{"id":32163,"date":"2019-09-06T12:24:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T17:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32163"},"modified":"2019-09-06T19:14:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T00:14:20","slug":"a-look-at-old-baltimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=32163","title":{"rendered":"A Look at Old Baltimore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently, I found a photograph of Baltimore, circa 1871 — downtown Baltimore, as seen from Federal Hill<\/a>. There are things about this photo that are familiar, and many things that would be a mystery. Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Consulting with maps, I feel that this photograph of the Inner Harbor and environs was taken from near the location of what’s now the Rusty Scupper<\/a>. Maybe fifty yards west, and certainly at an elevation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In center is the Baltimore Basilica<\/a>. The dome of First Unitarian<\/a> can also be seen to its right, nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Monument<\/a> is at center right. It may not be obvious, but Mount Vernon Place United Methodist<\/a> is under construction; it looks like there’s scaffolding around where it should<\/em> be, and its spire, which was completed in 1872, is not there. To the left of the Washington Monument is what I believe is the tower of Emmanuel Episcopal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At center left is the spire of St. Alphonsus Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what’s that in between the Basilica and St. Alphonsus Church? At first I thought it was the Bromo Seltzer Tower, except it wasn’t built yet and is in the entirely wrong place. In fact, it’s the tower of Central Presbyterian<\/a>, which burned down in July 1873.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wondered where the impressive spire of First & Franklin Presbyterian<\/a> was — perhaps it’s behind the Basilica? — but, it turns out, its Gothic spire wasn’t built until 1875.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a dome a few streets from the waterfront — it’s between Central Presbyterian and the Basilica, and you can also see it the 1868 map of Baltimore<\/a> I wrote about in July — but I’m not sure what it is. There’s nothing like it there now. As best I can tell, it’s about where Schaefer Tower stands today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve annotated the photo below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Assuming an 1871 date, based on the construction of Mount Vernon Place, I had no ancestors living in Baltimore at the time. My great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Feenhagen died the year before, and his daughter (and my great-great-grandmother) married in December 1869 and moved to Washington. My other ancestors alive at the time were in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Cecil County, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s interesting to peer into the past. You never know what you’ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I found a photograph of Baltimore, circa 1871 — downtown Baltimore, as seen from Federal Hill. There are things about this photo that are familiar, and many things that would be a mystery. Let’s take a look. Consulting with maps, I feel that this photograph of the Inner Harbor and environs was taken fromContinue reading “A Look at Old Baltimore”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[424,4807,4808],"class_list":["post-32163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-basilica","tag-inner-harbor","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}