Canton Fun Facts!

Canton

• Captain John O'Donnell from Limerick, Ireland arrived in 1785 with his ship The Pallas from China with a cargo of tea, china, silks, and satins. George Washington asked Tench Tilghman to make a purchase for him.
  
  
• Until 1827 this area was a recreational center for Baltimore -- horse racing, beer gardens, swimming, etc.
  
  
• In 1827 Canton became a large industrial area. Peter Cooper and other investors opened the first industrial park in the U.S. on the Canton Plantation in 1830.
  
  
• The area on Boston Street where the Anchorage now is was known as Cannery Row.
  
  
• By 1860 Captain John O'Donnell's son, Columbus, William Patterson, and Peter Cooper had developed the Canton Company with the help of the B & O Railroad. Canton bustled with ironworks, sawmills, canneries, bottling plants, fertilizer works, and can manufacturing.
  
  
• Peter Cooper created the Tom Thumb in 1830 -- the first American Steam locomotive.
  
  
• Harris Creek (where the Constellation, the first U.S. navy ship, was launched in 1797) was built largely by African Americans.
  
  
• In 1900 immigrant women processed tomatoes and peaches at the Monarch Cannery. Canning foods was a major Baltimore industry.
  
  
• German and Irish settled on Canton around 1850. Between 1880-1921 Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Poles, Italians, Hungarians, and Greeks arrived. They moved uphill toward the northeast to an area called Highlandtown.
  
  
• Highlandtown was known for its row houses, decorative painted screens, and scrubbed white marble steps -- the origin of Baltimore's nickname "The City of the White Steps."
  
  
• Patterson Park was the main defensive line against the British in 1814. In 1819 over 1000 residents camped there to escape an epidemic of yellow fever. During the Civil War Union troops occupied this site to prevent trouble by confederate sympathizers. Wounded soldiers from Gettysburg were treated there in a temporary hospital.
  
  
• Patterson used his fortune to buy ammunition for Washington's army. He served in the First Maryland Calvary during the Battle of York. He was a leader in forming the B & O Railroad. His daughter married Napoleon's brother.
  
  
• On Hudson Street, a factory during the Civil War produced iron plates for the Monitor -- this ship was victorious over the Merrimac.
  
  
• Canton Inventions:
  
  • added sodium chloride to water to raise cooking temperature
    
  • produced a steam pressure cooker
    
  • invented the tin can and machinery to produce it
    
• Canton Race Track at Boston & Clinton Streets was the site of the Whigs' Convention to hear Daniel Webster and Henry Clay nominate William Henry Harrison for president. This is considered to be the first presidential nominating convention in the U.S.
  
  
• Across the river, west of Fort McHenry, is Locust Point. This was the second most active immigrant entry station in the U.S. in the late 1800's-early 1900's.
  
  
• Nearby, a quarantine station was built in 1801 at Lazaretto Point. (Lazaretto in Italian means pesthouse.)
  
  
• In 1850 the Baltimore Copper Smelting Co. was established on South Canton Street (ore was imported from Chile & Cuba). Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt were owners. Their profits allowed them to give the city a world famous university, hospital, medical school, and free libraries.
  
  
• The Dundalk Marine Terminal and Sea Girt Marine Terminal allow Baltimore to be a major shipping center. The Canton Sea Girt was formed from dredged material from the 1985 Fort McHenry Tunnel. (A visit to one of these terminals allows a fascinating look at the movement of coal, cars, etc. on a massive scale.)
  
  
• Dundalk Marine Terminal was once known as "Harbor Field." The first clipper planes carried passengers to and from China from this area.
  
  
  

Fells Point

• In 1730 an English ship's carpenter named William Fell, a Quaker, bought the marshy hook and named it Fells Point.
  
  
• In 1763, William Fell's son, Edward, laid out the streets.
  
  
• The Fells are buried in Fells point. You may see the monuments at....
  
  
• In 1773, Fells Point was annexed to Baltimore Town.
  
  
• The Broadway Market dates back to 1784. Look for stall numbers in front of Port Mission.
  
  
• Port Mission is located at 813-815 Broadway and has an 1881 cast iron facade.
  
  
• At Dallas & Fleet Streets stand five row houses built and owned by Frederick Douglass. The home at 1815 Aliceanne is where Frederick Douglass learned to read.
  
  
• Between 1830-1850 thousands of Germans from Bremen landed at Henderson's Wharf. In 1868 a fourth of the 160,000 population of Baltimore were German. In 1916 a new immigration station was built west of Fort McHenry.
  
  
• The Frigate Virginia was built in 1773 at the end of Bond Street for the Continental Congress.
  
  
• Brown's Wharf was built by George Brown, son of Alexander Brown (an Irish Immigrant and founder of a brokerage firm). The last coffee Clipper ship was unloaded at Brown's Wharf in 1890.
  
  
• The Robert Long House, reputed to be Baltimore's oldest house, is located at 812 Ann Street.
  
  
• The round cornered warehouse (called the Chase's Wharf) was the site of a disturbance two days after the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter -- the start of the Civil War. It started when the crew of the Fanny Crenshaw flew a secessionist flag. Soon U. S. flags were raised on nearby ships causing a crowd to gather. The police had to be called to restore order.
  
  
• Half houses are one room deep with a single pitched roof. The idea was to build the other half when you could afford it.
  
  
• Edgar Allen Poe lived in this area around 1829. He was found sick and dying on election day near Lombard Street and High Street. He died in Church Home & Hospital.
  
  

Little Italy & Old Town

• Between 1850-1900 first the Irish and later the Germans, Russian Jews, and Italians immigrated to Baltimore to work in clothing sweatshops and canneries. Baltimore was the second largest clothing producer in the United States at this time.
  
  
• President Street was named to honor George Washington.
  
  
• Mary Pickersgill made the 42' by 30' flag that flew over Fort McHenry. Joshua Barney is said to have requested it to be so large that the British would have no trouble seeing it. It had 15 stars for the fifteen states at that time. Mary Pickersgill's home is called the Flag House. In the yard of the Flag House is a large map of the United States made of slabs of stone. Each state sent a scale model of itself carved from stone in the shape of that state. (e.g. Maryland formed from Cockeysville marble.)
  
  
• The Shot Tower was built in 1828 and is 234 ft. high. Molten lead was dropped through perforated pans into cold water located at the base of the tower. The long fall made the lead form into round pellets that cooled in that shape when they hit the cold water.
  
  
• Breweries were an important industry at this time. Brewer's Park is located near the Flag House.
  
  
• The Lloyd Street Synagogue is the 3rd oldest synagogue in the U.S. The first ordained rabbi served here.
  
  
• Levi Strauss, a sail maker, used sail canvas that was no longer in demand as ships converted to steam to make pants -- "Levi's."
  
  
• Learn more. Enjoy a scenic ride on Ed Kane’s Water Taxi.