William Lindsay Gresham ( / ˈ ɡ r ɛ ʃ ə m / ; August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly well-regarded among readers of noir . His best-known work is Nightmare Alley (1946), which was adapted to film in 1947 and 2021 .
112-601: Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland . As a child, he moved with his family to New York, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island . Upon graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Gresham drifted from job to job, and worked as a folk singer in Greenwich Village . His parents divorced when he was 16. His own first marriage also ended in divorce, as well as his second to
224-730: A service-oriented economy . Johns Hopkins Hospital and University are the top employers. Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball , and the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League . Many Baltimore neighborhoods have rich histories. The city is home to some of the earliest National Register Historic Districts in the nation, including Fell's Point , Federal Hill , and Mount Vernon . Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in
336-590: A $ 2.2 million construction loan for the Hotel Dixie. Excavation for the new structure began the same month with the removal of six old tenements from the site. Tenements at 250–262 West 43rd Street were razed, along with a two-story taxpayer at 241 West 42nd Street. The Uris brothers acquired a four-story building at 266 West 43rd Street in August 1929. This land lot was separated from the hotel's site by another building at 264 West 43rd Street, which belonged to
448-692: A New Jersey socialite, which fell apart after nine years when he returned to the United States, embittered by his experiences in Spain. In 1937, Gresham had served as a volunteer medic for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade forces during the Spanish Civil War . There, he befriended a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, and their long conversations inspired much of his work, particularly Gresham's two books about
560-524: A Town on the North side of the Patapsco River." Surveyors began laying out the town on January 12, 1730. By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns. Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east. The three settlements, covering 60 acres (24 ha), became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat. The first printing press was introduced to
672-612: A clash between local youth and police that resulted in a state of emergency declaration and a curfew. Baltimore has seen the reopening of the Hippodrome Theatre in 2004, the opening of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in 2005, and the establishment of the National Slavic Museum in 2012. On April 12, 2012, Johns Hopkins held a dedication ceremony to mark
784-564: A minority. The Baltimore Council passed the ordinance, and it became law on December 20, 1910, with Democratic Mayor J. Barry Mahool 's signature. The Baltimore segregation ordinance was the first of its kind in the United States. Many other southern cities followed with their own segregation ordinances, though the US Supreme Court ruled against them in Buchanan v. Warley (1917). The city grew in area by annexing new suburbs from
896-579: A part in the American Revolution . City leaders such as Jonathan Plowman Jr. led many residents to resist British taxes , and merchants signed agreements refusing to trade with Britain. The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777, effectively making the city the capital of the United States during this period. Baltimore, Jonestown , and Fells Point were incorporated as
1008-757: A period of dormancy in Baltimore City archaeological findings which had persisted since the 1980s. During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture known as the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore south to the Rappahannock River in present-day Virginia . The city is named after Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , an English peer, member of the Irish House of Lords and founding proprietor of
1120-599: A ten-year lease for the space in 1947; the bus terminal ultimately closed in 1957, after most of the remaining bus lines relocated to the Port Authority. The Walter Ballard Company converted the Dixie Hotel's former bus terminal into a parking lot for the hotel's guests in 1961. The space included a secondary lobby with features such as a registration desk, baggage check-in area, and a communications system; according to The New York Times , drivers could contact
1232-474: A unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed. Baltimore acquired its moniker "The Monumental City" after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by President John Quincy Adams . At an evening function, Adams gave the following toast: "Baltimore: the Monumental City—May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant." Baltimore pioneered
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#17327902924111344-493: A wheelchair lift at the main entrance had been temporarily removed to allow a carpet to be installed. The case was settled in November 2009. Erwin M. Lumanglas, the manager of the hotel since 2006, renovated some of the rooms by 2010 at a cost of $ 5,000 per room. The hotel did not rank among the ten dirtiest hotels in the United States in 2010, but it was ranked fourth in the country during 2011. TripAdvisor stopped ranking
1456-791: A year or so Gresham was calling himself a Christian, which influenced his second and last novel, Limbo Tower . However, the couple struggled financially, and Gresham would have tax problems for many years to come. Davidman complained to friends of his frequent drinking, serial infidelity, and even occasional eruptions of violence. At this time Gresham became interested in Dianetics , the 1950 self-help book by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard . Although an early enthusiast of Scientology , he later denounced it as another kind of spook racket. Suffering from an illness, Davidman decided to go to England in 1952 to seek out C.S. Lewis, with whom she'd been corresponding. She invited her cousin, Renée Rodriguez—who
1568-483: Is Baltimore's nonprofit historic and architectural preservation organization, which works to preserve and promote Baltimore's historic buildings and neighborhoods. Baltimore is officially divided into nine geographical regions: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, and Central, with each district patrolled by a respective Baltimore Police Department . Interstate 83 and Charles Street down to Hanover Street and Ritchie Highway serve as
1680-602: Is a neoclassical design by Benjamin Latrobe, and one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in the United States. In 1813, Robert Cary Long Sr. built for Rembrandt Peale the first substantial structure in the United States designed expressly as a museum. Restored, it is now the Municipal Museum of Baltimore, or popularly the Peale Museum . The McKim Free School was founded and endowed by John McKim. The building
1792-400: Is bordered by Anne Arundel County to the south. Baltimore exhibits examples from each period of architecture over more than two centuries, and work from architects such as Benjamin Latrobe , George A. Frederick , John Russell Pope , Mies van der Rohe , and I. M. Pei . Baltimore is rich in architecturally significant buildings in a variety of styles. The Baltimore Basilica (1806–1821)
1904-443: Is one of few remaining structures of its kind. It was constructed without the use of exterior scaffolding. The Sun Iron Building, designed by R.C. Hatfield in 1851, was the city's first iron-front building and was a model for a whole generation of downtown buildings. Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church , built in 1870 in memory of financier George Brown , has stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and has been called "one of
2016-444: Is the tallest equilateral pentagonal building in the world at 405 feet (123 m) tall. The Harbor East area has seen the addition of two new towers which have completed construction: a 24-floor tower that is the new world headquarters of Legg Mason , and a 21-floor Four Seasons Hotel complex. The streets of Baltimore are organized in a grid and spoke pattern, lined with tens of thousands of rowhouses . The mix of materials on
2128-618: The 10th millennium BC , when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region. One Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period . In December 2021, several Woodland period Native American artifacts were found in Herring Run Park in northeast Baltimore, dating 5,000 to 9,000 years ago. The finding followed
2240-754: The Baltimore Convention Center (1979). Harborplace , an urban retail and restaurant complex, opened on the waterfront in 1980, followed by the National Aquarium , Maryland's largest tourist destination, and the Baltimore Museum of Industry in 1981. In 1995, the city opened the American Visionary Art Museum on Federal Hill. During the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the United States , Baltimore City Health Department official Robert Mehl persuaded
2352-465: The Baltimore Ravens football team moved into M&T Bank Stadium next to Camden Yards. Baltimore has had a high homicide rate for several decades, peaking in 1993, and again in 2015. These deaths have taken an especially severe toll within the black community. Following the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, the city experienced major protests and international media attention, as well as
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#17327902924112464-544: The Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and is the most populous independent city in the nation. As of 2020 , the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was 2,838,327, the 20th-largest metropolitan area in the country. When combined the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA) had a 2020 population of 9,973,383, the third-largest in the country. Though the city is not located within or under
2576-482: The Midwest . By 1820 its population had reached 60,000, and its economy had shifted from its base in tobacco plantations to sawmilling , shipbuilding , and textile production. These industries benefited from war but successfully shifted into infrastructure development during peacetime. Baltimore had one of the worst riots of the antebellum South in 1835, when bad investments led to the Baltimore bank riot . It
2688-579: The National Aquarium , Maryland Science Center , Pier Six Pavilion , and Power Plant Live . Hotel Carter (Manhattan) The Hotel Carter was a hotel at 250 West 43rd Street, near Times Square , in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . Opened in June 1930 as the Dixie Hotel , the 25-story structure originally extended from 43rd Street to 42nd Street , although
2800-715: The National Guard , leaving 10 dead and 25 wounded. The beginnings of settlement movement work in Baltimore were made early in 1893, when Rev. Edward A. Lawrence took up lodgings with his friend Frank Thompson, in one of the Winans tenements, the Lawrence House being established shortly thereafter at 814-816 West Lombard Street. On February 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours, leaving more than 70 blocks of
2912-608: The Province of Maryland . The Calverts took the title Barons Baltimore from Baltimore Manor , an English Plantation estate they were granted in County Longford , Ireland . Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir , meaning "town of the big house". In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans. The Baltimore County area northward
3024-720: The Union during the American Civil War , following the 55–12 vote by the Maryland General Assembly against secession. Later, the Union's strategic occupation of the city in 1861 ensured Maryland would not further consider secession. The Union's capital of Washington, D.C. was well-situated to impede Baltimore and Maryland's communication or commerce with the Confederacy . Baltimore experienced some of
3136-689: The United Arab Emirates , and Michael Bloomberg . In September 2016, the Baltimore City Council approved a $ 660 million bond deal for the $ 5.5 billion Port Covington redevelopment project championed by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and his real estate company Sagamore Development. Port Covington surpassed the Harbor Point development as the largest tax-increment financing deal in Baltimore's history and among
3248-728: The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York sued the operators of the Carter and four other Midtown Manhattan hotels, alleging that each of the hotels violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Among the complaints were that the hotel's main entrance, public restrooms, registration desk, and guestrooms were all inaccessible to disabled guests. Tran's lawyer claimed that some rooms were already ADA-accessible and that
3360-486: The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Public order was not restored until April 12, 1968. The Baltimore uprising cost the city an estimated $ 10 million (US$ 88 million in 2024). A total of 12,000 Maryland National Guard and federal troops were ordered into the city. The city experienced challenges again in 1974 when teachers, municipal workers , and police officers conducted strikes. By
3472-402: The deep South and by white suburbanization , the relative size of the city's black population grew from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970. Encouraged by real estate blockbusting techniques, recently settled white areas rapidly became all-black neighborhoods, in a rapid process which was nearly total by 1970. The Baltimore riot of 1968 , coinciding with uprisings in other cities , followed
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3584-731: The tobacco trade with Europe, and established the Town of Baltimore in 1729. During the American Revolutionary War , the Second Continental Congress , fleeing Philadelphia prior to its fall to British troops , moved their deliberations to Henry Fite House on West Baltimore Street from December 1776, to February 1777, permitting Baltimore to serve briefly as the nation's capital , before it returned to Philadelphia in March 1777. The Battle of Baltimore
3696-454: The "silly hat-nursery rhyme phase at this room". In the room's heyday, its performers included Al Trace 's band and Teddy Powell 's band. The Plantation Room stopped hosting shows in early 1947 because it was losing money. Meanwhile, most of the bus lines that had served the Dixie Hotel's ground-level bus terminal relocated to the nearby Port Authority Bus Terminal after the latter opened in 1950. The Dixie terminal's operators had signed
3808-563: The 1970s, the Dixie began to decline along with the rest of Times Square. Carter Hotels allocated $ 250,000 for renovations and sign alteration in an effort to "clean up" Times Square. H.B. Cantor, president of the company, wanted to change the hotel's name to give one of the establishments in the chain a corporate identity; at the time, the company operated several additional hotels in the Northeast United States. At this time,
3920-524: The American carnival , the nonfiction Monster Midway and the fictional Nightmare Alley . Returning to the United States in 1939, after a troubling period that involved a stay in a tuberculosis ward and a suicide attempt, Gresham found work editing true crime magazines. In 1942, Gresham married Joy Davidman , a poet, with whom he had two children, David and Douglas . In 1946 he published Nightmare Alley , his first and most successful novel. It
4032-540: The Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what are now Charles and southern Prince George's counties in the coastal areas south of the Fall Line . European colonization of Maryland began in earnest with the arrival of the merchant ship The Ark carrying 140 colonists at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River on March 25, 1634. Europeans then began to settle
4144-637: The City of Baltimore in 1796–1797. The city remained a part of surrounding Baltimore County and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851, after which it became an independent city . The Battle of Baltimore against the British in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, " The Star-Spangled Banner ", and the construction of the Battle Monument , which became the city's official emblem. A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and
4256-463: The Dixie Hotel contained a thousand rooms (later downsized to 700 rooms). The hotel had been planned as a 22-story building with either 650 or 700 guestrooms. The plans had also included an underground bus terminal. The hotel was largely located on 43rd Street, although it also had an alternate entrance through a two-story building on 42nd Street. The hotel contained a bus depot, which opened in 1930 and operated until 1957. The terminal occupied
4368-462: The Dixie was renamed the Carter. Vietnamese businessman and former ship owner Tran Dinh Truong purchased the hotel in October 1977 for $ 1.5 million. He formed a holding company, Alphonse Hotel Corporation, to take title to the hotel. Upon acquiring the Carter, Tran closed the hotel's 42nd Street entrance and hired Walter Scheff as its general manager. The New York Times described the hotel at
4480-665: The Dixie, its managers converted some rooms to studio apartments . Jac Lessman converted the bar into a nightclub named the Dixie Lounge Bar, which opened in September 1942 and featured live music. The hotel's restaurant became the Plantation Room, serving Southern food throughout the day. The hotel was planning to add another room for live performances by 1945. The Plantation Room began hosting live music shows in 1946, replacing what Billboard magazine called
4592-724: The Europeans. In 1661 David Jones claimed the area known today as Jonestown on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. The colonial General Assembly of Maryland created the Port of Baltimore at old Whetstone Point, now Locust Point , in 1706 for the tobacco trade . The Town of Baltimore, on the west side of the Jones Falls, was founded on August 8, 1729, when the Governor of Maryland signed an act allowing "the building of
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4704-586: The Hotel Carter in July 1990. Despite the revitalization of Times Square in the 1990s, the Carter remained dilapidated in character. By 1994, the hotel was ranked as New York City's most dangerous hotel because of its high crime rate. The New York City Department of Buildings issued a building-code violation against the hotel in January 1998 after inspectors discovered bulging masonry on the facade. The hotel
4816-586: The Knickerbocker Hotel , was another appointed receiver. The Bowery Savings Bank scheduled a foreclosure auction for the Dixie but withdrew the planned auction in February 1932. The auction for the hotel was rescheduled to March 1932, at which point the Uris family owed the bank $ 2.06 million. At the time, the hotel was valued at $ 2.3 million. The bank ultimately bought the hotel for $ 1.8 million at
4928-655: The National Aquarium, Camden Yards have helped revive the Inner Harbor area from what once was an exclusively industrial district full of dilapidated warehouses into a bustling commercial district full of bars, restaurants, and retail establishments. After an international competition, the University of Baltimore School of Law awarded the German firm Behnisch Architekten 1st prize for its design, which
5040-422: The New York press but for a mention by a bridge columnist. Business cards were found in his pocket, reading "No Address. No Phone. No Business. No Money. Retired." Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland . With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census , it is the 30th-most populous US city . Baltimore was designated as an independent city by
5152-416: The Schulte family. At the time, work on the hotel's foundations was underway. Several floors of steelwork had been added to the hotel by mid-October 1929. The Uris brothers leased the storefronts to various businesses, including a laundry, as well as a beauty parlor and barber shop. A concession was also awarded for the hat rack in the Dixie Hotel's lobby. Scarr Transportation Service was hired to managed
5264-449: The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham . In 1962, Gresham's health began to take a turn for the worse. He had started to go blind and was diagnosed with tongue cancer. On September 14, 1962, he checked into the Dixie Hotel, Manhattan —which he had often frequented while writing Nightmare Alley over a decade earlier. There, 53-year-old Gresham took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. His death went generally unnoticed by
5376-478: The Terrace Room, the hotel's restaurant. Harris H. Uris, who cofounded the Uris Buildings Corporation with his son Percy , acquired the land lots at 241 West 42nd Street and 250–262 West 43rd Street in September 1928. The acquisition gave the Uris family a site of 16,500 square feet (1,530 m ), on which the family planned to build a 25-story hotel with 700 guestrooms. In May 1929, the New York State Title and Mortgage Company gave Percy and his brother Harold
5488-480: The United States today. Lexington Market was also a center of slave trading. Enslaved Black people were sold at numerous sites through the downtown area, with sales advertised in The Baltimore Sun . Both tobacco and sugar cane were labor-intensive crops. In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States, and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation, Baltimore Water Company, 1792. Baltimore played
5600-407: The administrative jurisdiction of any county in the state, it is part of the Central Maryland region, together with the surrounding county that shares its name . The land that is present-day Baltimore was used as hunting ground by Paleo-Indians . In the early 1600s, the Susquehannock began to hunt there. People from the Province of Maryland established the Port of Baltimore in 1706 to support
5712-513: The area further north, in what is now Baltimore County . Since Maryland was a colony, Baltimore's streets were named to show loyalty to the mother country, e.g. King, Queen, King George and Caroline streets. The original county seat , known today as Old Baltimore, was located on Bush River within the present-day Aberdeen Proving Ground . The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehannock, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such as smallpox , endemic among
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#17327902924115824-431: The beginning of the 1970s, Baltimore's downtown area, known as the Inner Harbor, had been neglected and was occupied by a collection of abandoned warehouses. The nickname "Charm City" came from a 1975 meeting of advertisers seeking to improve the city's reputation. Efforts to redevelop the area started with the construction of the Maryland Science Center , which opened in 1976, the Baltimore World Trade Center (1977), and
5936-424: The bus terminal, and the restaurant space in the terminal was leased to Loft, Inc. Two bus operators began using a temporary bus terminal on the site on December 9, 1929, and group of transportation executives formally dedicated the Dixie Hotel's Central Union Bus Terminal on February 14, 1930. The Dixie Hotel was originally supposed to open on May 1, 1930, and the bus terminal was planned to formally open at
6048-433: The buses' movements, and the dispatcher also announced the departure of each bus. The loading platform wrapped around each of the bus slips. Two sets of doors, one on either side of the terminal, led from the loading area to the terminal's waiting room. The terminal was arranged so all slips were within 100 feet (30 m) of the waiting area. The waiting room had a cafe, newsstands, ticket booths, and elevators leading to
6160-445: The care of Lewis. Gresham joined Alcoholics Anonymous and developed a deep interest in Spiritualism , having already exposed many of the fraudulent techniques of popular spiritualists in his two sideshow-themed books and having written a book about Houdini with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi . Twenty-four of his articles and stories on fairgrounds, spook shows , and hucksters were republished in 2013 as Grindshow:
6272-414: The city government sued the hotel in 1983 and 1984; a judge found Tran in contempt of court . The hotel's physical condition was so bad that the New York City government stopped referring homeless people there in 1984, and an official for the 42nd Street Redevelopment Corporation called it "Nightmare Alley". By the end of 1985, the number of homeless families in the Carter had declined from 300 to 61, and
6384-400: The city in 1765 by Nicholas Hasselbach , whose equipment was later used in the printing of Baltimore's first newspapers, The Maryland Journal and The Baltimore Advertiser , first published by William Goddard in 1773. Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean . The profit from sugar encouraged
6496-426: The city's 1.6-mile-long (2.6 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge , which constituted a southeast portion of the Baltimore Beltway , was struck by a container ship and completely collapsed . A major rescue operation was launched with US authorities attempting to rescue people in the water. Eight construction workers, who were working on the bridge at the time, fell into the Patapsco River . Two people were rescued from
6608-433: The city's mayor to form a committee to address food problems. The Baltimore-based charity Moveable Feast grew out of this initiative in 1990. In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards , located downtown near the harbor. Pope John Paul II held an open-air mass at Camden Yards during his papal visit to the United States in October 1995. Three years later
6720-411: The completion of one of the United States' largest medical complexes – the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore – which features the Sheikh Zayed Cardiovascular and Critical Care Tower and The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center. The event, held at the entrance to the $ 1.1 billion 1.6 million-square-foot-facility, honored the many donors including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan , first president of
6832-412: The country. Nearly one third of the buildings (over 65,000) are designated as historic in the National Register , more than any other US city. Baltimore has 66 National Register Historic Districts and 33 local historic districts. The historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives . The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least
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#17327902924116944-414: The cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there. Since Baltimore was the county seat, a courthouse was built in 1768 to serve both the city and county. Its square was a center of community meetings and discussions. Baltimore established its public market system in 1763. Lexington Market , founded in 1782, is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in
7056-736: The dirtiest hotels in the U.S. in 2012, but CNBC reported that guests continued to raise complaints about the hotel's cleanliness. Tran died in 2012, and the surviving members of his family fought over ownership of the hotel. John Cruz of GF Management took ownership of the hotel in April 2013 and renovated it. The New York Times reported at the time that the hotel had broken elevators; 40-year-old fire extinguishers; non-functional exit signs ; no weekend doormen; "discarded hospital linens" atop beds; inadequate insurance; and overdue loans. GF Management made gradual modifications to make it more desirable for guests, starting with rectifying fifteen violations of city building codes. GF Management also increased
7168-569: The downtown area burned to the ground. Damages were estimated at $ 150 million in 1904 dollars. As the city rebuilt during the next two years, lessons learned from the fire led to improvements in firefighting equipment standards. Baltimore lawyer Milton Dashiell advocated for an ordinance to bar African-Americans from moving into the Eutaw Place neighborhood in northwest Baltimore. He proposed to recognize majority white residential blocks and majority black residential blocks and to prevent people from moving into housing on such blocks where they would be
7280-402: The downtown population grew 130 percent as old commercial properties have been replaced by residential property. Still the city's main commercial area and business district, it includes Baltimore's sports complexes: Oriole Park at Camden Yards , M&T Bank Stadium , and the Royal Farms Arena ; and the shops and attractions in the Inner Harbor: Harborplace , the Baltimore Convention Center ,
7392-453: The east–west dividing line and Eastern Avenue to Route 40 as the north–south dividing line; however, Baltimore Street is north–south dividing line for the U.S. Postal Service . Central Baltimore, originally called the Middle District, stretches north of the Inner Harbor up to the edge of Druid Hill Park . Downtown Baltimore has mainly served as a commercial district with limited residential opportunities; however, between 2000 and 2010,
7504-442: The end of the month. In April 1932, the Southworth Management Corporation (headed by Roy S. Hubbell, former manager of the Hotel Commodore and the Hotel Belmont ) took over the hotel's operation. Hubbell only managed the hotel for a short period; he died in October 1932 in his bedroom at the hotel. The hotel started hosting big bands in November 1933, when Art Kahn 's band began performing there. The Bowery Savings Bank sold
7616-427: The entire ground floor of the hotel, although its loading platform and waiting room were 5 feet (1.5 m) below street level. The facility was accessed by two arrival and two departure ramps, which could accommodate up to 40 buses per hour; these ramps led to both 42nd and 43rd Streets. The center of the terminal contained a bus turntable with a diameter of 35 feet. Twelve loading slips were arranged around
7728-530: The entrance was filled "with teen-agers and young children who play sidewalk games into the night". The city government paid $ 62.62 per night to house a family in a small single room. Nurses, charities, and social-services workers frequently visited the hotel, serving its homeless population. The Carter housed 190 families by December 1983, when it was cited for its "consistently low rate of compliance in correcting health and safety violations". After hotel officials failed to correct numerous building-code violations,
7840-407: The face of these rowhouses also give Baltimore its distinct look. The rowhouses are a mix of brick and formstone facings, the latter a technology patented in 1937 by Albert Knight. John Waters characterized formstone as "the polyester of brick" in a 30-minute documentary film, Little Castles: A Formstone Phenomenon . In The Baltimore Rowhouse , Mary Ellen Hayward and Charles Belfoure considered
7952-433: The first casualties of Civil War on April 19, 1861, when Union Army soldiers en route from President Street Station to Camden Yards clashed with a secessionist mob in the Pratt Street riot . In the midst of the Long Depression that followed the Panic of 1873 , the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company attempted to lower its workers' wages, leading to strikes and riots in the city and beyond . Strikers clashed with
8064-499: The frequency of housekeeping services from every three days to every two days; renovating 30 fourth-floor room with art and IKEA furniture; and replacing mattresses in rooms with reports of bedbugs. Following GF Management's takeover of the Hotel Carter, the hotel's occupancy rates increased from 68 to 74 percent, and Cruz began charging room rates of $ 120 to $ 150 a night. The hotel was offered for sale in early 2014 after an extensive renovation. The Wall Street Journal reported that
8176-413: The front desk via closed-circuit television and could summon a bellhop without going to the main lobby. In 1964, local civic group Broadway Association proposed demolishing the Dixie Hotel, as well as ten nearby theaters on 42nd Street, to make way for a large convention center between Seventh Avenue, 41st Street, Eighth Avenue, and 43rd Street. Carter Hotels finished renovating the Dixie Hotel in 1965;
8288-400: The harbor to 480 feet (150 m) in the northwest corner near Pimlico . In the 2010 census, Baltimore has a total area of 92.1 square miles (239 km ), of which 80.9 sq mi (210 km ) is land and 11.1 sq mi (29 km ) is water. The total area is 12.1 percent water. Baltimore is almost surrounded by Baltimore County, but is politically independent of it. It
8400-408: The hotel "offers travelers a cheap room in an expensive city, and something more: an adventure". New York magazine wrote in 2014: "If you still want a touch of the vice-ridden Times Square of the '60s and '70s, consider spending a night at the Hotel Carter." The hotel has recorded several homicides. A 25-day-old infant was beaten to death at the hotel in November 1983; her father, a hotel resident,
8512-512: The hotel began to make an effort to attract tourists once again. New York City removed all homeless families from the Carter in 1988 due to difficulties with plumbing, electricity, security, and vermin. The conditions at the Carter and at Tran's other hotels had dissuaded the American Red Cross from opening a shelter there. The hotel's bar, known as Rose of Saigon, was closed in early 1989 after city officials found that crack cocaine
8624-466: The hotel could sell for as much as $ 170 million; hotel operators such as Highgate Holding and Morris Moinian expressed interest in buying the Carter. CNBC, which reported that the hotel could be sold for up to $ 180 million, said that a potential buyer would have to spend $ 100 million to $ 125 million on renovating the hotel further. The developer Joseph Chetrit won the right to buy the hotel in September 2014. A gentlemen's club that had been located in
8736-496: The hotel in 1931 and acquired it in March 1932, operating it for the next decade. In 1942, the Dixie became part of the Carter Hotels chain, which rehabilitated the hotel several times. The hotel was renamed the Carter in October 1976 in an attempt to rehabilitate its image. The businessman Tran Dinh Truong operated the Carter from 1977 until his death in 2012, after which GF Management took over. The Carter closed in 2014 and
8848-404: The hotel in 1966, ten steps above its entrance. The theater was variously cited as having 220 or 225 seats; it occupied the former Plantation Room and measured 60 by 45 feet (18 by 14 m). A circular bar, 50 feet (50 ft) in circumference, adjoined the theater and was behind glass doors; it was closed during performances, except for during a twenty-minute intermission. Food was served in
8960-447: The hotel in March 1942 to Kings Hotel Inc., subject to a mortgage of $ 1.125 million. The new owner was a subsidiary of the Carter Hotels chain, which planned to spend $ 200,000 on renovations. The project was to include refurbishing the lobby, installing a marquee, adding dance floors, and renovating half of the rooms. Carter Hotels took over management of the business that April. To accommodate executives and business couples who lived at
9072-599: The hotel's cleanliness. For example, during July 2009, the Glenn Beck Program highlighted the reports of the filth and disrepair of the Carter Hotel, while USA Today wrote that the hotel was filled with "roaches, rats, black mold and stains of dubious origin". Despite the many complaints that the Hotel Carter received, the hotel remained popular among some guests, including students, foreigners, and budget tourists. In 2005, The New York Times wrote that
9184-474: The hotel's lobby. Both the waiting room and the loading area were heated using a forced draft system. Ventilation openings were placed at the rear of each slip, near the buses' exhaust pipes. The hotel's first story contained the Dixie Lounge Bar, a nightclub that opened in 1942 and was decorated in the Southern Colonial style. The space was designed by Jac Lessman and could be accessed from
9296-501: The hotel's owners in early 2024 to force Chetrit to disassemble the sidewalk shed outside the hotel, which had stood there for a decade. That September, the Chetrit Group defaulted on one of the hotel's mezzanine loans. In 1980, a writer for Newsday wrote that the hotel was a "large, un-self-conscious, family-oriented kind of place" with "simple and spotlessly clean" rooms. By the 2000s, media reports frequently criticized
9408-606: The hotel, Cheetah's , filed a lawsuit in December 2014 in an attempt to halt the hotel's sale to Chetrit. Chetrit finalized his acquisition in February 2015, and the Athene Annuity and Life Company gave Chetrit a $ 129 million loan for the renovations. JPMorgan Chase provided a $ 152 million mezzanine loan in February 2018. JPMorgan Chase's loan replaced in August 2022 with $ 185 million in construction financing, provided by Mack Real Estate. The city government sued
9520-526: The house to pay off the Internal Revenue Service and moved to England with the boys. Later she married Lewis, their relationship forming the inspiration for the television film Shadowlands ., later adapted for the stage and cinema. Gresham married Rodriguez as soon as the divorce was finalized. After Davidman's untimely death, Gresham visited England to see his sons. When it became apparent that they were well cared for, he left them in
9632-399: The largest urban redevelopment projects in the country. The waterfront development that includes the new headquarters for Under Armour, as well as shops, housing, offices, and manufacturing spaces is projected to create 26,500 permanent jobs with a $ 4.3 billion annual economic impact. Goldman Sachs invested $ 233 million into the redevelopment project. In the early hours of March 26, 2024,
9744-403: The lobby, the dining room, and directly from the street. The room was surrounded by a four-foot-high brick wainscoting, and the front wall contained white window shutters and ivy-filled planting boxes. In addition, the columns were decorated to resemble trees. The nightclub, along with the adjacent Plantation Room restaurant, could fit a combined 500 people. The Bert Wheeler Theater opened at
9856-430: The most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" by Baltimore magazine. The 1845 Greek Revival -style Lloyd Street Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in the United States . The Johns Hopkins Hospital , designed by Lt. Col. John S. Billings in 1876, was a considerable achievement for its day in functional arrangement and fireproofing. I.M. Pei's World Trade Center (1977)
9968-591: The musical Ka-Boom! in 1980. Although the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), an agency of the New York state government, had proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981, the Carter Hotel was excluded from the project. The Carter was used as a welfare hotel during the 1980s, housing homeless families; the Times reported in 1984 that the area around
10080-478: The nation's oldest, was built in 1830 and cemented Baltimore's status as a transportation hub, giving producers in the Midwest and Appalachia access to the city's port . Baltimore's Inner Harbor was the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the US and a major manufacturing center. After a decline in major manufacturing, heavy industry , and restructuring of the rail industry , Baltimore has shifted to
10192-726: The next month, with S. Gregory Taylor as the operator and James M. Tait as the general manager. The Central Union Bus Terminal was known as the Short Line Bus Terminal by July 1931. In October 1931, the Bowery Savings Bank moved to foreclose on the hotel's mortgage, for which the Jerrold Holding Corporation owed $ 1.98 million. A federal judge appointed the Irving Trust as a receiver , and James B. Regan, former proprietor of
10304-606: The project included restoring all 700 rooms, as well as adding a CCTV system and automated elevators. By the mid-1960s, the hotel was managed by William Benson of Carter Hotels, who ran the hotel until his death in 1967. An off-Broadway venue, the Bert Wheeler Theater, opened at the hotel in October 1966 with the musical comedy Autumn's Here . The hotel's theater was renamed the Burstein Theater in 1973 after it began presenting Yiddish shows. During
10416-479: The rowhouse as the architectural form defining Baltimore as "perhaps no other American city". In the mid-1790s, developers began building entire neighborhoods of the British-style rowhouses, which became the dominant house type of the city early in the 19th century. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a Major League Baseball park, which opened in 1992 and was built as a retro style baseball park. Along with
10528-520: The same time. That month, M.C. Levine was recorded as having incorporated the Hotel Dixie with 10,000 shares. The Bowery Savings Bank gave a $ 350,000 mortgage loan the same month to the Jerrold Holding Corporation, a holding company led by Harris Uris, which owned the hotel. This mortgage loan, along with four others on the site, were consolidated into a single lien totaling $ 1.85 million. The bus terminal formally opened in May 1930. The Hotel Dixie opened
10640-492: The surrounding counties through 1918, when the city acquired portions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County . A state constitutional amendment, approved in 1948, required a special vote of the citizens in any proposed annexation area, effectively preventing any future expansion of the city's boundaries. Streetcars enabled the development of distant neighborhoods areas such as Edmonson Village whose residents could easily commute to work downtown. Driven by migration from
10752-432: The time as an establishment that catered to "middle-class tourists [and] has suffered with the decline of the surrounding area", although the paper reported that the hotel was still losing money. Over the next three decades, many of Tran's children, grandchildren, and wives lived in the hotel. The hotel's theater continued to operate through the 1980s, presenting such shows as an adaptation of Aesop's Fables in 1979 and
10864-410: The turntable. The terminal handled 350 buses daily during peak summer seasons. Buses arriving at the terminal would drive onto the turntable, which would then rotate to the proper slip. The center of the turntable was 4 inches (100 mm) below the rim, preventing buses from rolling off the turntable by accident. Bus drivers pulled forward into the slip, allowing passengers to alight and board at
10976-415: The use of gas lighting in 1816, and its population grew rapidly in the following decades, with concomitant development of culture and infrastructure. The construction of the federally funded National Road , which later became part of U.S. Route 40 , and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in
11088-767: The water, and the bodies of the remaining six were all found by May 7. Replacement of the bridge was estimated in May 2024 at a cost approaching $ 2 billion for a fall 2028 completion. Baltimore is in north-central Maryland on the Patapsco River , close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay . Baltimore is located on the fall line between the Piedmont Plateau and the Atlantic coastal plain , which divides Baltimore into "lower city" and "upper city". Baltimore's elevation ranges from sea level at
11200-449: The widest part of the loading platform. To prevent buses from rolling backward onto the turntable, each loading slip sloped 2 inches (51 mm) downward from the turntable. The loading platform itself was about 6 inches (150 mm) above the slip, allowing level boarding . Buses leaving the terminal would reverse onto the turntable, which would rotate toward the exit ramp. A dispatcher used an electronic signaling device to control all of
11312-529: The wing abutting 42nd Street has since been demolished. The hotel originally contained a bus terminal at its ground level, which was closed in 1957, as well as a bar and restaurant immediately above it. The upper stories originally contained 1,000 rooms but were later downsized to 700 rooms. The hotel was developed by the Uris Buildings Corporation , which announced plans for the site in September 1928. The Bowery Savings Bank foreclosed on
11424-620: Was being sold openly at the bar. An official for the New York City Office of Midtown Enforcement called it the "worst bar" he had ever seen, saying that it reminded him "of the bar scene in the Star Wars movie with the worst dregs of the solar system gathered together". The International Travellers Network leased two floors as a hostel in the late 1980s, and the Penthouse Hostel leased the 23rd and 24th floors of
11536-469: Was charged with murder and child abuse . In 1987, a woman was thrown to her death out of a window from one of the top floors after witnesses heard arguing from room 1604. The hotel's night manager was killed in July 1999 during a brawl near the front desk; a clerk who lived at the hotel was charged with the night manager's murder. In August 2007, a housekeeper found the body of aspiring model Kristine Yitref, wrapped in plastic garbage bags and hidden under
11648-525: Was erected by his son Isaac in 1822 after a design by William Howard and William Small. It reflects the popular interest in Greece when the nation was securing its independence and a scholarly interest in recently published drawings of Athenian antiquities. The Phoenix Shot Tower (1828), at 234.25 feet (71.40 m) tall, was the tallest building in the United States until the time of the Civil War, and
11760-419: Was fleeing an abusive husband with her two small children—to keep house for her family in her absence. Gresham and Rodriguez soon began an affair. Gresham wrote to Davidman in January 1953 that he and Rodriguez had become lovers and Davidman returned to New York, enduring an awkward period during which all three of them were living under the same roof because none could afford to go anywhere else. Davidman sold
11872-531: Was pivotal during the War of 1812 , culminating in the failed British bombardment of Fort McHenry , during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that would become " The Star-Spangled Banner ", designated as the national anthem in 1931. During the Pratt Street Riot of 1861 , the city was the site of some of the earliest violence associated with the American Civil War . The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ,
11984-466: Was purchased by Hollywood for $ 60,000 and made into a film of the same name starring Tyrone Power in 1947. Gresham and Davidman moved into a sprawling fourteen-room house in Staatsburg, New York. Gresham was an unfaithful and alcoholic husband. Davidman, an ethnically Jewish atheist , became a fan of the writings of C. S. Lewis , which led eventually to her conversion to Christianity . Within
12096-601: Was selected for the school's new home. After the building's opening in 2013, the design won additional honors including an ENR National "Best of the Best" Award. Baltimore's newly rehabilitated Everyman Theatre was honored by the Baltimore Heritage at the 2013 Preservation Awards Celebration in 2013. Everyman Theatre will receive an Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award as part of Baltimore Heritage's 2013 historic preservation awards ceremony. Baltimore Heritage
12208-437: Was sold to Joseph Chetrit , who planned to renovate the hotel as of 2022 . While it was operating, the Hotel Carter gained a negative reputation due to the crimes that took place there, as well as its general uncleanliness. At least four murders have occurred in the hotel. In addition, the Hotel Carter was cited as being among America's dirtiest hotels for several years in the late 2000s and early 2010s. When it opened in 1930,
12320-424: Was temporarily closed in December 1998 because an emergency fire exit was damaged. The hotel was still dilapidated in the mid-2000s. According to The New York Times , guests variously reported problems with cleanliness, as well as equipment that sometimes did not work. Online travel company TripAdvisor ranked the hotel as the dirtiest in the United States in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Additionally, in January 2009,
12432-494: Was these riots that led to the city being nicknamed "Mobtown". Soon after the city created the world's first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery , in 1840, and shared in the world's first telegraph line , between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. , in 1844. Maryland, a slave state with limited popular support for secession , especially in the three counties of Southern Maryland, remained part of
12544-697: Was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley. This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region " and south into Virginia. Pressured by the Susquehannock, the Piscataway tribe , an Algonquian-speaking people , stayed well south of
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