Fell's Point, Baltimore

Fell's Point is a historic waterfront

First described by a European seafarer as "Long Island Point" in 1670, the area later to be known as Fells Point was a thin little peninsula jutting out southwestward between the streams of Jones Falls and Harford Run (later covered over by Central Avenue) to the west and Harris Creek to the east (now culverted beneath the community of Canton) and further east to Colgate Creek (now surrounded by the Dundalk and Sea Girt Marine Terminals). Later land was patented with the title of "Copus Harbor". Nearby Baltimore Town to the west at the headwater of the Patapsco River's Northwest Branch was land patented under the name of "Cole's Harbor" and "Todd's Range" to William Cole and later sold to Charles and Daniel Carroll. This area was later established as a "port of entry" by the General Assembly of the Province of Maryland in 1706. After several local farmers and plantation owners originally planning to establish a town on the northeastern shores of the Middle Branch of the Patapsco (also known as "Ridgeley's Cove") were stymied by the objections of local owner William Moale, who thought the land was too valuable as a site of iron ore deposits. So the new town site was moved further to the northeast to the head of the Northwest Branch. Established as a town by the authority of the Colonial Assembly on July 30, 1729, (and signed by Governor Benedict Leonard Calvert on August 8), several streets were laid out in the "Original Survey" of January 12, 1730, with the main one going east-to-west called "Long Street" (later by the 1760s as "Market Street", then renamed East and West Baltimore Streets) and several others intersecting from north-to-south such as Forrest (later Charles), Calvert, running north from "The Basin" (today's Inner Harbor) in 1730.

Joined in 1732, to the northeast along the banks of the stream "

In 1784, the combined town's market house system was expanded from the original first Centre Market (later known as "Marsh Market") on Market Place (between East Pratt Street to the south and Long Street (later called Market Street, then East Baltimore Street) to the north from 1767. Two additional market areas were established shortly after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1784. Known first as the "Western Precincts Market" and renamed later as the Lexington Market (by future West Lexington and North Eutaw Streets) on land donated by Continental Army Col. John Eager Howard (1752-1827), an influential Baltimore citizen with a large estate named "Belvidere" surrounding the town to the west and north). To the east borders of the town in that same year was the new "Eastern Precincts Market", also later renamed Fells Point Market or Broadway Market which was located for several blocks length between Fleet Street and Thames Street at the harborside. Later the municipal market system extended to include 12 markets spread throughout the center city by the early 20th century. All became focal point and gathering places for their neighborhoods and attracted customers from the entire city and metropolitan area. The area grew wealthy on the tobacco, flour, and coffee trades overseas through the 18th and 19th centuries.^[4]

Fell's Point shipyards became best known for producing topsail

It has been an immigrant neighborhood since the 19th century, in part because it was a major point of entry into the United States,^[7] but mainly because jobs were available in Baltimore's industries and on the waterfront. In the era before mass transportation, immigrants crowded into the cheap housing near the shipbuilding yards, warehouses and factories of Fells Point. This added to the multicultural fabric of the area, but also caused the more affluent to move into other parts of the city.

In 1835, the later famous abolitionist, writer/author, public speaker/orator, agitator and minister/ambassador

Fells Point remained a shipbuilding center until the Civil War, when it could no longer handle the larger ships (also now built with steam power and paddle wheels/screw propellers) then coming into use. Likewise, the shipping industry slowly moved away to larger facilities, some of the newer shipyards further downriver with deeper waters close to shore on the outer Patapsco River, and the Fells Point area became a manufacturing center, with innovations in canning, along with nearby Canton to the east, which was an early commercial/industrial and residential development by the Canton Company of the O'Donnell family and Pattersons in the early 1800s.^[11] and packing. The neighborhood escaped serious damage^[12] during the Great Baltimore Fire of February 1904, which destroyed the downtown financial area further west. Eventually, much of the manufacturing left the city by the 1980s, resulting in urban decay until preservationists in the 1960s, 1970s and late 20th century organized to save the area's historic buildings and neighborhood waterfront fabric along with Federal Hill on the other western side of the newly renamed with proposed redevelopment of the Inner Harbor (formerly called "The Basin") from a proposed East-West Highway of Interstate 95 which was to run north to south down the East Coast states, begun in the mid-1960s.

After

Fells Point, located to the east of the Inner Harbor, suffered extensive flooding during Hurricane Isabel in September 2003,^[15] with water as high as 10 feet.^[16]

Architecture

Fells Point includes a diversity of historic architecture. Flemish bond brick is used in some of the earliest homes, while row housing is prominent of nineteenth and early twentieth century construction. Gabled roof buildings and Victorian homes are also interspersed with other housing and use types.^[17][18]

Historic buildings include:

• The Robert Long House, at 812 South Ann Street, built in 1765, is the oldest surviving home in Baltimore.^[19]
• third oldest Jewish synagogue building still standing in the United States
  .
• The Saint Patrick Catholic Church (founded in 1792, current building on Broadway, completed in 1898) one of the first parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, was unfortunately damaged in the 2011 Virginia earthquake. While the building was condemned and the steeple sustained significant damage, the building reopened for Mass on Ash Wednesday in 2012.^[20][21]

Awards

In 2012, Fells Point was selected by the American Planning Association as one of the Great Places in America (neighborhood category),^[19] which "celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning".^[22]

Annual festivals

Fell's Point Fun Festival started in 1966 in response to the proposed I-95 freeway that was to run through the neighborhood. The original purpose of the festival was to raise money to help save Fell's Point and to raise awareness of the historical significance of the neighborhood and its plight. The weekend-long Fun Festival, celebrated in October, has an estimated attendance of over 700,000. The event includes entertainment, arts and crafts vendors, and cultural and culinary offerings.^[23]

Fell's Point Privateer Festival is an annual weekend-long festival in April celebrating the privateer and maritime history of Fell's Point. Activities include educational demonstrations, a pub crawl, pet costume contest, and pyrate's ball.^[24]

Halloween in Fell's Point occurs annually on October 31 celebrating Halloween. The informal gathering takes place in and around Broadway Square and Thames Street. As the evening goes on, hundreds of individuals come dressed in costume and participate in taking photos, trick-or-treating, and pub crawling.^[25]

Fell's Point Olde Tyme Christmas Festival is held during the first weekend in December and includes a traditional Christmas market, pet costume contest, and a Reindeer Run pub crawl.^[26]

Demographics

At the

83.7% of the working-age population were employed, 4.0% were unemployed, and 13.1% were not in the labor force.

In popular culture

Several films and television shows have been filmed in Fell's Point.

• Several scenes in the 2009 movie He's Just Not That Into You were filmed on the Fells Point waterfront.
• Homicide: Life On The Street used the former City Rec Pier, now The Sagamore Pendry
  , as police headquarters throughout the series.
• The 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle had several scenes of 'Annie's house' filmed in Fells Point.

Some fictional works make reference to Fell's Point.

• The Doctor Who character Peri Brown portrayed by English actress Nicola Bryant is from Fell's Point, according to some novels. This detail was never stated on-screen during the character's original run on the program (1984-1986), though it was confirmed in Tales of the Tardis, a spin off marking the 60th anniversary of the program (2023).^[29]

Notable residents and former residents

• Frederick Douglass – abolitionist
• Billie Holiday – Jazz singer ^[30]
• Melissa Leo – Academy Award-winning actress
• Edith Massey – actress known for her appearances in films by John Waters
• Michael Phelps – Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer, former resident

See also

•  Baltimore portal

References

Bibliography

• Rukert, Norman G. (1976). The Fells Point Story. Bodine & Associates.
  ISBN 0-910254-11-7
  .
• Greff, Jacqueline (2005). Images of America: Fell's Point. Arcadia Publishing.
  ISBN 0-7385-1845-X
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fell's Point, Baltimore.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Baltimore/Fells Point.

• FellsPoint.com
• Fell's Point Web Site
• Fell's Point Preservation Society Web Site
• Demographics from Neighborhood Indicators Alliance
• Baltimore, Maryland, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
• Fell's Point Historic District, Baltimore City, including undated photo and boundary map, at Maryland Historical Trust