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Story of a Port Town: the Evolvoing Economic Role of Baltimore's

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Story of a Port Town: the Evolvoing Economic Role of Baltimore's ECONOMICHISTORY Story of a Port Town The Evolving y American standards, Baltimore is Baltimore’s founders saw the poten- an ancient city. Its storied history tial for a port. The harbor could access Economic Role Bstretches back to colonial days, when Atlantic trade routes via the Chesapeake its port began to ship farm goods from the Bay, yet it was better protected than of Baltimore’s mid-Atlantic to people around the globe. Norfolk, Va., and other Bay ports During the Revolutionary War, for because it was farther inland. Although Wa t erfront and instance, American soldiers “were fed by the harbor was shallower and harder to the grain and flour delivered from Bal- navigate than Fells Point, the problem Location timore,” describes Geoffrey Footner, a was dealt with by constructing piers that Baltimore-based author and maritime reached into friendlier waters. historian. Goods also were shipped from At the same time, Baltimore’s harbor BY CHARLES GERENA the city to France, where they were was close to sources of food production. transported to the Dutch Islands and Down the Chesapeake Bay were com- traded for weapons and gunpowder munities where the land was fertile and needed by the Continental Army. the water teemed with seafood. Farmers This is just one of many instances of in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and western how Baltimore’s economic life has been Maryland were nearby as well. The history of Baltimore’s harbor, shown shaped by armed conflict. More impor- Finally, Baltimore was on the “fall here in 1910, stretches back to colonial days. tantly, it illustrates how the city’s water- line,” a geological transition between front and location the hard rock of the Piedmont and the have been central softer soil of the Coastal Plains. When to its growth and the Patapsco or any river or stream prosperity — a fact flows over this ridge, it creates falls and that continues to rapids that impede water travel. As a this day. result, Baltimore’s harbor was a good The city was place to offload goods from ships and founded as Balti- transport them inland using other more Town in 1729. means of transportation. Its 60 acres sur- All Baltimore needed were markets rounded one of the to serve. During the 17th and early 18th harbors formed by centuries, Maryland had no pressing need the Patapsco River, for a major trade center. “The initial which flows east- trade…was in tobacco, and it was con- ward into the trolled in London,” says John McCusker, Chesapeake Bay. professor of American history and eco- Towns emerged at nomics at Trinity University. Also, histo- other harbors as rians note that tobacco plantations well, including Jones mostly used their own docks or utilized Town in 1732 and ports that were close to the mouth of Fells Point in 1763. the Bay, such as Norfolk or St. Marys in (By 1773, the three southern Maryland. towns had merged Baltimore found its market niche to form the city of when tobacco prices collapsed and it Baltimore.) became more expensive to cultivate the VANE BROTHERS COMPANY 36 Region Focus • Spring 2003 golden leaf in the early 18th century. Tobacco farmers began seeking more profitable crops to grow. “They discov- ered that their land better produced grains than tobacco, and a market grew for the former,” says McCusker. “That gave rise to local merchants who organ- ized the grain trade and the exchange of other goods to farmers.” Demand for corn and wheat came AIRLAND-INDUSTRIAL PHOTO CO. from Europe and Caribbean nations where French, British, and Swedish plan- tations operated. “Sugar was such a prof- itable crop that it was economically disadvantageous for the plantations...to The Maryland Port Administration has geared the Port of Baltimore to serve certain grow their own food. They bought food niches in container transport, including automobiles. Today, the Port is the top East Coast from someplace else,” explains Matthew exporter of vehicles. Crenson, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University who has istance and wind currents became ment of a variety of support industries studied Baltimore’s social and economic irrelevant when the American in Baltimore. Shipbuilding at Fells progress for three decades. DRevolution erupted in 1775. While Point expanded, while ironworks Baltimore took advantage of the the British shut down the Bay’s outer ports cranked out fittings for ships and parts growing grain trade. Not only did it and occupied centers of commerce like for mills. offer access to local grain farmers, but Philadelphia, Baltimore managed to stay Additionally, goods started coming it had streams like Jones Falls and out of the clutches of the redcoats and from Caribbean plantations back to Gwynns Falls that flowed downhill into keep the goods flowing, partly by using Baltimore. They included sugar, coffee, the harbor. This provided plenty of homegrown, locally owned clipper ships. and a distinctive commodity called waterpower for grinding wheat and Food and supplies reached revolutionaries guano — dried bird and bat excrement corn into flour, which traveled better to the north and south of Baltimore, while that tobacco and cotton plantations than raw grains. flour and other goods continued into used as fertilizer. The need to store “Wheat came in wagons from Caribbean markets. these commodities spurred the con- western Maryland and Pennsylvania “The War of Independence...proved struction of more warehouses. into Baltimore where the mills ground to be a boon for Baltimore merchants, Baltimore was an established port it into flour,” describes Crenson. Other not only because rival ports were more town by the turn of the 19th century, accounts describe shipments of effectively blockaded by the British but often benefiting from turmoil abroad produce coming into Baltimore, pro- because Spanish ports in the according to historical geographer duced by farmers who were settling and Caribbean, normally closed to Ameri- Sherry Olson. “Of great importance to developing Maryland’s “backcountry” can shipping and flour, were opened for Baltimore were the perennial naval in the northern and western part of the the war’s duration,” wrote economist warfare between England and France, state. Wharves, warehouses, and ship- Geoffrey Gilbert in a 1977 journal which drove up flour prices, and the yards arose along the waterfront of Bal- article. “In the post-war period, Balti- frequent changes in management in the timore Town and Fells Point to handle more’s flour trade to Europe and the sugar islands of the West Indies, major these commodities. West Indies showed rapid gains.” By importers of wheat,” Olson noted in Despite this growth, other colonial the 1790s, the city commanded 26 her 1997 book on the city’s history. ports matured faster than Baltimore did. percent of America’s flour exports to “Baltimore merchants profited from “You didn’t have to sail the whole way the West Indies, where the major ports the interruption of European shipping into the Chesapeake Bay like you do to of entry for the Caribbean were based. and exploited the ups and downs in the get to Baltimore,” notes John Kellett, As more flour moved out of Balti- price of flour.” director of the Baltimore Maritime more, more capital flowed into the city. Museum. The distance between Balti- “Much of the early commercial devel- ew York merchants viewed the more and the mouth of the Bay in opment [in Baltimore] was underwrit- progress of their Southern Norfolk is about 150 miles, “and back in ten by Philadelphia merchants,” says Ncompetitor with envy. Baltimore the days of sailing that was pretty long.” McCusker. Then Maryland business- had a strong grain trade with overseas Also, Kellett says the wind currents men jumped on the bandwagon. markets and was in a good position to could be “fluky,” adding days to a voyage. This capital financed the develop- increase its domestic trade because it was Spring 2003 • Region Focus 37 Baltimore’s Waterfront Continues to Change The Inner Harbor was where Baltimore began to redevelop its waterfront in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, developers have seen value 5 in the harbor views and unique structures of Canton, Fells Point, and other waterfront Inner Harbor 4 communities. Here is a sample of the many 9 7 6 industrial buildings that have found new life 8 Canton 10 or have been razed to make way for new Fells Point retail, office, and residential development. 12 11 3 Locust Point 1. Tide Point—Proctor & Gamble soap factory 1 turned into an office complex for technology and service firms 2. Phillips Foods Inc.—Coca-Cola plant 2 redeveloped into office and production space for the seafood manufacturer 6. Bond Street Wharf—Class-A office complex 10. The Anchorage —Luxury condominiums built 3. HarborView—Luxury condominiums and built on site of warehouse near waterfront for marina access apartment homes 7. Brown’s Wharf—Renovation of coffee 11. Canton Cove —Redevelopment of factory 4. Inner Harbor East—20-acre, mixed-use warehouse to house offices and specialty retail into luxury condominiums development includes two Marriott hotels, 8. Henderson’s Wharf—Renovation of tobacco 12. Lighthouse Point—Licorice factory renovated Sylvan Learning Centers headquarters, a luxury warehouse into a residential complex, inn, and into a 16-acre development with apartments, apartment building, and a planned entertain- marina retail and office space, and a marina ment complex 9. The Can Company—American Can Co. plant —CHARLES GERENA 5. Bagby Furniture Building—Conversion of converted into a retail and office center warehouse into Class-A office space geographically closer to Ohio and other demand for grains and produce from pack seafood and produce for shipping, Midwestern markets than New York. In Chesapeake Bay farmers, which were while container manufacturers such as addition, the city stood to gain a major major users of Baltimore’s port.
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