Jackie Robinson vs. Orioles: Minor-league series helped make history

By Fred B. Shoken - Baltimore Sun 28 Apr 1996: 6D.

THIS WEEKEND marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in baseball and civil rights history in Baltimore.

In near-40-degree temperature, 3,415 fans experienced integrated baseball a full season before Jackie Robinson became the first African-American in the majors.

On the evening of April 27, 1946, blacks and whites played professional baseball together for the first time in a regular season game here. Two African-Americans, Robinson and John Wright, played for the Montreal Royals against the Baltimore Orioles in an International League contest at the old Municipal Stadium.

When the Brooklyn Dodgers' owner, Branch Rickey, signed Robinson to a contract in the fall of 1945, the plan was for him to attend spring training with the team and then to play for their highest minor league team, the Royals of Montreal, for a year of seasoning.

The choice of Montreal was no accident: It was part of a triple-A league with all but one team situated north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Robinson played his first games in Jersey City, Newark and Syracuse before a four-game stand in Baltimore beginning April 27. The series included a Saturday night game, a Sunday double-header, and a concluding game on Monday night.

Before the season began, Rickey was warned by International League President Frank Shaughnessy not to play Robinson in Baltimore.

Rickey was undeterred. He knew that if his great experiment was to succeed, Robinson would have to play all opponents and accept whatever abuse came his way.

The Baltimore Afro-American welcomed Robinson's arrival with headlines on the sports page, proclaiming: "Fans Await Jackie Robinson's Initial Appearance." They featured two articles and a column on Robinson's first week in the minor leagues, as well as a box detailing his batting and fielding record for each game.

In the club standings for the International League, the paper highlighted Montreal in capital letters, not Baltimore. It called the upcoming games between the Royals and the Orioles "a history-making series," and predicted that the scheduled Sunday double-headers would draw 35,000 fans. In his column, "Looking 'Em Over," Sam Lacy called Robinson's first game in the league "a modern Emancipation Day."

The other local papers made little note of the historic series. In an article on the morning of the opener, The Sun merely included Robinson's name in a listing of the Montreal players, calling him "the Negro star at second."

The News-Post gave more play to the Orioles' Robinson, Eddie, a power-hitting first baseman who would average .318 and hit 34 home runs that year and be voted the league's most valuable player. It gave a single paragraph to Jackie Robinson, "the highly publicized colored second baseman." The Evening Sun was a bit more enthusiastic, describing him as "the Negro who is pioneering the cause of his race in modern organized baseball."

The small crowd for the first night game had more to do with the weather than with a boycott.

But the Baltimore crowd which attended this series was abusive. Rachel Robinson, Jackie's wife, attended the games and considered the racial taunts worse than those they had heard in Florida during spring training. The Afro-American printed some of the disparaging remarks in a toned-down manner: "When Jackie went to bat yells came from the stands: "Here comes the midnight express," and "Look at the ink spot." And when he went out to his position, one fan yelled, "What's that on second base?"

Robinson continued to play. In the first game, he got on base because of an error, singled, walked and stole second base, officially going one for three in a losing effort. Both teams were affected by the weather in the 12-7 Oriole victory. In an interview the following day, Robinson was quoted in The Sun: "You know, they told me this was the southernmost city in the league, but last night I felt like I was playing in Alaska. Man, was it cold. It sure was tough playing baseball in that weather," he said.

In the Sunday double-header, Robinson had his worst day so far that season. He had only one hit in four at-bats in the opener, which the Royals won, 6-5. In the nightcap, he went hitless and committed an error which cost a run. The Orioles won, 6-3. The Sun said Robinson appeared relaxed and undisturbed before the game, which attracted 25,306 fans. Among these were the league president, Shaughnessy, and an estimated 10,000 black fans.

The Afro-American praised them: "Many whites feared trouble because there were so many colored people among the 25,000 spectators Sunday afternoon for the double-header. Hats off to you colored fans for while the cops took out three white drunks (and were they drunk) and two white youths for rowdyism, the colored fans seemed to have everything under control."

After the first three games, Hugh Taylor Jr. of the News-Post praised Robinson for his speed but stated: " Otherwise the colored infielder has shown nothing out of the ordinary in this Bird-Royal series in which he has hit .200 for the three games. In the field, Robinson is quick, but not a `sure'

fielder nor a top double-play pivot man. At bat he usually gets a `piece' of the ball, but his swing is not loose and of his two hits in ten official trips to the plate in this series, one was a looper to left and the other was a sharp grounder to deep short which Rob Repass fielded but couldn't a make a play on the fleet athlete."

Taylor went on to recognize that Robinson was playing under extreme pressure, trying to reach an unprecedented goal. This assessment came after just three of the four games. Robinson would have a final chance to show his abilities to the Baltimore fans and press during the concluding Monday night game.

Then, Robinson made up for his poor showing in the previous day. He had three hits, including a double, and scored four runs leading his team to a 10-0 victory before 6,703 fans.

In the four-game series, then, Robinson went five for 13, a .385 average, and scored six runs. More importantly, he showed that he could perform well in the southernmost city in the league.

The next year, it was on to Brooklyn and the storied career which led him not only to the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but to a place in the history books.

The day after the final game of his first Baltimore series, Robinson, his wife and the Royals were flown back to the friendly confines of Montreal -- an unusual break from the lengthy train and bus trips endured by minor leaguers.

He might not have predicted that just twenty years later Baltimore would cheer -- not jeer -- another African-American ballplayer named Robinson who would lead the major league Orioles in a World Series victory over the Dodgers.

Nor would he have imagined the Baltimore of today in which African-Americans serve as mayor, city council president and comptroller.

Fred B. Shoken is a local historian and baseball fan.

Bolton Hill History

I recently learned that the Bolton Hill History that I wrote for the Mount Royal Improvement Association's website is no longer on line since the organization has been renamed the Bolton Hill Community Association and abandoned their old website:  boltonhill.org.                                                                                       

Although I tried to update the history several years ago, it never was changed.  I was able to retrieve a copy of the history from the Internet Archive Way Back Machine and place a copy here.

Bolton Hill History

by Fred Shoken, March,2000,Revised February 2003

OverviewResidential DevelopmentChurches & InstitutionsParks & Monuments  From Street Car to Light Rail		The People of Bolton Hill:Decline and StruggleRenewal and PreservationBolton Hill TodayBibliography

Overview:  Located directly northwest of downtown Baltimore, Bolton Hill is one of Baltimore's premier neighborhoods. Elegant homes, landscaped boulevards, decorative civic monuments, and lovely religious buildings are distinctive characteristics of this community.  Major development took place in Bolton Hill between 1850 and 1900. Primarily a row house neighborhood, Bolton Hill architecture ranges from traditionally styled row houses with refined details to elaborately decorated Queen Anne designs. Other historic housing types include huge mansions, early brick cottages, alley houses, duplexes with small front yards, early 20th century apartment buildings, and carriage houses converted into residences.Among the prominent residents of Bolton Hill were noted writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, art collectors Dr. Claribel and Etta Cone; Johns Hopkins PhD. candidate and later U.S. President Woodrow Wilson; first Johns Hopkins president Daniel Coit Gilman; department store owners Thomas O'Neill and David Hutzler; and philanthropist Jacob Epstein. In the nineteenth century, Bolton Hill was also home to many Confederate Civil War veterans, German Jews, and a few African-Americans who lived in small alley houses or within large houses as servants of wealthy homeowners. The community experienced a brief period of decline in the mid-20th century, followed by a period of stabilization. Urban renewal efforts replaced deteriorated housing with new townhouses and private preservation activities restored magnificent Victorian-era houses to their original splendor. At the turn of the 21st century, Bolton Hill is a bastion of in-town living. As one long time resident stated,"Bolton Hill is more than a neighborhood. It is a state of mind." Historic Residential Development: Those Old Placid Rows The name Bolton Hill is derived from "Bolton-le-Moors," the English property after which the Baltimore merchant, George Grundy, named his original estate house. Bolton stood on the current site of the Fifth Regiment Armory. Rose Hill and Mount Royal were other early estates in this vicinity. Although estate houses were built in the area as early as the Revolutionary War era, the major development in Bolton Hill took place between 1850 and 1900. Two of the earliest individual brick cottages survive: 204 W. Lanvale Street, now home to the Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland, and 232 W. Lanvale Street, a private residence. By 1870, the neighborhood extended from Eutaw Place to John Street and from Dolphin Street to roughly Mosher Street. Unlike most Baltimore neighborhoods that were built along a north-south grid, Bolton Hill’s traditional brick row houses were built along a diagonal orientation first laid out in 1821 by Thomas Poppleton, a surveyor. Poppleton departed from the norm in the northwest section of Baltimore, following instead the alignment of the old Reisterstown Road (Pennsylvania Avenue) and the Jones Falls. The early stately row houses of Bolton Hill feature plain brick facades with refined ornamentation, primarily to define front entrances, windows, and rooflines. The only decorations on these austere facades are bracketed cornices, decorative door surrounds, and the occasional ornate window lintel. These traditional red brick row houses express simplicity and elegance. Other early housing types include:  unified row houses and duplexes.  Beethoven Terrace in the 1500 block of Park Avenue is an early example of a unified block front of row houses faced with stucco and designed in the Second Empire style. In addition to the rows of houses, duplexes were built in the 1300 block of John Street and 100 block of West Lafayette Avenue. These houses are set back from the street with small front yards. Some have entrances on the side, rather than on the front facade. Later 19th century row houses were influenced by popular architectural styles of the era, most notably Queen Anne. These later houses are more highly ornamented than the traditional row house. Red brick gives way to stone and other materials. Projecting bay windows and balconies break the plane of front walls. Terra cotta decoration, corner towers, rusticated stonework, stained glass, and distinctive rooflines replace the tradition of simplicity and elegance. Huge mansions were built along Eutaw Place, taking advantage of the landscaped setting. By the end of the 19th century, row house development was complete. A few large apartment buildings, most notably the Marlborough Apartments, were constructed in the neighborhood in the first decade of the 20th century.  Historic Churches and Institutions: Lofty Spires and Stately Domes Several historic churches and synagogues built in the second half of the 19th century, served the residents of Bolton Hill. The earliest, Memorial Episcopal Church, built between 1861 and 1864, was a memorial to clergymen Henry Van Dyke Johns and Charles Ridgely Howard. Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, dating from 1861, features Tiffany windows. The high Victorian-styled Strawbridge United Methodist Church was built in 1882 at Park Avenue and Wilson Street. Architect Patrick Charles Keely designed Corpus Christi Catholic Church in 1886, although its signature corner spire dates from the early 20th century. The Friends Meeting House on Park Avenue, built in 1889, expanded into Friends School, and now houses Old Friends Apartments. Local architect Joseph Evans Sperry designed two synagogues in the area, Temple Oheb Shalom (1892) on Eutaw Place and the Har Sinai Congregation (1894) on Bolton Street. The dome of the Eutaw Place temple can be seen from many points in and around the neighborhood. The Har Sinai building, later occupied by the Cornerstone Baptist Church, was by destroyed by fire in 1969.  Fitzgerald Park replaced the fire ruins. Many of Bolton Hill's religious institutions also built related community buildings, schools, and rectories in the neighborhood. Several notable institutions became part of the Bolton Hill community. The Baltimore Female college once stood at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Wilson Street.  The Maryland Institute College of Art's main building, dates from 1905. The school moved to Mount Royal Avenue after its former home on Market Place was destroyed in the Baltimore Fire of 1904. The New York architectural firm of Pell and Corbett won an architectural competition for the building design. The first public school in Bolton Hill, the Sidney Lanier School, built at Linden Avenue and Wilson Street in 1882, was razed for construction of a shopping center. The former Women's Hospital at John Street and West Lafayette Avenue, was built in several stages from the 1880s through the 1930s. It later housed a nursing home and was recently converted into Meyerhoff Hall, a dormitory for Maryland Institute students. Other non-residential development in Bolton Hill includes a few commercial storefronts, primarily at street corners, that provided basic conveniences to residents. Among the few surviving storefronts are two at Bolton and Mosher streets, the Park Avenue Pharmacy at Park Avenue and McMechen Street, the On the Hill Cafe & Market at John and Mosher streets, and three on Dolphin Lane near Bolton Street.  Historic Parks and Monuments: The Artistic Neighborhood Early landscape features distinguish Bolton Hill from other in-town communities. Elaborate plantings, fountains, and flowering urns make Eutaw Place, created in the 1850s, one of Baltimore's best landscaped residential boulevards. Mount Royal Avenue and the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Park Avenue (originally known as Park Place) feature landscaped medians. The 1896 Bromley Atlas of Baltimore identifies small inner-block pocket parks within the community. This park tradition continues in Bolton Hill today with common spaces in the newer townhouse developments and small parks created by closing streets to traffic in the 1300 block of John Street and 1700 block of Linden Avenue. Bolton Hill’s landscaped boulevards became the ideal setting for public monuments. The Francis Scott Key Monument, designed by French sculptor Jean Marius Antonin Mercie, was added to Eutaw Place in 1911. War memorials sprung up along the tree-lined median of Mount Royal Avenue. F. W. Ruckstuhl designed the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 1903. In the same year, Edward Berge unveiled the Watson Monument, commemorating the Mexican American War. Later this sculpture was moved from Mt. Royal Avenue at Lanvale Street to Mount Royal Terrace just north of Bolton Hill. The Maryland Line Monument, dedicated to Maryland veterans of the Revolutionary War, also stands on Mount Royal Avenue just south of Bolton Hill across from the Lyric Theatre. A monument honoring two winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War I stands on Dolphin Street and Park Avenue. Stone lions that had decorated the Calvert Street Bridge over the Jones Falls now reside in the small park in Park Purchase, a townhouse development within Bolton Hill. The park is now known affectionately as "Lion Park." The sculpture tradition continues in Bolton Hill with the modern artwork in and around the buildings of the Maryland Institute College of Art.  Transportation: From Street Car to Light Rail Bolton Hill has benefited from its location between downtown and Druid Hill Park. Convenient street car lines provided easy access for residents to travel downtown for employment, shopping, and entertainment. Druid Hill Park, an important 19th century destination for city residents, provided an impetus for the construction of streetcar lines to the northwest. In fact, Baltimore’s park system was largely financed by a penny tax on streetcar fares. Although Baltimore’s streetcars disappeared in 1963, tracks are still visible in Bolton Hill in the 1700 block of Linden Avenue, now a park closed to automobile traffic. Railroads have also been a part of the Bolton Hill landscape since its origins. The Bolton Depot became Mount Royal Station in 1896, and is now part of the Maryland Institute. As a major railroad passenger terminal for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Mount Royal Station provided quick interstate transportation for the community. Trains also travel underground through Bolton Hill below Wilson Street. A small section of this tunnel is visible at the corner of Mount Royal Avenue and North Avenue. After World War II, when the automobile began to dominate urban transportation, traffic volume in Bolton Hill remained lower than other city neighborhoods. Bolton Hill streets did not become commuter routes because they end either at Druid Hill Park to the north or at the Jones Falls Valley to the east. Construction of the Jones Falls Expressway in the 1960s, while providing quick interstate highway access at two nearby locations, resulted in the demise of the historic row houses on the east side of Mount Royal Avenue. Today no other city neighborhood has as many transportation options as Bolton Hill. Both the Metro and Light Rail have stations on the edges of the community. The Metro provides quick access to the northwest suburbs, downtown, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Light rail travels north to Mount Washington and Hunt Valley and south to downtown, Camden Yards, and BWI Airport. Penn Station, with Amtrak service, is a short walk from Bolton Hill. One can also walk downtown in one-half hour, or bicycle along marked bike route posted on Eutaw Place.   The People of Bolton Hill: A Diverse Neighborhood Since its earliest days, Bolton Hill was home to prominent business people, professionals, and old Baltimore families. There was a distinctly Southern character with many Confederate Civil War veterans living in the community. Hence the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument located on Mount Royal Avenue. When the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital were established, many prominent doctors and university officials moved to Bolton Hill. They had a short walk to the University, originally located in the vicinity of what is now Howard and Centre streets. Many German Jews settled along the western edge of the neighborhood and in the late 1890s the major German Jewish institutions of Baltimore moved en masse to this area. In addition to the Har Sinai and Oheb Shalom temples, the Baltimore Hebrew, Chizuk Amuno, and Shearith Israel congregations moved to McCullough Street and Madison Avenue, just west of Bolton Hill. This larger area including Bolton Hill, Madison Park, Reservoir Hill, and Marble Hill dominated Jewish social directories of the early 20th century. Wealthy homeowners in the large houses and mansions of Bolton Hill often required live-in servants, many of whom were African-Americans. In the nineteenth century, African-Americans also lived in alley housing within Bolton Hill. One such group of houses survives in the 1300 block of Rutter Street. Bolton Hill, therefore, was never entirely racially segregated. However, there was a definite social segregation of blacks and whites living in close proximity. The following is a list of famous Bolton Hill residents and where they lived compiled by Frank Shivers (Please see the "Blue Plaque History Project", organized by Frank Shivers and Polly Duke for a complete list) Dr. John J. Abel - JHU. America's greatest early pharmacologist noted for discoveries with adrenelin and insulin; first pharmacology department head; * 1604 Bolton St. Gen. Felix Agnus - French-born Union general; owner of The American and The Star; 1813 Eutaw PI. Russell Baker - Pulitzer Prize columnist and writer (Growing Up); 1501 Park Ave. Henry Berge - sculptor; 217 W. Lanvale St.. Dr. Claribel Cone and Etta Cone - internationally known art collectors and early patrons of Picasso and Matisse and other Moderns; benefactors of Baltimore Museum of Art;* 1711 Eutaw Pl. Jacob Epstein -- from Lithuanian peddler to 'Prince of Trade' (as innovative wholesaler, the first with set prices, and major supplier to Southern retailers ); inaugurator of matching grants in philanthropy; donor of Rodin and Barye works and Old Masters to the new Baltimore Museum of Art; * 1729 Park Ave. F. Scott Fitzgerald - Novelist who published his classic novel Tender Is the Night while living here and also endured what he wrote about as "The Crack Up, a low point of morale";* 1307 Park Ave. Leon Fleisher - pianist and conductor; 1723 Park Ave.  Dr. Harry Friedenwald - early Zionist leader and collaborator with Henrietta Szold; creator of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital next door at 1214; 1212 Eutaw Pl. Hans Froelicher Jr. - Quaker headmaster of Park School; founder of Citizens Planning and Housing Association; co-founder of Strawberry Hill Nature Center, Adams County, Pennsylvania; 1402 Bolton St. Daniel Coit Gilman - JHU. The raiser of standards in American graduate education; first president of Johns Hopkins University; first director of Johns Hopkins Hospital;* 1300 Eutaw Pl. Col. Harry Gilmor - Baltimorean who as a Confederate cavalry officer led raids through Baltimore County; after the Civil War, Baltimore City police commissioner; 150 W. Lanvale St. Dr. William Stewart Halsted - JHU. "Father of American surgery"; one of the "Big Four" founders of clinical services; innovator in surgery (e.g. use of rubber gloves; "new methods in operations for goitre, cancer of the breast and gall-bladder infections"{French's history of Johns Hopkins University]);* 1201 Eutaw Pl. Edward H. Hanlon – Baseball Hall of Fame manager of the old Baltimore Orioles; 1401 Mt. Royal Ave. Alger Hiss - secretary of San Francisco conference where the United Nations was organized in 1945; later, at the height of the Communist scare, the accused in a controversial espionage case of aiding the Soviet (convicted of perjury); 1427 Linden Ave. Albert D. Hutzler - merchant; JHU trustee; 1801 Eutaw Pl.  Lillie Carroll Jackson - civil rights leader in Baltimore's desegregation; for 35 years head of this city's NAACP chapter (largest in America); 1320 Eutaw PI. (plaqued already)  Gerald W. Johnson --"Disturber of the peace"; eloquent voice for America's adversary culture as journalist (the Baltimore Evening Sun) and author of 40 popular books on American history and politics]; television commentator; * 1310 Bolton St. and 217 Bolton Pl. Reuben Kramer - artist; 121 Mosher St. Otto F. Kraushaar - president of Goucher College - 1606 Park Ave. Sidney Lanier -: ex-Confederate POW who found Baltimore congenial for teaching inn this house, for playing flute in the Peabody Orchestra, and for writing exquisite verse;* 1402 Eutaw Pl. William Manchester - prize-winning biographer; 1411 Eutaw Pl. William L. Marbury Sr. - U.S. Attorney General for Maryland; political reformer - 159 W. Lanvale St. William L. Marbury Jr. - member of the Harvard's governing body of six for 22 years - 159 W. Lanvale St. Ottmar Mergenthaler - inventor of the linotype that revolutionized printing; 159 W. Lanvale St. (already placqued by CHAP) Garry Moore [born Thomas Garrison Morfit] - entertainer;* 221 W. Lafayette Ave. Thomas O'Neil - merchant; donor of the Cathedral of Mary our Queen 1731 Park Ave. Isidor Raynor - The first Jewish U.S. Senator from Maryland ("The blank page between the Old Testament and the New" (Severn Teackle Wallis]; 1412 Eutaw Pl. Archibald Rogers - A founder of RTKL, an international architecture firm; president of American Institute of Architects; first executive director, Greater Baltimore Committee, who killed planners' routing I-95 through Federal Hill, Fells Point and Canton and bridging the Inner Harbor; 119 W. Lanvale St. Louis Rukeyser - creator and host of PBS's "Wall Street Week"; 1224 Bolton St. Paul Sarbanes -- current senior U.S. Senator from Maryland; 1708 Bolton St.  Walter Sondheim Jr. - department store executive; civic leader; C.E.O. Charles Center-Inner Harbor; 1631 Bolton St. and Bolton Pl. Bernard Christian Steiner - second and long-time head of the Enoch Pratt Free Library; creator of 20 branch libraries; author and scholar of Maryland history; 1631 Eutaw Pl. Grace Hill Turnbull - sculptor; 1530 Park Ave. Woodrow Wilson - JHU. a Ph.D. student, a vital first step toward his becoming president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey, and president of the United States; 1210 Eutaw Pl. Decline and Struggle: White Flight and Defense Worker Crowding The growing African-American community, which first settled along Druid Hill Avenue in the 1890s, expanded along the western edge of Bolton Hill leading to "white flight". In 1928, the Mount Royal Improvement Association was founded to stem the tide of suburban flight and the trend of subdividing houses into apartments with absentee ownership. While the association undertook many activities to promote the area, such as garden clubs and house tours, their primary motive reflected the racial intolerance of the times. An early pamphlet calls the "Mount Royal District" (which encompassed both Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill) a "protected area." It states, "The greatest achievement of the Mount Royal Improvement Association has been the subjecting of the property in its area to a restriction for white occupancy only." The Supreme Court later overthrew real estate covenants placing racial restrictions on home sales. Bolton Hill underwent a period of decline in the mid-20th century. People divided large single-family houses into apartment units to meet a housing shortage for defense workers during World War II. After the war, many residents left Bolton Hill’s "old-fashioned" houses in this tightly built-up neighborhood, preferring suburban modern homes surrounded by yards. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Jewish social and religious institutions left the Bolton Hill area for the northwest suburbs. The former synagogues became churches and lodges for the African-American community. Although most of Bolton Hill remained stable, the western edge defined by Eutaw Place and Linden Avenue deteriorated. Individual families could no longer afford to maintain enormous Eutaw Place mansions, many of which were converted into apartment houses. Many considered Linden Avenue a slum. Federal urban renewal programs, often defined as "urban removal" programs, targeted this western edge for "stabilization." New developments replaced large portions of Bolton Hill that were demolished. Renewal and Preservation: Building Anew and Restoring the Old Public urban renewal funding used for slum clearance in the early 1960s, spawned major changes in the community. Three new townhouse developments – Linden Green, Bolton Common, and Park Purchase – replaced the buildings in the 1200 through 1600 blocks of Linden Avenue. The Memorial Apartments for senior citizens and the Bolton Hill Plaza shopping center were built on either side of McMechen Street. New apartments, a school, and an office building replaced several blocks of houses along Eutaw Place. Other new structures included Sutton Place, a multi-story apartment building constructed in 1969 to anchor the southern edge of the community, Mount Royal Elementary School, on McMechen Street, and Bolton North, a high-rise apartment building for the elderly anchoring the northwestern corner of the neighborhood. While public efforts often centered on demolition and new construction, private preservation activities focused on restoring original houses. Preservation activities ran the gamut from restoring mansion houses to the adaptive reuse of carriage houses for homes. Some buildings were meticulously restored while other were preserved on the exterior but completely remodeled inside. Alley houses on Rutter Street became an artist colony. Bolton Hill became a Baltimore City historic district in 1967, mandating the preservation of building exteriors.  The neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. A major preservation battle took place in 1978 when the Beethoven Apartments suffered a devastating fire.  The Baltimore City’s Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) refused to allow its demolition. Instead, a new developer was found to renovate the building. The preservation of historic houses, parks, and monuments is now standard policy in Bolton Hill. The 1960s innovative, adaptive reuse of Mount Royal Station for the Maryland Institute helped spearhead not only local efforts to find new uses for old buildings, but also a national movement. Railroad stations became art schools. Schools became apartment buildings. Industrial buildings were converted into offices. Power plants became entertainment centers.  Bolton Hill Today: A Work in Progress The past ten years witnessed major improvements in Bolton HIll.  The Maryland Institute built dormitories for students on a large vacant parcel of land bound by North and Mount Royal avenues. Between Eutaw Place, North Avenue, Robert Street and Bolton Street, Spicer's Run, a modern market-rate townhouse development, replaced the deteriorated Eutaw Gardens apartments.  New townhouses compatible to the historic character of the neighborhood were built on a continuation of the street grid, including the first new houses on Linden Avenue after so much of that street was razed during the urban renewal era. The long vacant Women's Hospital was converted into Maryland Institute's Meyerhoff Hall taking advantage of Maryland Heritage Tax Credits.  Also noteworthy was the 1999 restoration of the Key Monument on Eutaw Place, part of a nation-wide effort to preserve America’s historic treasures. Artscape, Baltimore’s annual major arts festival continues to attract hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland and beyond each July along Mount Royal Avenue on the eastern edge of Bolton Hill. The festival takes full advantage of the cultural institutions in and around Bolton Hill, including the Lyric Theatre, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Bolton Hill was one of the original communities to join its neighbors in forming the Midtown Community Benefits District, created primarily to combat crime and grime in the greater midtown area. The District encompasses Bolton Hill, Charles North, Madison Park, and Mount Vernon-Belvedere. At the turn of the the 21st century, Bolton Hill, better than any other Baltimore neighborhood, has preserved its 19th century character, while remaining a vibrant in-town community. It has a diverse population of all age groups, races, religions, ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles. The arts thrive. Parks and gardens abound. Home ownership is pervasive and on the rise as many sub-divided houses are restored to single-family dwellings. Bolton Hill’s future will be built on its strong foundation combining a high quality physical environment with civic activism. Working together, its residents continue to improve the neighborhood’s physical character and enhance its quality of life.   Bibliography: Read More About Bolton Hill The best place to find information on Bolton Hill is at the Maryland Room of the Enoch Pratt Central Library. Check the vertical files for specific streets, buildings, etc. http://www.pratt.lib.md.us/index.html Look for these books at the Maryland Room. Some are available for sale at local bookstores or on the web. Bolton Hill by Frank Shivers, Baltimore: Equitable Trust Company, 1978 47 pages. Copies available at Enoch Pratt Free Library Call # F190.7.B6S53. Walking in Baltimore by Frank Shivers, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, pages 270-293 for Bolton Hill Walking Tour. Copies available at local libraries and bookstores. Call # F185.3.S571995. Human Side of Urban Renewal by Martin Millspaugh, New YorK:  Ives Washbun, 1960.  Call # HT 175.U6M55. A Guide to Baltimore Architecture by John Dorsey and James Dilts, Cambridge: Tidewater Publishers, 1977, pages 286-292. Copies available at local libraries and bookstores. Call # NA735 .B3 D671997.  Beyond the White Marble Steps by the Livelier Baltimore Committee of theCitizens Planning & Housing Association, 1979. Copies available at Enoch Pratt Free Library Call # F190.7.A23C62 The Baltimore Rowhouse by Mary Ellen Hayward and Charles Belfoure, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999 [check index for Bolton Hill streets]. Copies available at local libraries and bookstores.   Call # NA7238 .B3 H381999

Remembering Jim Dilts and the Baltimore Heritage Cast Iron Architecture Project

               When I took over as President of Baltimore Heritage in 1988, I inherited a project that had been dragging on for years.  Championed by Jim Dilts and Kitty Black, the Baltimore Cast Iron Architecture Project was to document Baltimore’s surviving cast iron buildings, and produce a book, walking tour and museum exhibit on local cast iron architecture.

                While these goals were lofty and cast iron architecture was a unique architectural contribution that had historic roots in Baltimore, I felt Baltimore Heritage had other priorities at the time.   In the late 1980s several downtown buildings were threatened with demolition; older waterfront industrial buildings faced redevelopment; and Baltimore desperately needed a master plan that stressed preservation.

                So, I made the decision to put an end to the cast iron project, allowing the organization to concentrate our efforts on other priorities.  Baltimore Heritage would finish documenting the cast iron buildings and put together a walking tour (perhaps in conjunction with the redevelopment of 300 W. Pratt Street - Baltimore’s most prominent cast iron building), but forget the book and exhibit. 

                When word of my decision filtered back to Jim Dilts, let’s just say he wasn’t pleased.  He told me in no uncertain terms what he thought of my plan and perhaps my nascent leadership skills as the new head of Baltimore Heritage. 

When he was through, I countered with a challenge.  Baltimore Heritage was an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff and little resources (meaning virtually no money).  I would be happy to support the whole project as originally outlined, book and all, but Jim would have to take the lead in raising the funds in order to complete the project within 2-3 years.  To my surprise Jim accepted the challenge with the caveat that Baltimore Heritage would back him in his efforts and allow the organization’s non-profit status to be used for raising funds. 

I agreed, but frankly thought he would not succeed.  I can’t remember how much money was needed to fully fund the cast iron project, but I thought it was an astronomical figure many times Baltimore Heritage’s minute annual budget. 

A few weeks later, Jim contacted me and asked me to join him to meet with an executive of Maryland National Bank in order to raise money for the project.  It was my first attempt at fund raising and I believe it was new to Jim as well.  I let Jim make the pitch on the importance of the project and Baltimore’s unique contribution to cast iron construction.  I probably chimed in with how this was an important project for Baltimore Heritage and would raise awareness of the general need to preserve Baltimore’s historic buildings.

After a few insightful questions, I was surprised that the bank executive not only agreed to a generous contribution on the spot, but also provided us with contacts of other organizations he felt would contribute to the project as well.  Furthermore, he allowed us to tell other organizations how much Maryland National was contributing to the project as an incentive to get others to support it.

                We left the meeting elated.  Walking out of the bank, I may have turned to Jim and asked, “What just happened?”  I don’t remember his reply, just his Cheshire cat grin.  Success brings success.  We soon had our funding in hand.

Jim lined up authors to write chapters for the book:  J. Scott Howell on the technology of cast iron architecture; David G. Wright on the Sun Iron Building; Phoebe Stanton on the Peabody Library; and Robert L. Alexander on Architectural Iron Work, as well as a forweword by Margot Gayle, the grand dame of national efforts to preserve cast iron architecture.  Jim himself wrote the introduction, edited the descriptions in the directory of local cast iron buildings, as well as being the driving force behind the book.

There were other challenges to complete the entire project.  We worked with the Maryland Historical Society on mounting a Cast Iron Architecture exhibit.  Compromises had to be worked out with the photographer who took great photos of cast iron buildings – but felt the exhibit should have been more a show of his work, than Baltimore’s cast iron heritage.  Somehow arguments between Jim and the photographer did not come to blows, and in the end the gallery of photos in the exhibit worked out masterfully with the artifacts, historic pictures and maps that told the story of Baltimore’s Cast Iron Architecture.

I also recall a weekend walk Jim and I took preparing for the cast iron architecture walking tour.  Virtually every building we passed recalled some story or event.  I think there was a bit of one-upmanship between us on who could come up with a fact that the other didn’t know.  I treasure that interaction and regret that we didn’t take other similar walks around town.

The book, Baltimore’s Cast-Iron Buildings and Architectural Ironwork, was the first and as far as I know, the only book produced by Baltimore Heritage.  It was Jim’s baby, but I took pride in it as an accomplishment of Baltimore Heritage, while I was president of the organization.  The book helped to validate Baltimore Heritage's role in local affairs, during a time when we needed to take an activist role in preserving historic buildings.  

          It was the project that I tried to kill off – but Jim refused to let it die.  What began as an adversarial relationship turned into a collaboration that I hope resulted in an even better product than what was first envisioned.

Over the years I would see Jim riding his bike around town.  We would converse from time to time about other preservation issues or points of local architectural history – but basically went our separate ways.  Yet both of us continued our love of local history and architecture.

Jim Dilts was about 20 years my senior, but he always seemed timeless to me.  Baltimore is better off for his devotion and efforts to improve his adopted hometown. 

I still have my copy of the cast iron book he signed for me, with the inscription “For Fred Shoken, an effective president of Baltimore Heritage and an articulate spokesman for Baltimore.”  Effective and articulate are more apt descriptions of Jim himself.