, Baltimore's inner city was as financially depressed as it had been during the Depression.
Much to everyone's delight, Baltimore came back strong. A redoubling of effort from the municipal, business and volunteer
partnership, as well as a tapping into of ambitious federal programs for urban renewal, gave the city a new look and spirit.
While problems remained, the municipality managed to revitalize the downtown area and many neighborhoods by renovating some
existing buildings and replacing others.
Special attention was paid to the Inner Harbor area, where hotel, office buildings and entertainment facilities such as
Harborplace, National Aquarium in Baltimore and Maryland Science Center replaced dilapidated wharves and warehouses. Other
recent additions to Baltimore include the building of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the city's new ballpark, and the establishment
of NAACP headquarters in the city.
Today, Baltimoreans take pride in their city, eager to live and work here, and to take advantage of a city rich in culture
and history. Influenced by the talent of writers Edgar Allen Poe and H.L. Mencken, musician James Hubert "Eubie"
Blake and singer Billie Holiday, Baltimore continues to grow, boasting one of the most remarkable transformations in recent
American history.
THE BALTIMORE COUNTY SEAL
by Robert Barnes
Baltimore County, named for Lord Baltimore's Barony of Baltimore in the Kingdom of Ireland, first appeared in the records
about 1659, although the exact date of the county's establishment is not known.
A very clear impression of a seal was attached by William Buchanan in 1805 to a copy of a will made for a chancery case.
In chef (at the top of the circular seal) are what appear to be three sheaves of wheat. On a fess (horizontal stripe across
the middle of the field) there is a plow. In base (at the bottom), there is a representation of a sailing vessel. This seal
greatly resembles the seal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, although the position of the wheat sheaves, plow and ship
are changed. Around the edge of the seal are the words "The Office of the Register of Baltimore County" [Chancery
Court (Chancery Papers) 5351, MdHR 17898-5351, MSA S512).
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