History of Baltimore

Plymouth has gone down in history as the first successful English settlement of the New World, but it is known that other such attempts at settlement occurred. One such settlement was in the Baltimore district. As with other such less successful attempts, the weather, disease and famine had much to do with Baltimore not beating out Plymouth as the place of the first settlement. It may safely be said, however, that this slower start did not do much hurt to what would soon become one of the central hubs of commerce in Revolutionary America.

Colonial Baltimore began as a settlement along the Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by prime wheat fields and ideally situated mill sites, where the streams came down the fall line towards the Bay. Farmers and their agricultural way of life soon colonized the lower part of what would become a township, but these people did not have a convenient check point or customs site for their goods. Because of this, a township was organized which included such a customs site, and this convenience allowed easy transport of goods from farm to ferry to food store.

The success of the new township was so great that by 1768 it had grown large enough to become the seat of Baltimore County. Baltimore grew to become a key factor in commerce because of its location on the Chesapeake Bay. It is westernmost of the ports in the Bay area, and so became a major port during the events of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. During the Revolution, the citizens of Baltimore not only served in the Continental army, but readily participated in the privateering, or government sanctioned piracy of enemy fleets. Its population doubled between 1776 and 1790, and by 1800 had doubled again. Baltimore continued to find enormous profit in overseas trade until the British Empire attempted to check its power on the seas and internationally. Even after the War of 1812, Baltimore continued to thrive and grow as a port of commerce up until the Civil War.

Baltimoreans sided with the Confederacy, and so the city suffered the effects of the War and the resulting Reconstruction almost as much as many of the major cities of the South. The collapse of the South's economy naturally affected one of its major ports of entry, as did the loss of many of its vessels during the war. Displaced Southerners began coming to Baltimore after the war, and this influx helped it to recover economically. This, together with the enormous amounts of grain from the B&O railroad link to the Midwest helped the city get back on its feet.

Over time the canning industry also became important in Baltimore, as the riches of the Chesapeake Bay began, for the first time, to be preserved and shipped to other parts of the country. Baltimore’s older industries of shipbuilding and transportation remained strong as well, and the city continued to be an active port, both for immigrants and for the displaced rural residents of the upper South.
A terrible fire in 1904 consumed most of Baltimore’s essential business district, including a number of historically significant structures. The Depression and the controls imposed during World War II also retarded physical development, but after the war Baltimore's economy began to thrive once again as people spent heavily on consumer goods.

By the late 1960s, Baltimore's inner city was as financially depressed as it had been during the Depression because of a ‘suburban flight’ out of the inner city. After this period though, Baltimore was eventually given a new look and feel. Efforts were made to revitalize the downtown area and many of the surrounding neighborhoods. Some buildings were renovated and others were replaced, and this added to the overall effect of restoring pride and spirit to the city.

Special attention was paid to the Inner Harbor area where hotels, office buildings and entertainment facilities such as Harborplace, National Aquarium in Baltimore and Maryland Science Center replaced the dilapidated wharves and warehouses that were their predecessors. The delightful Oriole Park at Camden Yards and NAACP Headquarters are more recent additions to the city.