Preserve the Past in Your Backyard: Save Baltimore’s Privies for the Future

Lauren Schiszik, M.H.P., Historic Preservation Planner and Staff Archaeologist, Baltimore City Department of Planning

The term “privy” means a secret and is often used as a colloquial term for outhouses. While the rough wooden outhouses are long gone from people’s backyards in Baltimore City and Maryland, the brick- or wood-lined pits that were used to dispose human waste and other trash are often still present underground. The remains of those privies can turn up all kinds of personal information about the people who used them, about their health, diet, heritage, and past times. From the rural mill villages of Dickeyville and Woodberry, to the dense quarters of Federal Hill, Fells Point, and Seton Hill, you can still find the remains of privies today in backyards and under garages if you know how to look for them.

Outhouses line the rear yards of homes in the Fells Point neighborhood in this photo from the mid-20th century. This photo was taken as part of a documentation of the area, characterized as the “Broadway Slum.” as part of an urban renewal project. (Broadway Slum Redevelopment, 8, Box: S8-B1, Folder: 21. Citizens Planning and Housing Association Records, R0032-CPHA. Baltimore Studies Archives. University of Baltimore.)

Although Baltimore funded the construction of a comprehensive sewer system in the early 1900s, the business district downtown and the developing suburbs were the first to get indoor plumbing and bathrooms. While Baltimore’s public works department constructed sewer and water lines across the city, it was the responsibility of each property owner to install plumbing on their property. The oldest neighborhoods were often the ones that went much longer without interior plumbing due to the difficulty and expense of retrofitting plumbing and sewer lines into the buildings, and it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that every home in Baltimore had an indoor bathroom. Thus, people used privies in their backyards in many parts of Baltimore City into the 20th century, and these privies often served dual roles as bathroom and trash pit. There were “night soil collectors” that would muck out the privies and transport the contents to the city dump, but eventually, the privies were abandoned and filled in with trash. The contents within them are preserved, like a secret, in backyards all across the city.

Baltimore City has 38 local historic districts and over 200 Baltimore City Landmarks, which includes over 15,000 properties. These historic properties are subject to the review of the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), and the design guidelines regulate work completed on the exteriors of properties, including the yard. Just like owners of properties in local historic districts are stewards of the built environment, they may also be the unknowing stewards of archaeological resources. CHAP’s design guidelines state that every reasonable effort must be made to identify, protect, and preserve archaeological significant resources, and direct that applicants should leave known archaeological resources intact, whenever possible. The Commission may require that work involving subsurface disturbance, such as excavation, utility work, and new construction, be subject to an archaeological assessment completed by a professional archaeologist. Excavation on properties in CHAP districts or on Baltimore City Landmarks requires approval from CHAP staff and may also require a building permit.

As archaeological sites, privies can provide an incredible amount of information about how people lived in the past. Written records often tell us very little about the people who collectively comprised the majority of Baltimore’s population: free and enslaved Black people, immigrants from Europe and Asia, women, children. In order to learn about their lives, historians often have to turn to other “texts” like oral histories and archaeological sites.

Archaeological sites are non-renewable cultural resources. The act of excavating a privy or other archaeological site destroys it, and thus, professional archaeologists take care when excavating a privy to only dig part of it. They leave the rest for future archaeologists who can hopefully learn more using less destructive methods. It is better still to leave known archaeological sites alone, preserving them in place, which stewards them for future generations. However, if an archaeological site is going to be disturbed due to construction or development, it is important to excavate them scientifically, systematically recording the finds, studying and cataloging the artifacts, and ultimately writing a report that shares a complete story of what the artifacts can tell about the people that used them. This ensures that although the site itself is gone, the information from the site is not lost.

Archaeological resources represent a wealth of historical information about our shared heritage. The privies that have been scientifically excavated and recorded in Baltimore have provided a plethora of information about people’s lives in the 19th and 20th centuries. Careful excavation can uncover different periods of use of the privy, offering tightly dated time frames for artifacts that can then be connected to specific families that lived at the property. Detailed analysis can provide insights about the economic status, heritage, diet, and health of the people that lived there. Mammal, fish, and bird bones, delicate eggshells, even botanical materials like fruit pits, nuts, and seeds can teach archaeologists about what cuts of meat were used, how the food was prepared, whether the family hunted game, raised fowl, fished, or foraged. The bottles – medicine, liquor, perfume – and the pieces of ceramic dishes can teach about health conditions, local businesses and manufacturers, national and international trade. There are artifacts that were likely accidentally dropped in the privy, like buttons, jewelry, keys, coins, and toys.

The discovery of these objects is thrilling, but the knowledge gleaned from them is even more thrilling, and is far more lasting if it is recorded and shared. There is a long history of unscientific privy-digging in Baltimore City and elsewhere across the country. Social media has raised the profile of privy-digging and relic hunting as both recreation and business. Folks share their finds on social media, allowing followers to experience the thrill of discovery and purchase the artifacts that are uncovered. Privies in local historic districts and local landmarks have been excavated without CHAP review or approval mostly because they are located in rear yards and are largely unseen. Thus, education about the value of privies and archaeological sites in terms of our collective heritage is vital, so that property owners can become stewards of these important, largely invisible resources.

If folks are interested in learning more about archaeology in Baltimore City, there are some wonderful organizations to follow and get involved with, like the Central Chapter of the Archeological Society of Maryland, the Herring Run Archeology Project, Baltimore Heritage, Baltimore Archaeology Forum, and the Baltimore Community Archaeology Lab.

The Ship Caulkers’ Houses: Honoring the Legacy of Baltimore’s Black Caulkers

By Sarah Groesbeck, Architectural Historian, & Secretary, Friends of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses 

1847 View of Baltimore from Federal Hill, by E. Whitefield (Library of Congress).

The Ship Caulkers’ Houses, located at 612-614 S Wolfe Street, Baltimore, are two one-and-one-half story wood frame houses in the Fell’s Point neighborhood. The houses are owned by the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point, which has tasked the Friends of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses with the rehabilitation of the houses and finding a permanent, sustainable use for them. Our project to stabilize the Ship Caulkers’ Houses was awarded an African American Heritage Preservation Program (AAHPP) grant, which funded the critical stabilization of these fragile houses, which were close to collapse.

Rendering of the 600 Block of S. Wolfe Street, c.1820 (Arnold Capute).

Ship Caulkers’ Houses in 2018 before restoration work began

July 25, 1850, must have been a hot, sticky day in Baltimore’s Fell’s Point neighborhood. The harbor wharfs along its south side dominated life in Fell’s Point, providing a livelihood for its working-class residents and supplying a constant stream of sailors, merchants, and migrants from across the country and throughout the world. On this July day, a census taker stopped at what is now 614 S Wolfe Street, one of a row of eight identical story-and-a-half wood-frame houses. Stretching north from 614 to Fleet Street, each house measured a mere 12’x16’ and included one room on the first story, an attic loft above, and perhaps some form of lean-to addition on the back. Built ca. 1797 as a form of eighteenth-century speculative tract housing, these rental properties were home to a rotating cast of occupants who usually stayed no more than 5-10 years.

1850 Census Record for Richard Jones (Ancestry.com).

The 1850 tenants of 614 S Wolfe Street were the Jones’s, a free Black family headed by Richard (50 years old) and Rebecca (36 years old). The two had six living children: Ozius (14); Charles (13); Francis (6); Horace (3); Alex (8); and Maria (1). Additionally, the census taker listed a boarder, 45-year-old Lazarus Arnold, who lived with the eight Jones family members in this two-room house. Baltimore City Directories show that the Jones family had been living at this address since at least 1842 and in the vicinity even earlier. Richard Jones is listed as a caulker in the census; he was one of many Black ship caulkers living in Fell’s Point. Other Black caulkers who lived in the houses between 1840 and 1860 include John Offer (1840-1841), Henry Scott (1851-1854), and John Wittington (1853-1854).

During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, enslaved Blacks worked the ship building trades in Baltimore. Those who gained their freedom, and remained in Baltimore, passed their skills from father to son. By the 1840s, ship caulking, the process of making a vessel water-tight, was an almost exclusively African American trade in Baltimore that employed both free and enslaved Blacks. Newspaper articles in the 1840s-1850s, referred to them simply as “caulker” without specifying race because it was understood that Baltimore’s caulkers were Black.

This near monopoly provided free ship caulkers some leverage in a racist system that was stacked against them. Their wages were less than white workers, but significantly higher than the average Black worker’s wage in Baltimore. White shipyard owners tolerated and benefited from the Black caulkers’ dominance of their trade, because Black workers were paid lower wages and they worked in the owners’ yards with the understanding that they would boycott new shipyards and suppress competition.

Within the limits of the freedom they possessed, this group of free Black caulkers created a community to help and support each other. They formed a trade union and, through it, a Beneficial Society to provide aid to members who fell on difficult times such as unemployment, injury, or sickness. While these mutual aid societies were common throughout the United States through the nineteenth century, African American organizations were different than white ones, as they served the additional purpose of helping formerly enslaved members adjust to free life. This community also formed the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, a literary and debating society that was held in its members’ homes.

Literacy was important to Black Baltimoreans as a whole and Black literacy rates grew through the nineteenth century, thanks to schools such as the Dallas Street Church’s Sunday School on S Dallas St (the same block on which Douglass Place now sits). Sunday Schools like this one taught reading through Bible study, sometimes providing night classes for those working during the day. The Dallas Street Church’s Sunday School was the first Sunday School in the eastern half of Baltimore City and its first anniversary celebration was attended by Frederick Douglass in 1831 when he was still enslaved.

Richard Jones’s 1832 Certificate of Freedom (Maryland State Archives).

The limits of freedom, however, would have been visible daily. Although Baltimore was home to the largest free Black population in the country, it also was a large slave trading port. Free Black people like Richard Jones and his family had to record proof of their freedom and obtain a Certificate of Freedom.  But even with a recorded Certificate of Freedom, Maryland laws allowed free Black people to be sold into slavery if convicted of a crime or, after an 1832 vagrancy law was passed, for being “unproductive.”  Limits were placed on gathering and assemblies, including religious organizations. Ship caulkers lived and worked alongside enslaved people, some of whom became part of their community. Most famously, Frederick Douglass participated in the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society before he escaped enslavement in 1838. Though legally he was not allowed to attend, the free members of the group risked their own safety by inviting him to attend and participate in the society.

Baltimore Sun advertisement for white caulkers (May 14, 1858).

The 1858 Caulkers Riots ended the approximately 20-year monopoly these Black caulkers held in Baltimore. In the spring of that year, white workers began agitating to replace the Black caulkers. The shipyard of J.D. Fardy & Bro., in Federal Hill, placed advertisements in the Baltimore Sun for “several good white caulkers” and began employing white caulkers. Soon after, groups of white men began harassing Black caulkers working in the other yards in Federal Hill; threats of violence became real when a mob of 40-50 white men attacked Black caulkers at the yard of A.J. Robinson, beating and stabbing a number of these men. The threats and attacks continued, forcing the Black caulkers to remain home and not work. The white “caulkers,” many of whom possessed no skill in the trade, forced shipyard owners (who now had no other options) to pay them full wages for their work. By late summer, the new status quo in Baltimore’s shipyards was Black and white caulkers. Violence against the Black caulkers continued through the Civil War and in September 1865, a strike by white workers resulted in an agreement to gradually replace Black caulkers with whites. 

The legacy of these Black ship caulkers has lasted far beyond the few decades they held the monopoly on their trade. Their ranks included Isaac Myers, who was influential in the formation of the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company as well as a labor and political leader. John W Locks, president of the Chesapeake Marine Railway, went on to be one of the wealthiest Black businessmen in Baltimore. Beyond these luminaries, research into the lives of ship caulkers has begun to uncover the stories of men who were leaders in the fraternal organizations, churches, and educational institutions that were so influential to Blacks in Baltimore during the second half of the nineteenth century. And ship caulking continued to be a viable trade for Black Baltimoreans who passed down the trade from father to son through the early twentieth century.

Over the years, the story of the ship caulkers and their connection to the houses at 612-614 S Wolfe Street had been largely forgotten and left untold. Preserving these houses is more than merely saving brick and timber; the houses provide a tangible link between the present and the past that cannot be made in any other way. The preservation of African American sites is essential to telling and understanding the Black experience in the United States throughout our history. These sites, along with those of other historically marginalized groups, are necessary to telling the full story of our shared history.

Elevations of the Ship Caulkers’ Houses showing their appearance once the exterior restoration is completed (Arnold Capute).

Our work to preserve the Ship Caulkers’ Houses has reached a major milestone with the completion of the stabilization of the houses, which are now once again standing on their own. This work continues; in January 2023 we began the restoration the houses’ exterior finishes (siding, roofing, windows, doors, and a reconstructed chimney). Once this work is completed, we’ll be back with a new post detailing the AAHPP grant work that has been completed over the past three years. In the meantime, follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @shipcaulkershouses. Visit our website, www.shipcaulkers.org, to learn more about the houses and how you can support this important work.

Announcing FY2023 African American Historic Preservation Program Grant Recipients!

By Ivy Weeks, Capital Programs Administrator

We are pleased to announce this year’s African American Heritage Preservation Program (AAHPP) grant recipients! Jointly administered by The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and the Maryland Historical Trust, the AAHPP promotes the preservation of Maryland’s African American heritage by funding construction projects at significant sites throughout the state. This year’s projects include museums, cemeteries, an interpretive memorial, a historic lodge, community centers, and a historic school. Read more about our newly funded AAHPP grant projects below.

Mount Auburn Cemetery – Baltimore City ($100,000) | Sponsor: Mount Auburn Cemetery Company

Dedicated in 1872 and originally known as “The City of the Dead for Colored People,” Mount Auburn Cemetery was one of the first—and now only remaining—cemetery owned and operated by African Americans in Baltimore. It is a unique representation of the values and burial traditions of this community from the late 19th century to the present. Grant funds will support repairs to damaged decorative and security fencing, as well as resurfacing inner roadways.

Hoppy Adams House – Annapolis, Anne Arundel County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Charles W. “Hoppy” Adams Jr. Foundation, Inc.

Celebrated African American radio broadcaster for WANN Annapolis, Charles “Hoppy” Adams Jr was widely known for spreading soul and R&B music to Black and white audiences. Adams hosted popular concerts at Carr’s Beach, an important venue on the “Chitlin Circuit” during segregation. This project will rehabilitate the home Adams built for himself in 1964, which was left to the elements when he passed in 2005. Future phases of work will convert the space into a museum and event space to celebrate the life of Hoppy Adams and the unifying effect of R&B music during this divisive era.

Mt. Calvary United Methodist Church – Arnold, Anne Arundel County ($86,000) | Sponsor: Mount Calvary United Methodist Church

Mt. Calvary United Methodist Church began gathering on this site between 1832- 1842, making it the oldest African American congregation in Arnold. Grant funds will support the replacement of the 40-year-old roof and repairing the deteriorating handicap ramp that is currently causing moisture intrusion for the church, as well as adding a second ramp.

Eastport Elementary School, 3rd Street – Annapolis, Anne Arundel County ($100,000) | Sponsor: The Seafarers Yacht Club, Inc.

Originally built in 1918 as Eastport’s school for African American children, Eastport Elementary School closed when Anne Arundel School finally integrated, nearly a decade after Brown v Board of Education. Today, the building is owned by the Seafarers Yacht Club, Inc., formed in 1959 by a group of Black men with a shared interest in boating. They purchased the vacant building in 1967 after they were inspired to form their own club in response to marinas that routinely refused Black boaters to dock at their piers, as well as yacht clubs that denied membership to Black captains. This grant project will fund interior and exterior repairs and security improvements.

The club officers in dress whites, honoring a recently deceased member. Courtesy: Seafarers Yacht Club

Old Wallville School – Prince Frederick, Calvert County ($27,000) | Sponsor: Friends of the Old Wallville School, Inc.

A representation of the segregated educational facilities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Old Wallville School is a one-room wooden schoolhouse that was used to educate African American students in the unincorporated village from 1880-1934. In 2006, the building was moved and placed adjacent to Calvert Elementary School. Now restored to its appearance in the early 1930s, it is used as a popular heritage tourism destination. This grant project will fund rot and roof repairs, structural signage replacement, and painting to protect the building from the elements and heavy use.

Parren J Mitchell House and Cultural Center – Baltimore City ($100,000) | Sponsor: Upton Planning Committee, Inc.

Originally built 1880, this rowhome is probably best known for its resident Parren Mitchell, the Black Congressmen to represent Maryland. This renovation project will return the long-vacant building to its historic role as a center of political and social life for the community and region as the new Parren Mitchell Center, which will serve as an events and retreat center. Grant funds will support exterior masonry restoration and repointing, window restoration, and accessibility improvements.

Boyds Negro School – Boyds, Montgomery County ($50,000) | Sponsor: Boyds Clarksburg Historical Society, Inc.

Built in 1895, Boyds Negro School is Montgomery County’s only remaining one-room schoolhouse for African American children that is regularly open to the public. This project will focus on engineering and site work to protect the building and grounds from flooding. It will also add a handicap ramp to make the building ADA accessible.

Richard Potter House – Denton, Caroline County ($50,000) | Sponsor: Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore Inc.

Richard Potter published a book in 1866 – The Narrative of the Experience, Adventures and Escape of Richard Potter – documenting his experiences from when he was kidnapped in Greensboro, Maryland, enslaved in Delaware, and eventual escape and return to Caroline County to what is now known as the Richard Potter House (c.1810). The site is included as part of the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. This project will restore the first floor of the home to its 1855 interior, using it as a museum and classroom space.

Mt. Zion Memorial Church– Princess Anne, Somerset County ($86,000) | Sponsor: Somerset County Historical Trust, Inc.

Mt. Zion Memorial Church survives as one of the few late-19th century African American churches in Somerset County and its intact condition enhances its architectural significance. Inside, one of the most distinctive features of the building — the early-20th century bead board ceiling – is at risk due to a leaking roof. While Mt. Zion is no longer used to hold regular church services, it does reflect the lasting influence of Methodism on the African American community in Somerset County. Grant funds will repair severe water damage.

New Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church – Berlin, Worcester County ($67,000) | Sponsor: New Bethel United Methodist Church, Inc.

Founded in 1855, New Bethel is the oldest African American Methodist congregation in Worcester County. Known as the Godfather of gospel music, Rev. Charles Albert Tindley was a member of the church in boyhood, and attended when he would visit from Philadelphia as an adult. The grant project will fund roof replacement and carpentry repairs.

Ridgley Methodist Church – Landover, Prince George’s County ($50,000) | Sponsor: Mildred Ridgley Gray Charitable Trust, Inc.

Through exhibitions and educational programs, the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center shares the county’s untold stories of African Americans. The grant-funded pre-development project will involve the design of facility renovations. They will also build an addition to provide support and affordable housing space for Black artists.

St. James African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church – Towson, Baltimore County ($30,000) | Sponsor: St. James African Union Methodist Protestant Church, Inc

In 1881, the St. James African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church was built on property believed to be the first documented African American landholding in Towson. The church began as a one-story wood-frame building and was raised to two stories in 1906 to accommodate the congregation’s growth. This project will fund structural repairs to the roof framing and chimney, as well as full roof replacement.

Buffalo Soldier Park – Eden, Wicomico County ($74,000) | Sponsor: Greater Washington Dc Chapter Of The Ninth And Tenth (Horse) Cavalry Association, Inc.

Named “Buffalo Soldier House” for his time in the United States 9th Cavalry Regiment Company C, Thomas Polk, Sr. built a two-story home on his property sometime in the late 1920s and rebuilt it in 1962-63 after it was destroyed in a fire. This project will focus on the pre-development and renovations needed to convert his home into the Buffalo Soldier Living History Site, which will include a visitors’ center and exhibit space.

Adams Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery – Lothian, Anne Arundel County ($80,000) | Sponsor: Adams U.M. Church

Adams Methodist Episcopal Church site contains two church buildings: the original 1883 church, a simple weatherboard-sided late-Victorian structure; and a more modern brick church, completed in 1968. Work for this project will focus on the brick church and on the graveyard on site.

If you are planning to apply for funding for an AAHPP project, the FY2024  grant round will begin in the spring of 2023, with workshops in April and applications due July 1. For more information about AAHPP, please visit our website or contact Ivy Weeks, Capital Programs Administrator, at ivy.weeks@maryland.gov.

Announcing the FY2023 Historic Preservation Non-Capital Grant Awards

MHT is proud to share the FY2023 recipients of our Historic Preservation Non-Capital grants! Funded through the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority Financing Fund, this grant program supports a wide variety of research, survey, planning, and educational activities involving architectural, archaeological, or cultural resources.

This year, a total of $300,000 is being awarded to non-profit organizations and universities for an exciting slate of ten projects across the state. Below are descriptions of all the projects awarded: 

2023 Tyler Bastian Field Session in Maryland Archeology – The Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc. 

($15,000) 

While official dates and location have not yet been determined, this annual event will likely be held at the Chapel Branch Prehistoric Site in Caroline County in the spring of 2023. The field session provides a hands-on opportunity for laypersons to learn archaeological methods under the direction of professional archaeologists. The funds will cover field session expenses as well as the hiring of a contractor to produce a final report and prepare artifacts for permanent curation, all according to State standards.

Fieldwork Photo from the 2022 Tyler Bastian Field Session

Women in Maryland Architecture – Baltimore Architecture Foundation, Inc. 

($45,700) 

This project will nominate properties designed by early women architects to the National Register of Historic Places. This work constitutes the second phase of the project; the first phase involved the creation of a Multiple Property Documentation Form, “Women in Maryland Architecture, 1920-1970,” and one supporting nomination for the Hirsch Residence. 

Hirsch Residence in Havre de Grace, designed by Poldi Hirsch (Baltimore Sun, 1973)

Recovering Identity: African American Historic Context Study in Frederick County – Frederick County, Maryland

($35,000)

As part of this project, Frederick County will partner with the African American Resources Cultural and Heritage Society to create an African American Historic Context Study of Frederick County. This work will expand on the completed Phase I, which involved a context statement and survey of Black resources in northern Frederick County. The proposed project will focus on identifying and researching historic and cultural themes to create a more comprehensive picture of the African American experience in Frederick County.

The Wolfe House in Lewistown was surveyed in Phase I. (Photo by John W. Murphey)

Growing a County: A Study of Anne Arundel’s Agricultural Heritage – Anne Arundel County, Maryland 

($46,000) 

This project seeks to write a thematic report entitled “Growing a County: Agricultural Heritage in Anne Arundel.” It will provide a detailed examination of the history and evolution of agricultural practices from pre-historic times into the 20th century and specify resource types for documentation and preservation. The document will also highlight the contributions of enslaved workers and immigrant labor to the county’s agricultural heritage.

Franklin Farm in Anne Arundel County

Modeling Wooden Shipwreck Deterioration in the Potomac River: Interdisciplinary Approaches – Program in Maritime Studies, East Carolina University (via ECU Foundation)

($30,000) 

This project will fund important archaeological-biological baseline research on the hull of the wooden shipwreck Aowa in Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary. The Maritime Studies Program at East Carolina University, which conducted a maritime field school at the site in 2022, will revisit Aowa every 3-4 months over 2023-2024, carrying out a detailed environmental sampling regimen to understand how natural processes are impacting Aowa’s hull. This research and the report it produces will be used to build new models to aid in the effective evaluation and protection of Maryland’s maritime cultural heritage and assist the future management of the shipwrecks at Mallows Bay during a time of global environmental change.

Archaeological Research Underway at the Wooden Shipwreck Aowa

Historic Preservation of Cedar Haven & Eagle Harbor, Maryland – Cedar Haven Civic Association on the Patuxent River, Inc.

($30,600) 

The project work includes the preparation of one National Register district nomination for the Town of Eagle Harbor and one Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties form for Cedar Haven. Founded in the late 1920s, Eagle Harbor and Cedar Haven were African American waterfront neighborhoods that provided an escape from the summer heat and city life during the segregation era.

Eagle Harbor in Prince George’s County

Herring Run Park Comprehensive Archaeological Investigations – Towson University

($30,000) 

This project will conduct an archaeological survey of Herring Run Park in Baltimore City. The project will include a shovel test pit survey and ground penetrating radar survey of areas with high potential for intact cultural resources at the Park. The collective archaeological survey results will be used to update MIHP data, write a summary report, and plan Towson University’s 2024 Summer Archaeological Field School.

Towson University assistant professor Katherine Sterner and her students conduct field work in southern York County, Pennsylvania (Photo by Lauren Castellana/Towson University)

Applegarth Tubman Medicine Hill Historic Preservation Project–Stage Four (MHT) – Applegarth Tubman Medicine Hill Preservation and Education Foundation, Inc.

($16,200) 

This project will conduct a conditions assessment with treatment strategies for Medicine Hill, an early nineteenth-century domestic and agricultural complex that is one of the most complete in Dorchester County. It is associated with the Tubman and inter-related Applegarth families, and is threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change.

MHT staff photo of Medicine Hill in Dorchester County

The Search for Lord Dunmore’s Floating City – Institute of Maritime History, Inc.

($20,000) 

The Institute of Maritime History (IMH) will perform historical research and underwater archaeological survey in Maryland waters in order to locate and identify any cultural resources related to the Revolutionary War-era occupation of St George’s Island and scuttling of numerous vessels there in 1776. IMH volunteers will be taught proper archaeological survey techniques, non-disturbance site recording, research, and report preparation. A report detailing the results of fieldwork will be submitted to MHT.

Logo of the Insitute of Maritime History (IMH)

St. John’s College Campus History – St. John’s College

($22,500) 

This project will involve research and documentation at St. John’s College, including an examination of the history of enslaved people in relationship to the St. John’s College campus. The work will also include updating existing architectural survey data in the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties.

MHT staff photo of McDowell Hall on St. John’s College campus in Annapolis

Availability of FY2024 funds through the Historic Preservation Non-Capital Grant Program will be announced in the spring of 2023 on MHT’s website (https://mht.maryland.gov/grants_noncap.shtml). Application deadlines and workshop dates will also be found on this page at that time. 

For more information about the grant program, please contact Heather Barrett, Administrator of Architectural Research at MHT, at 410-697-9536 or heather.barrett@maryland.gov.  For information about organizations receiving grants, please contact the institutions directly. 

Announcing the FY2022 Historic Preservation Capital Grant Recipients!

By Barbara Fisher, Capital Grant Administrator

We are pleased to announce the FY2022 Historic Preservation Capital grant recipients! The Historic Preservation Capital Grant Program provides support for preservation-related acquisition and construction projects, as well as for architectural, engineering, archaeology, and consulting services needed in the development of a construction project. All assisted properties must be either eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the list of historic and culturally significant properties maintained by the National Park Service. Nonprofits, local jurisdictions, business entities, and individuals may apply for up to $100,000 per project. Projects compete for funding out of our $600,000 program allotment each year. 

In FY2022, MHT received more than 40 applications requesting a combined total of over $3.2 million, which demonstrates a very strong demand for this funding.  MHT awarded seven preservation projects throughout the state, including a unique window restoration, a 19^th century bank barn, and the home of a significant civil rights advocate. Read more about all our newly funded capital grant projects below.  

Chase-Lloyd House, Anne Arundel County ($99,000) | Sponsor: Chase Home, Inc.

Located in downtown Annapolis, the Chase-Lloyd House was completed by noted colonial-era architect William Buckland in 1774. The house is associated with Samuel Chase, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, among other prominent figures in early Maryland and American history. For over 130 years the house served as an independent living facility for elderly women, but is now used as the headquarters for the facility operator, Chase Home, Inc. The grant supports the restoration of the large, Palladian window, a dominant feature visible from the entry hall, stairway, and surrounding garden of this three-story Georgian mansion. Named for Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, these three-part windows derived from classical forms and were often incorporated into the design of wealthy American homes in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. 

Image by MHT Staff

Charles H. Chipman Cultural Center, Wicomico County ($100,000) | Sponsor: The Chipman Foundation, Inc.

The Charles H. Chipman Center is the oldest African American congregation and the first site for African Americans to hold religious services in the region during and after slavery, the first school for children of freed slaves in the region, and the first Delmarva high school for African American children after the Civil War. The original church dates to 1838 but has been enlarged and evolved stylistically to what you see today. The building currently serves as a cultural center and small museum focusing on African American heritage on Delmarva. The wood shingle roof of the building has reached the end of its useful life, so the capital grant funds will help replace the roof in-kind. 

Image by MHT Staff

Buckingham House and Industrial School Complex – Bank Barn, Frederick County ($100,000) | Sponsor: Claggett Center

Established in 1898 to provide housing and education for boys in poverty, the Buckingham Industrial School for Boys includes a 6,300 square foot, hemlock-framed Pennsylvania Bank Barn. The barn represents a type of large agricultural outbuilding found throughout central and northern Maryland, and still retains its original pine siding, wood roof and interiors. These barns were generally built into the side of a small hill and have an earthen ramp which provides access to a second floor. Capital grant funds will help restore the barn’s doors and stone cheek walls and reconstruct the roof vents to match the original design. The barn will be used as a meeting space and for youth summer camp programming. 

Image by grantee

Elk Landing – Stone House, Cecil County ($61,000) | Sponsor: The Historic Elk Landing Foundation, Inc.

The Stone House at Elk Landing, built in 1782-83, is significant for its architecture and association with early Scandinavian and Finnish settlement in Maryland.  Its simple fieldstone construction, center hall plan (although missing due to deterioration), and symmetrical massing are characteristic of late 18th-century vernacular dwellings in northeastern Maryland. The house includes a rare exterior-corner fireplace that is vented at the eaves (pictured below). More typical in Maryland is the other fireplace in the house, which are found back-to-back at interior corners and share a common chimney stack that exits at the roof ridge. The Historic Elk Landing Foundation currently operates the house for historical interpretation and fundraising activities, although limited due to its condition. Capital grant funds will help restore the stone fireplaces and exterior masonry work. 

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Parren J. Mitchell House and Cultural Center, Baltimore City ($100,000) | Sponsor: Upton Planning Committee, Inc.

This property is best known as the long-time home of Parren J. Mitchell, a renowned professor, scholar, and Maryland’s first African American U.S. Congressman, serving from 1971-1987. A WWII veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Mitchell also helped found the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1950 he won a landmark legal case against the segregated University of Maryland to allow him admission into their graduate school. He became the first African American to graduate with a master’s degree from the University, and his case is considered instrumental in desegregation of higher education in Maryland. Capital grant funds will help complete an overall interior and exterior rehabilitation of the house, which has a planned use as a community and resource center.

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Easton Armory, Talbot County ($90,000) | Sponsor: Waterfowl Festival Inc.

The imposing Easton Armory, also known as the Waterfowl Building, reflects the period when armories were built to resemble fortresses. Built in 1927, the building served as an armory and social space for the Easton community until it was acquired by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1976. Since 1997, the building has primarily served as administrative headquarters for Waterfowl Festival, Inc., providing space for staff, volunteers, storage, and is also used as an event space. Capital grant funds will help complete the rehabilitation of several original metal windows.  

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Hays House, Harford County ($50,000) | Sponsor: The Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. 

Constructed ca.1788, the Hays House was originally owned by Thomas A. Hays, the cartographer of the earliest known map of the town.  It is the oldest private residence in Bel Air, distinguished by its gambrel roof – the only one in town. The house has not been altered much over time; however, in 1960, preservation advocates moved it one block from its original site to save it from demolition. Hays House now serves as a house museum and the headquarters of the Historical Society of Harford County. The capital grant project will assist in restoring the north wall, which is severely deteriorated due to prolonged moisture issues. 

Image by MHT staff

***If you intend to apply for the FY2023 Historic Preservation Capital grant round, please join us for workshops and webinars this fall. Information will be posted on the program website and shared through our listserv and social media accounts. Online applications will be due in March 2023.

Guest Blog: Historic Tiffany Window Restoration Project at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church

by: Reverend Deb Scott and Jackie Noller, Chair, Lovely Lane 21st Century Committee

After her recent visit to historic Lovely Lane United Methodist Church, Melissa Lauber, the Director of Communications for the Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, made the following observation: “On a pilgrimage, one crosses a threshold from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The beige and colorless overtones of everyday life are swept away by insights and experiences as the possibilities of living in full color open before you. In its simplest forms, pilgrimage is a journey toward the sacred. These journeys exist in almost every culture throughout history. Hearts are enlivened and lives are changed. But the journey doesn’t have to be gilded in lofty ideals.

Everyday adventures – when marked by intention – allow you to step outside your daily boundaries and be somehow transformed. In many ways tourists, who travel to see and marvel, resemble pilgrims. Their itineraries and destinations are often the same; but pilgrims carry with them a unique quality of curiosity. Their hearts stand wide-open and interior and exterior boundaries blend in unusual ways as they seek a sense of discovery and meaning. ‘Pilgrims‘, said theologian Richard Niebuhr, are ‘poets who create by taking journeys.’” We at Lovely Lane are so grateful to the Maryland Historical Trust for its vision to co-partner to make this capital project possible, making a historic site a destination for both tourism and pilgrimages (Photos #1 and 2).

  Photo #1 – Lovely Lane United Methodist Church         

Photo #2 – Sanctuary Interior, Lovely Lane United Methodist Church            

Lovely Lane United Methodist Church houses the Mother Church of American Methodism in Baltimore.  Our extant building was dedicated in 1887 as the centennial monument to the founding of American Methodism. Stanford White — of the New York City firm of McKim, Mead & White — designed the church under the supervision of the pastor, Rev. John F. Goucher. The church was built in the Romanesque style similar to early churches and basilicas in Italy. The church sanctuary and connected chapel occupy over 17,000 square feet, showcasing original black birch altar woodwork, Lathrop and Tiffany windows, a painted celestial ceiling and pipe organs. The square tower, patterned after a 12^th century church near Ravenna, Italy, lights the night sky.  The building has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.

In July 2020, MHT awarded a $100,000 grant from the Historic Preservation Capital Grant Program to Lovely Lane to restore 19^th century Tiffany windows in the building’s chapel adjacent to the church sanctuary.  The church’s building committee applied for the grant to help finance a catalytic multi-component capital project begun in 2019 to restore and rehabilitate underused space in its building.  The larger project goal is to promote greater public use of the historic building and enhance revenue diversity by creating the Lovely Lane Arts & Neighborhood Center within the walls of this urban location. With decades of sound stewardship in place, the congregation believes our well-cared for property is best positioned with rehabilitation to serve the underserved with dignity and to share space with other organizations sustainably.

Restoration of the Tiffany windows in the chapel portion of the 1887 building helped ensure a weather-tight building fabric. With the subsequent installation of a cooling system in this space, the chapel will be able to comfortably host future public performances and exhibitions. The committee hired the restoration firm Worcester-Eisenbrandt, Inc. (WEI) to carry out the exacting work in the fall and winter of 2021. The scope of work included restoration on three floor levels of the chapel’s historic windows: 1) 12-foot archtop-stained-glass windows on the main floor; 2) eyebrow windows on the mezzanine level; and 3) exterior dormer windows on roof level that provide light into interior clerestory tri-partite stained-glass windows (Photo #3).  Each level required different restoration work and budgetary prioritization.       

Photo #3 – Exterior view of above-grade Chapel exterior with 3 levels of historic windows

Main floor windows had the sash removed and restored at WEI’s mill shop, and the frames were restored by field craftsmen. The cloudy acrylic panels were removed from the sash and either disposed or used as temporary protection for the eyebrow and dormer openings while the sashes were removed.  Larger acrylic panels were inserted into wood frames and used as protection at the first floor (Photo #4, 5 and 6). The existing glazing putty and the glass were removed and set aside.

Photo #4 – Exterior window removal                      

Photo #5 – Interior after removal           

Photo #6 – Installation of temporary acrylic panels

Sash and frames were stripped of paint and repaired with epoxy or Dutchmen.  The glass was reinstalled after the repairs had cured, and then both the frames and sash were primed and painted. There was no missing stained glass, and any cracks were stabilized and sealed with Hxtal. New 1⁄4-inch acrylic was installed as storm panels on the archtop windows to restore a more luminous transparency, and all sashes were reinstalled (Photos #7 and #8).

Photo #7 – Exterior view, restored archtop windows                                 

Photo #8 – Interior view, restored archtop windows                       

Mezzanine and dormer levels restoration work included replacement of water damaged sills and hardware.  Adjustments were made to the flashing at the eyebrows and dormers to make each weather tight (Photos #9, 10 and 11).

Photo #9 – Restored mezzanine + dormer windows

Photo #10 – Restored hardware/etched glass, mezzanine window    

Photo #11 – Interior view of restored dormer window sash

One interesting feature of this work to date is its all-female leadership. From left to right in the Photo #12 below are:  Cailin McGough, Cap Ex Advisory Group, the owner’s representative or contractor project manager; Rev. Deborah Scott the church pastor in charge of contract negotiation; Katherine Good, Waldon Studio Architects, architectural project manager; and Amy Hollis from Worcester-Eisenbrandt, Inc., contractor project manager.

Photo #12 – Lovely Lane windows restoration team                                   

Lovely Lane United Methodist Church leaders believe continued fundraising success will permit the final restoration of the remaining archtop stained-glass windows on the Chapel’s main floor and South Tower.  Completion of this work will provide additional transparency so that increased daylight will illuminate the building’s interiors as the windows were so designed to do when the building was dedicated in 1887. (Photo #13).

Photo #13 – Exterior view of restored (left) vs unrestored windows (right)

To learn more about MHT’s Historic Preservation Capital Grant Program please visit the program website.