51-579: The National Slavic Museum in Fell's Point , Baltimore is a museum dedicated to the documentation of the Polish and Slavic heritage of Baltimore, including Baltimore's Belarusian , Bulgarian , Carpatho-Rusyn , Croatian , Czech , Lemko , Moravian , Russian , Serbian , Slovak , Slovene , and Ukrainian heritage. This Maryland museum–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Fell%27s Point, Baltimore Fell's Point
102-695: A watershed (including the water surface) of 950 square miles (2,460 km ). The removal of Bloede's Dam in September 2018, opened up 65 miles (105 km) of the Patapsco River watershed, which will potentially restore spawning runs of at least six species of native anadromous fish: alewife ( Alosa pseudoharengus ), blueback herring ( Alosa aestivalis ), American shad ( Alosa sapidissima ), hickory shad ( Alosa mediocris ), striped bass ( Morone saxatilis ), sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ), as only one species, sea lamprey, were found using
153-499: 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
204-409: 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
255-463: A municipal markethouse with individual stalls, and over 120 pubs. Across its 250 year history, Fells Point has hosted large large immigrant communities, including Irish, Germans , Jews , Poles , Ukrainians , Russians , Czechs , and Slovaks . Since the 1970s, middle- to upper-middle-income residents have increasingly adopted the area, restoring and preserving historic homes and businesses. Sometimes now called "Spanish Town," Upper Fell's Point to
306-403: A nearly complete barrier to anadromous fish passage. Although a fish ladder was installed in 1992, it blocked five of six native fish species trying to run upstream to spawn. Efforts to remove Bloede's Dam began in the 1980s when nine drowning deaths occurred, and also to restore fish passage to a large portion of the Patapsco River watershed. Dam demolition began on September 12, 2018, opening
357-763: 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
408-558: Is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore , Maryland , established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River . Located 1.5 miles east of Baltimore's downtown central business district, Fells Point is known for its maritime history and character. The neighborhood has numerous antique, music, and other stores, restaurants, coffee bars,
459-669: 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. 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. Fell's Point Olde Tyme Christmas Festival
510-459: Is based on the " Chasseur " , built by Thomas Kemp, which was one of the most successful privateers built in Fell's Point during the War of 1812 . During the War of 1812 (1812-1815), Fells Point's yards built and supported dozens of privateers which preyed on British shipping vessels. Between 1810 and 1815, the yards produced over 150 schooners. Consequently, Baltimore became a principal target of
561-503: Is held during the first weekend in December and includes a traditional Christmas market, pet costume contest, and a Reindeer Run pub crawl. At the census of 2010, 3,168 people resided in the neighborhood, 61% white, 24.9% Hispanic, 7.4% African American, and 6.7% other. 37.0% of occupied housing units were owner-occupied, and 17.4% vacant . 83.7% of the working-age population were employed, 4.0% were unemployed, and 13.1% were not in
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#1732766033916612-411: Is possible in areas of the Patapsco River, sometimes involving rope swings, inner tubing, and wading. The river also serves as a venue for rafting. The Patapsco is also great for fishing. The MD DNR stocks parts of Patapsco State Park in the early spring and offers some pretty decent trout fishing. The Northern Snakehead has also made the Patapsco their home. They can be found from historic Ellicott City to
663-530: Is subject to extensive stormwater runoff and other forms of water pollution . The Maryland Department of the Environment has identified the Lower North Branch as containing high levels of heavy metals ( chromium , arsenic , cadmium , copper , mercury , nickel , lead , selenium , and zinc ), as well as phosphorus , fecal coliform bacteria , and PCBs . The Piney Run Reservoir on
714-728: 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. Historic buildings include: In 2012, Fells Point was selected by the American Planning Association as one of the Great Places in America (neighborhood category), which "celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning". Fell's Point Fun Festival started in 1966 in response to
765-593: The Chesapeake Bay . The river's tidal portion forms the harbor for the city of Baltimore . With its South Branch, the Patapsco forms the northern border of Howard County, Maryland . The name "Patapsco" is derived from the Algonquian pota-psk-ut , which translates to "backwater" or "tide covered with froth". Captain John Smith was the first European to explore the river, noting it on his 1612 map as
816-692: The National Register of Historic Places , (maintained by the National Park Service ), the first designated from Maryland, and is one of the first registered historic districts in the United States to combine two separate waterfront communities (along with Federal Hill to the southwest across the Patapsco River and the Harbor on the "Old South Baltimore" peninsula of "Whetstone Point" at Fort McHenry ). First described by
867-399: 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
918-519: The 19th century, in part because it was a major point of entry into the United States , 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
969-577: The Bloede's Dam fish ladder in 2012. One catadromous species would likely also benefit, the American eel ( Anguilla rostrata ), a fish species that lives in freshwater and migrates to the ocean to breed. The Bloede's Dam removal project was led by American Rivers and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources . Now that Bloede's Dam has been removed, removal of Daniels Dam upstream on
1020-470: The Bolus River. The "Red river", named after the clay color, is considered the "old Bolus", as other branches were also labeled Bolus on maps. As the river was not navigable beyond Elkridge, it was not a significant path of commerce; in 1723, only one ship was listed as serving the northern branch, and four others operating around the mouth. The first land record regarding Parr's Springs, the source of
1071-497: The British during the war, which eventually led to the attack on the city and the bombardment of Fort McHenry in September 1814. Because of this, many people have claimed the British referred to Baltimore as a "nest of pirates", citing Hezekiah Niles ' "Niles' Weekly Register", the famous nationally circulated newspaper. However, no such reference has ever been found to support that claim. It has been an immigrant neighborhood since
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#17327660339161122-611: The Fells Point neighborhood was where he taught himself to read and write, copying the letters with which the men in the shipyard labeled boards and "making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers." 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,
1173-480: The Patapsco River, was struck by a container ship and partially collapsed into the river. The 19.4-mile-long (31.2 km) South Branch rises at Parr's Spring, where Howard County , Carroll , Frederick , and Montgomery counties meet. The latter begins at elevation 780 feet (240 m) on Parr's Ridge , just south of Interstate 70 and east of Ridge Road ( Highway 27 ), 2 miles (3 km) south of Mount Airy, Maryland . The South Branch Patapsco River traces
1224-447: The Patapsco is a minor river flowing mostly through a narrow valley. Patapsco Valley State Park extends along 32 miles (51 km) of the Patapsco and its branches, encompassing 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) in five areas. The river cuts a gorge 100 to 200 feet (35–70 m) deep within the park, with rocky cliffs and tributary waterfalls. The last 10 miles (16 km), form a large tidal estuary inlet of Chesapeake Bay . Two lobes of
1275-575: The South Branch of the Patapsco is polluted by excess levels of phosphorus and sediment. Environmental nonprofit organizations, such as The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway, Inc. (PHG), lead clean-up efforts by the residents of surrounding communities. From 2006 to 2012, PHG volunteers participated in 183 stream clean-ups, removing 264 tons of trash from the streams of the Patapsco Valley watershed. Recreational swimming
1326-575: The South Branch, dates from 1744, when John Parr laid out a 200 acres (81 ha) tract he called Parr's Range. During the Civil War, Parr's Spring was a stop for the Army of the Potomac 's Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg 's cavalry, on June 29, 1863, while en route to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania . Parr's Spring was dug to form a 1.75 acres (7,100 m ) pond in the 1950s, filled by seven spring heads that form
1377-624: The book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon of the Baltimore Sun , the city's longtime daily newspaper) and has been the site of many films shot in Baltimore . Fells Point, located to the east of the Inner Harbor , suffered extensive flooding during Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, with water as high as 10 feet. Fells Point includes a diversity of historic architecture. Flemish bond brickwork
1428-578: 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. Fell's Point shipyards became best known for producing topsail schooners , sometimes called "Baltimore clippers", renowned for their great speed and handling. They were excellent blockade runners , and were frequently used as armed privateers . The schooner " Pride of Baltimore II "
1479-522: The early 1800s. and packing. The neighborhood escaped serious damage 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
1530-408: The fishery and creating a rocky rapid for kayaking. Two dams upstream of Bloede's Dam, Simkins and Union, were removed in 2010. The removal of Bloede's Dam leaves Daniels Dam, 9 miles (14 km) upstream, as the last remaining dam along the mainstem Patapsco River. In the early hours of March 26, 2024, the 1.6-mile-long (2.6 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge , which carried Interstate 695 over
1581-692: The harbor deviate from the "mainstem" harbor: the Middle Branch Patapsco River, into which Gwynns Falls ; and the Northwest Branch Patapsco River, into which Jones Falls flows. The inner part of this estuary provides the harbor of Baltimore . Thoms Cove is further down the main harbor. The Patapsco estuary is south of the Back River and north of the Magothy River . The Patapsco has
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1632-569: The harbor in an alignment that completely avoided Fells Point, but that was scrapped as well. Fells Point's addition to the National Register of Historic Places (supervised by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior ) prevented the use of federal funds for the road project, and contributed to the project's cancellation. One of the leaders of the revolt was social worker Barbara Mikulski , who
1683-413: The headwaters of the South Branch of the Patapsco River. Beginning in the 1770s, the Patapsco River became the center of Maryland industrialization. Milling and manufacturing operations abounded along the river throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generally powered by small dams. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 's original main line was constructed in 1829 west along the Patapsco Valley;
1734-465: The labor force. 7.5% of families and 12.6% of the population were below the poverty line . The median household income was US$ 46,167. Several films and television shows have been filmed in Fell's Point. Some fictional works make reference to Fell's Point. Patapsco River The Patapsco River ( / p ə ˈ t æ p ˌ s k oʊ / pə- TAP -skoh ) mainstem is a 39-mile (63 km) river in central Maryland that flows into
1785-631: The mainstem Patapsco River would open to anadromous fishes the remaining 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of Patapsco River mainstem, the entire 19.4 miles (31.2 km) length of the South Branch Patapsco River, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the North Branch Patapsco River up to the Liberty Dam , and many of these rivers' tributaries. The eastern portion of the Patapsco River is in a highly urbanized area and
1836-427: 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 Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), while still enslaved, was hired out to the shipbuilder John A. Robb as a caulker at the Fells Point shipyard . In his autobiography , Douglass recounts that, years earlier, the first time he had been sent to Baltimore,
1887-567: The nation's first railroad, the route remains, though much altered. Many railroad bridges were built in the valley, including the Thomas Viaduct , which is still in use, and the Patterson Viaduct , now in ruins. The 1907 hydropower Bloede's Dam powered flour mills. An 1868 flood washed away 14 houses and killed 39 people around Ellicott City . A 1923 flood topped bridges. In 1952, an 8 ft (2.4 m) wall of water swept
1938-508: The neighborhood. In 1965, city, state and some federal transit planners proposed to link Interstate 83 ( Jones Falls Expressway going north from downtown since 1962), with Interstate 70 (a cross-country highway stretching west to east - from Baltimore to Sacramento, California , but would be designated here as I-70 West) and Interstate 95 , (the main East Coast, Maine to Florida super-highway) by building an elevated highway along
1989-509: The north along Broadway has gained a sizable Latino community, primarily Mexican and Central American immigrants, mostly since the 1980s This Fells Point waterfront is an upscale residential area and tourist destination featuring first rate hotels and restaurants. A short walk from the Inner Harbor, the neighborhood can be reached by foot, water taxi barges , bus or car. It is one of several areas in and around Baltimore listed on
2040-492: The north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and Port . This project would have entailed extensive demolition within Fells Point, and across the river in Federal Hill/South Baltimore and the highway would have cut off the remainder of the neighborhood from the waterfront. An "expressway revolt" against the proposals was raised by local residents and derailed the project. Another proposal had I-83 going under
2091-728: 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
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2142-459: 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 World War II (1939/41-1945), many out-migrants from rural Appalachia settled in Fell's Point. In the 1960s, following the civil rights movement , many African Americans settled in
2193-527: 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. Fell's Point Privateer Festival
2244-494: 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
2295-638: The shops of Ellicott City. A 1956 flood severely damaged the Bartigis Brothers plant . In 1972, rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes damaged Ellicott City and the Old Main Line. Two died in the July 2016 Maryland flood ravaged Main Street, followed two years later by a May 2018 Maryland flood that took the life of a rescuer. The mouth of the Patapsco River forms Baltimore Harbor,
2346-630: The site of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812 . This is where Francis Scott Key , aboard the British HMS ; Tonnant , wrote " The Star-Spangled Banner ", a poem later set to music as the national anthem of the United States. Today, a red, white, and blue buoy marks where the ship was anchored. Bloede's Dam , a hydroelectric dam built in 1906, was on the Patapsco River within Patapsco Valley State Park ,
2397-733: The southern boundary of Carroll County and the northern boundary of Howard County . The North Branch flows 20.9 miles (33.6 km) southward from its origins in Carroll County. Liberty Dam and its reservoir on the North Branch are major components of the Baltimore City water system. The Patapsco River mainstem begins at the confluence of the North and South Branches, near Marriottsville , about 15 miles (24 km) west of downtown Baltimore. Through most of its length,
2448-681: The stream " Jones Falls " (which originates in northern Baltimore County near the Pennsylvania border) by the laying out of several streets on a northwest to southeast angle by David Jones and named "Jones's Town" with streets such as Front, High, and Low. Founded by William Fell, who was attracted by its deep water and proximity to agriculture and thick forests, Fell's Point became a shipbuilding and commercial center. About 1763, William's son Edward Fell laid out streets and began selling plots for homes. The waterfront village port grew quickly, and eventually incorporated with nearby Baltimore Town to
2499-690: The west and Jones Town to the northwest (which had merged in 1745) in 1773 to form a new Town of Baltimore and later beginning in 1796 and taking effect in January 1797, becoming incorporated by the State of Maryland's act of the General Assembly to become the City of Baltimore (under the title of "the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore"). In 1784, the combined town's market house system was expanded from
2550-483: Was later elected a City Council member and later a U.S. Representative followed by as a U.S. Senator from Maryland, one of the first women elected to that upper chamber of the United States Congress and by 2014, one of the longest serving when she retired. Fells Point achieved some fame as the central setting for the 1990s NBC TV network police drama Homicide: Life on the Street , (based on
2601-531: 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
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