Institutions and Attractions
A cultural and educational center, Baltimore is the seat of The Johns Hopkins Univ. with its famous medical center, the Univ. of Baltimore, Morgan State Univ., Loyola College, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Coppin State College, and the Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, with schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, law, and social work. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has had its headquarters in the city since 1986. Also there are the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Maryland Academy of Sciences, the Walters Art Gallery, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Enoch Pratt Free Library and the municipal symphony orchestra are well known. Since the 1970s filmmakers including John Waters and Barry Levinson have made Baltimore scenes widely familiar, as has novelist Anne Tyler Tyler, Anne, 1941–, American novelist, b. Minneapolis. Often set in the American South and frequently in and around Baltimore, Md., her fiction, which is marked by wit and perception, portrays vivid characters involved in ordinary human life, particularly
..... Click the link for more information. .
The city's historical sites include Flag House; the first Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States (1806–21; designed by B. H. Latrobe); the Edgar Allan Poe House (c.1830); Westminster Churchyard, where Poe is buried; Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (see National Parks and Monuments National Parks and Monuments
National Parks
Name
Type1
Location
Year authorized
Size
acres (hectares)
Description
Acadia
NP
SE Maine
1919
48,419 (19,603)
Mountain and coast scenery.
..... Click the link for more information. , table); the Baltimore and Ohio Transportation Museum; and numerous colonial homes. The U.S.S. Constellation, the first U.S. navy ship (1797) and a national historic shrine, as well as other historic ships, are docked at Baltimore's Harborplace.
Other landmarks are the historic square Mt. Vernon Place, which contains the Washington Monument (1815–42; designed by Robert Mills); Druid Hill Park, with a zoo and a natural history museum; and Pimlico Race Course, site of the Preakness, held annually since 1873. Many of the city's famous streets of redbrick row houses with scrubbed white steps still exist, although recent populaton loss has led to much demolition. H. L. Mencken Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis Mencken) , 1880–1956, American editor, author, and critic, b. Baltimore, studied at the Baltimore Polytechnic. Probably America's most influential journalist, he began his career on the Baltimore Morning Herald
..... Click the link for more information. , Babe Ruth Ruth, Babe (George Herman Ruth), 1895–1948, American baseball player, considered by many the greatest of all baseball players, b. Baltimore.
Early Life
When he was seven years old his parents placed him in St.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Billie Holiday Holiday, Billie, 1915–59, American singer, b. Baltimore. Her original name was Eleanora Fagan. She began singing professionally in 1930, and after performing with numerous bands—especially those of Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, and Artie
..... Click the link for more information. were born in Baltimore. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is nearby.
History
The site was settled in the early 17th cent. and Baltimore founded in 1729. The excellent harbor soon made it a center for the shipping of tobacco and grain. Shipbuilding, an early industry, flourished during the Revolution and the War of 1812 with the fitting out of many privateers, and in the early 1800s the famous Baltimore clippers were built. The nation's wars have played a large role in the city's history. When the British occupied (1777) Philadelphia, Baltimore became the meeting place of the Continental Congress. In the War of 1812 the gallant defense of Fort McHenry Fort McHenry, former U.S. military post in Baltimore harbor; built 1794–1805. In the War of 1812 it was bombarded (Sept. 13–14, 1814) by a British fleet under Sir Alexander Cochrane, but the fort, commanded by Maj. George Armistead, resisted the attack.
..... Click the link for more information. inspired Francis Scott Key Key, Francis Scott , 1779–1843, American poet, author of the Star-spangled Banner, b. present Carroll co., Md. A lawyer, he was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia (1833–41).
..... Click the link for more information. to write "The Star-spangled Banner."
After the War of 1812, Baltimore experienced phenomenal growth, largely because of the National Road National Road, U.S. highway built in the early 19th cent. At the time of its construction, the National Road was the most ambitious road-building project ever undertaken in the United States. It finally extended from Cumberland, Md., to St.
..... Click the link for more information. . When the Erie Canal (completed in 1825) endangered the city's hold on trans-Allegheny traffic, Baltimore businessmen chartered (1827) the Baltimore & Ohio RR Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), first U.S. public railroad, chartered in 1827 by a group of Baltimore businessmen to regain trans-Allegheny traffic lost to the newly opened Erie Canal.
..... Click the link for more information. to meet the competition of New York as the ocean outlet for the West. During the Civil War, Baltimore was strongly pro-Southern in sentiment; the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, passing through the city in Apr., 1861, was attacked by a mob. A disastrous fire in 1904 destroyed almost the entire downtown but enabled the emergence of a better planned city.
In World Wars I and II, Baltimore was an important shipbuilding and supply-shipping center. During the 1960s and 70s, however, Baltimore decayed rapidly, losing population and commerce, largely to neighboring suburbs. Urban redevelopment in the late 1970s and 1980s included the construction of Harborplace (shops and restaurants) in the Inner Harbor area, the National Aquarium, shopping pavilions, hotels, a convention center, the Maryland Science Center, and the American Visionary Art Museum. Waterside renewal continued through the 1990s, and old neighborhoods like Fells Point became newly popular. In 1983 a rapid-transit line to the suburbs was opened. In 1992, Baltimore's professional baseball team, the Orioles, moved to the new Oriole Park at Camden Yards; the National Football League's Ravens began play nearby in 1998.
Bibliography
See J. T. Scharf, History of Baltimore (1881; repr. in 2 vol., 1971) and The Chronicles of Baltimore (1874, repr. 1972); S. Olsen, Baltimore (1976) and Baltimore: The Building of an American City (1980); R. Miller et al., Baltimore (1988).
Baltimore
City (pop., 2000: 651,154), north-central Maryland, U.S. Located at the head of the Patapsco River estuary, 15 mi (24 km) above Chesapeake Bay, it is Maryland's largest city and economic hub. Established in 1729, it was named after the Irish barony of Baltimore (seat of the Calvert family, proprietors of the colony of Maryland). It became the first U.S. Roman Catholic diocese in 1789. In 1827 the nation's first railroad began operations there. In World War I, Baltimore began to develop industrially, and it has since become a major seaport.
Baltimore1
Baltimore2
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: (410) 396-3100
Fax: (410) 396-9568
www.ci.baltimore.md.us
In northern MD on Patapsco River, upper Chesapeake Bay, 41 mi. northeast of Washington, DC. Founded 1729; incorporated 1796. Distinct from and independent of Baltimore County since 1851, with the same political power as a county. Major East Coast port. Headquarters of McCormick & Co, world's largest producer of spices and seasonings. Other industries include steel, chemicals, and manufacture of radar and other electronic equipment. Site of Johns Hopkins University. Site of Fort McHenry, whose bombardment by the British in 1814 inspired Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) to write The Star-Spangled Banner. Name Origin: For the barony of Baltimore in Ireland, source of the hereditary title Lord Baltimore of the Calvert family, proprietors of the colony of MD.
Area (sq mi): 92.08 (land 80.80; water 11.27). Pop per sq mi: 7869.00.
Pop 2005: 635,815. State rank: 4. Pop change: 2000-20005 -2.40%; 1990-2000 -11.50%. Pop 2000: 651,154 (White 31.00%; Black or African American 64.30%; Hispanic or Latino 1.70%; Asian 1.50%; Other 2.50%). Foreign born: 4.60%. Median age: 35.00.
Income 2000: per capita $16,978; median household $30,078; Pop below poverty level: 22.90%. *Personal per capita income 2000-2003: $24,789-$27,828.
Unemployment 2004: 7.40%. Change from 2000: 3.00%. Median travel time to work: 31.10 minutes. Working outside county of residence: 38.10%.
Cities with population over 10,000: None.
See other counties in Maryland.
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