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The Unknowns

20 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Archives, HISTORY, water history

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, Dams, engineering, FILTRATION, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, Hampden Reservoir, HISTORY, Lake Ashburton, Lake Clifton, Lake Montebello, Loch Raven, Public Works, water history

As I continue my final countdown to retirement, which started 7 years ago, I have been placing all of my historical research of Baltimore’s Water Supply History onto the City’s intranet and an external hard drive, so that the person that takes my place, Andy, will be able to access the records easier. While moving the electronic files around, I have been coming across photographs marked as ‘Unknowns’, of which some still are, but others, that over the years, I have been able to figure out.

Reflecting back to my early years of doing research, it comes to mind that there has been quite a few people who have helped me along the way…

One such person was Martha, from the Historical Society of Baltimore County. After I cleaned out a room to make way for the new engineers, unbeknownst to me, one of those engineers gave some of our Glass Plate Negatives to Martha. These were over sized negatives that she used a photographic enlarger to make prints out of. At this time I had begun my research, haphazardly I must add! She brought back the negatives with accompanying photographs. Here is one:

From this print I was able to determine that one of my unknowns was a different view of this site – the building of the Montebello Lake Gate House between 1875-1880. Here is the GPN that I found:

For the next couple of years Martha and I would butt heads on how I was doing my documenting/research and that is ok, we all have our opinions. Mostly we butted heads on her grandfather’s house at Montebello. She wants to save it, I would like to see it torn down. I have another blog on here about that.

Sometimes people help with a simple suggestion. I think it was Chris from Facebook who told me this next photo was of the Cross Keys Gate House on Falls Road. Which it turned out to be. The wood structure, which was a storage shed for alum, no longer exists. Soon after this I was invited to a Historical Preservation meeting on designating this as a historical building.

Bill, also from FB helped me with his suggestion on how to restore/fix some of these old photographs by using a simple tool in Photoshop Elements called the Spot Healing Brush Tool. Below is an example, before:

And after.

As can be seen, these photos did not have any markings on them, but by comparing the men in the photos to others, I was able to determine when and where these were taken. Below, one of my favorites, only because the man reminds me of Seth Bullock, was an unknown.

Matching him to another I found, that this was during the building of the diversion sewer around the then being built Lake Ashburton.

This next unknown didn’t really make much sense to me until I found one that was marked from the internet.

Looking close at the one below (Source, Special Collections MdHS) I was able to figure out that the above one is of the Hampden Reservoir.

These next few I had no clue about when I first found them years ago. After lots of research and inquiries from downtown and the public I was able to note that this is of Lake Clifton and its Gate House.

And this one, just marked as unknown, I needed to look at from a different perspective – imagine the front of the building instead of the rear – it is the high service engine house (noted in another blog).

Sometimes the numbers on a GPN helps me figure out what is going on. This one, well not much going on but I was later able to figure out that one of the Water Engineers took this photograph. It was to be the future location of the 1912-1915 site for the new Loch Raven Dam.

Again, a date and a number identifies this one as being part of the collection for the construction of Lake Ashburton. Another tell-tale sign is the engineer’s office in the background, which other photographs have been found, already labelled.

What appears to be a still, which I wouldn’t doubt and that I previously wrote about there being: The Stills At Avalon. Turns out to be where Montebello made there own liquid alum.

Originally marked as unknown and the fact that at the time it was found, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that there was one dam built on top of another at Loch Raven. But this is what is going on here. Sometimes I would mark the photos as unknown if there was no date on them.

A favorite that went along with the above is this one. I knew what the drawing is of, just didn’t know the circumstances of the room. Turns out to be the photographers work shed on site.

This next one, after reading the Annual Reports, turns out to be of City employees searching for 2 boys that supposedly drowned in a quarry. The bodies were not recovered.

This next one is from a collection, another of which I asked the FB public to help me with, but no one knew, is of an ice floe. From the date I am thinking along the Gunpowder Falls? I was hoping someone would recognize the building.

This one, from 1909, I never figured out. I sure would like to find it and see what is at the top of the stairs! 1909 suggests Lake Ashburton. But where??

A few other people who have helped me along the way – Ed Papenfuse, retired State Archivist. Kurt Kocher, DPW Public Information Spokesperson. Rudy Chow, Director of Public Works who gave me permission to continue my research. Tim Bradin, my old boss who let me buy an expensive scanner with City money. All the City employees who kept an eye out for historical stuff just laying around or in the dumpster (received an 1875 drawing that was found in the recycle bin down town). I also thank the Baltimore City Archives, the Baltimore Historical Society, who have always shown an interest in my work, the Historical Society of Baltimore County, the new and old acquaintances I made on FaceBook  and many others. And thanks to Kathy who will listen to my excitement of a new historical find, smiling and wondering what the hell am I talking about, but still encourages me to continue on.

Wow, all those thank yous makes it sound like I am leaving or going somewhere! I am! I am retiring and moving to the Eastern Shore in the next couple weeks – but I will be back!

Some Favorites Before I Go

29 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Archives, Baltimore, HISTORY, Writing

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, Dams, engineering, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, HISTORY, Loch Raven, Public Works, Research, Warren, water history, writing

My time is winding down, working for the City of Baltimore, so I thought I would share some favorite photographs from my research and my time here…

This photograph is the one that started my writing. I guess it was sometime in the late 1970s that I started keeping journals of my life. Not sure why, but I did. Some were just in the form of letters that I later copied into an electronic file of my life, that I later turned into my auto-biography. This photo though started my writing on Baltimore’s Water Supply History, which was preceded by Building the Gunpowder Falls – Montebello Tunnel 1935 – 1940.

I have written about this photograph in an earlier blog post on October 20, 2017. Here are the introductory pages from my book that explains it:

Sometime in the late 1980s, renovations began in an old storage section of Plant II at the Montebello Filters on Hillen Road, in Baltimore City. This storage room was to be converted into an office area for the newly hired Water Treatment Engineers. Resident engineers were nothing new to the filtration plant, but somewhere in time, Plant Managers, Maintenance Supervisors and Bureau Chiefs had replaced them. Therefore, the addition of engineers to the staff became a momentous occasion, sparing no expenses to build them a new office and to make them feel welcomed.

It was just by coincidence that the storage area slated for renovation housed a majority of the records from the previous engineers, along with hundreds of glass plate negatives and photographic lanternslides. The maintenance supervisor of that time just saw boxes of junk and gave instructions to throw it all away. Thinking that the information in these boxes looked interesting, I told the laborers working on the project to take all this ‘junk’ and put in a room on the second floor. This second floor storage area actually did house a bunch of junk and a few years later, when I needed extra storage space, I went over and started cleaning out this room.

While sorting through the boxes, trying to decide what was worth keeping, I decided to keep it all, that I would just go ahead and straighten it out, putting it on shelves. It was while going through the material that I realized what a treasure trove of information was there: old blue prints, engineers’ logs, personal journals, water contracts dating back to the early 1900s, deeds to lands obtained by the city through the courts (along with the judge’s personal journal, dating back to the 1880s), early photographs and so much more. After I had sorted it all out the best I could, I left it alone for quite a few years.

In 2005, Richard Vann, one of the newly hired engineers, received instructions to put together a history of the water department; mostly just listing all the water contracts and what work was done for each one. However, Richard, being a very thorough individual, started listing everything, from who the mayor was to what the inspector’s names were on the jobs. He put this information in chronological order but found that there were gaps in his work, that years were missing from the little bit of records that he had. I then showed him the books and information that I had found years earlier and he started to enter this information into his time line.

In 2006, my boss asked me to assist Richard in what he was doing. We were having electrical problems at the time and I was to work with him to put together a diagram showing all the electrical work done over the years. In the 26 plus years that I have worked here, there has always been a construction project going on, but no one has ever put together an ‘as built’ drawing of the electrical system. So I set up shop adjacent to Richard’s office and via email, he sent me the information that he had. While reading the chronology, I remembered that I had seen additional information, even photos, of things Richard had written about, packed away in the second floor storage area. I decided to go back through all those shelves and boxes of history and see what I could match up to what he had listed.

When I came upon the glass plate negatives, I decided to have some of them processed and turned into photos. This became an expensive proposition so I decided to learn how to do this on my own. My boss gave me permission to buy the equipment I needed, which was no more than a scanner capable of scanning 8” x 10” negatives and Lantern Slides, software to invert the negatives into a positive and a good printer.

While working with one of the lanternslides, I noticed something odd, that in a tunnel, where workers were excavating, there were train tracks that came to a dead end under what looked like a giant boulder. This particular slide came from a box from around 1938, so I asked Richard if he had any information on an event of that year that was of interest. Sure enough, he showed me the Annual Report covering the year 1938 where it was reported that an explosion had occurred in the building of the Gunpowder-Montebello Tunnel.

This notation in the report was only about a half a paragraph long, nothing more than a blurb, so I decided to investigate it further. Searching through all those records that were about to be thrown away 20 years ago, stumbling across filing cabinets that had been stored at the Ashburton Filtration Plant (Home of the Water Engineers in the late 1950s), and researching the archives of the local newspapers, I was able to piece together the story below.

(Note: Upon further research, I found that the picture above was not from the tunnel explosion, but rather a progress photo from 1938 of the heading  being loaded and wired for blasting. Unfortunately, the tunnel explosion photos are missing from the collection.)

I would like to take this time to thank Richard Vann, Water Systems Engineer, for pointing me in the direction to find this information. His chronology alone could fill a book.

This next photo, from 1921, inspired me to start writing young adult fiction. When the City was buying up all the properties around the Gunpowder Falls, with the intent to raise the dam from an elevation 188′ to 270′ (settled on el 240′) many families and businesses were displaced. To me this is a sad photograph. The woman and her 3 children, who are renters, being displaced for a damn dam. (Not sure if this house was in the 270′ or 240′ flood lands, in either case, the City would still take to enlarge its watershed). 

Here is the opening to a book I have yet to finish. Hopefully some day. Not yet edited for correctness..

The Children of Warren
“Jennifer, wake up. We have to go.”
“No! I don’t wanna!”
“Come on, you know what today is! You don’t want them to flood us out, do you?”
With that, Jennifer sits up in her bed and looks at her mother, eyes wide open and says, “They couldn’t do that! You wouldn’t let them, would you mom?”
Her mom pulls her close, reassuringly, and tells her, “Honey, if I had my way, they wouldn’t be allowed to flood us out at all, but it ain’t up to me. So come on, get up and get yourself dressed.”
With that, Jennifer pulls herself to the side of the bed and when her feet touch the cold dirt floor she shrieks in disgust, “Mom! Why’d they take the floor out? Why couldn’t they wait until we were gone!”
“Honey, we’ve been over this a hundred times” her mother says, trying not to sound irritated at the constant questioning of ‘why’. “You know your father and me had to sell off what we could before the City took it from us.”
“But I loved our floors mommy. Daddy worked so hard making them pretty for us.”
“I know honey” her mom says, reminiscing about better days in Warren…

I showed this initial writing to a friend and explained the story (kids go back to the town before it is flooded and get caught in the flood…) and they told me there was already a movie about this kind of event, called “In Dreams” with Robert Downey Jr. Ha!

Photogravure – Copper Plates

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Archives, Dams, Photography, water history

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, Dams, engineering, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, HISTORY, Loch Raven, photography, photogravure, water history

Doing some more packing of my office and here is another pile that needs documenting. I thought these were pretty neat looking when I found them about 10 years ago. I placed them in ziplocks to keep them from getting scratched and then put them away for another day. That day has come.

The three piles on the left are each about 5″ x 7″ x 7/8″ thick. The smaller ones to the right vary.

Here is one removed from its sleeve and placed on shelf to be photographed. 

Same copper plate scanned with color settings at 300dpi. Trying to be careful not to scratch the glass surface of the scanner.

Kind of shabby looking, so I scanned it in Black and White.

Better, but not as good as the original below. This one is an electronic copy from a glass plate negative I scanned back in 2007. In 1913 (I know, it looks like 1915 but it is not) the contractors performed a pressure test on the 10′ conduit from the new dam at Loch Raven to the old dam. 

Tried another one. Color scan first, but at 720 dpi. Pretty bad looking. 

Now in b&W.

Still no good. I had trouble finding a good copy of this. It was not in the glass plate negative groups and not to mention the difficulty of looking for a reverse image. Looked in the lantern slides and there it was.

There is a nice video at this link which shows the Photogravure Process. Glad we have progressed into the digital art stage!

https://photogravure.com/process/

Water Labs

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, filtration, New York, water history

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Baltimore, FILTRATION, glass plate negatives, Health, Montebello, Public Works, water history

I was told that I could no longer link this WordPress account with my Facebook page because of new FB Policies – Let’s see what happens!

A New York City Water Quality Lab, August 1907 (Photo NYC Water Website)

Baltimore Md. Water Quality Lab August 1915.

Box of Blues

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Archives, Baltimore, water history

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, bridges, Cromwell Park, Dams, engineering, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, HISTORY, Loch Raven, photography, Public Works, Research, water history

This box has been sitting in my office for years now and as I slowly pack my office up, the box has been making its presence known more and more. This is one of those task that I didn’t want to undertake, but knew eventually I would have to. I’ve referred to it before as the Jigsaw Puzzle Box. It contains a lot of broken glass plate negatives.

They were originally laying one on top another. No boxes or protective sleeves. I sat them on their side to try to stop some of the damage. These plates are heavy and the weight of being stacked is enough to crush themselves.

So let’s get started on cleaning and scanning. I pulled out the more intact ones first, but already there was a problem – not only were most of these suffering from severe silvering, from being improperly stored, this one was yellow (Under or over exposed when taken maybe?)

I scanned it anyway because there is something about this photo – The second Loch Raven Dam being built, showing an arched walkway through the base of the dam. A couple years ago I was told that I would be able to go on an inspection tour of the inside of the dam – I guess they forgot me…

A couple more intact plates, not found in previous collections of building the 1915 dam. I like this one, below, looking downstream of the Gunpowder River. A locomotive riding the spur track in the distance and a person on the trestle.

A view looking upstream from the cofferdam. 

Although there was a lot of silvering, after some work in Photoshop Elements, I was fortunate enough to make them worth saving. Another view downstream. The old 1880s gatehouse in background. Notice the wood pedestal for the valve operator. 

I wish I would have found this one years ago. This photo is signed by the engineer, Walter Lee and the plate itself is signed by the photographer – Waldeck.

With this next one, the puzzle pieces start falling apart. The photographer would take photographs and drawings, mount them on a board and then photograph the photographs. Thank God for the digital age!

Inside the photographers studio – more like an onsite shed at the construction site – 1920s.

Some of the shed photo plates were not only broken, but were over exposed.

Using my software I was able to enhance the above photo enough, using the ‘Equalize’ button, to bring out the drawing. In this case it is the Balancing Reservoir at Cromwell Park.

Next up more photos being photographed. Two of my favorites on this plate – The original photo of the town of Warren before flooding (A lot of historical societies use this photo and don’t give credit to the City for using it. I guess because it has been used so many times in various newsletters and publications, they consider it public domain) And I like the Paper Mill Bridge with the covered bridge underneath. 

This next one threw me for a loop! A Cathedral to Water? Not sure what this is of?

I finally hit the bottom of the box, nothing but pieces. Some large ones and then many small pieces.

I scanned them just in case some day, some one can use modern technology to put the pieces together, where they belong! (I know, the tech exists, maybe something for someone to do later!)

So I am wrapping up the history and placing in it storage. Hopefully it will be around in 100 more years. Who knows. I have done about as much as I could with what I have been given.

 

The Peale Center

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in HISTORY, Photography

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Tags

Baltimore, Barnum, Ghost, glass plate negatives, HISTORY, Museum, Peale Center, photography, Research, writing

The Peale Center, also once Baltimore’s City Hall and Colored School #1 and then a temporary Water Engineer’s office. Then the Municipal Museum and then a vacant…am I missing anything? It has been a lot of things since 1814 and I am really glad it is being restored to a museum. 

View from across the street, at the Municipal Building – where the water engineers are now located. Workers had to move their scaffold out of the way so we could get in.

A walk out back. I think I would have placed this lamp elsewhere instead of in front of the relief.

Another gas lamp.

Back inside to await the history talk. Here is an artist rendition of what the Peale will look like when completed. 

A nice model of the proposed renovations.

Holy H.G. Wells! A freakin’ time machine. Damn, still under construction!

Hum Bug!!

More bugs.

And the real reason for my visit – a talk by Peter Manseau on his book “The Apparitionist”. It was a really good talk. One thing that kind of stuck in my head was when he said, “There are about 50,000 deceased persons on Facebook. Still being visited by family and friends.” It is like a modern day seance in the electronic social media age. People get to see their departed loved ones, just like the photographs taken by 19th century photographers of dead people posing. But Peter’s book goes more into ghost being seen in glass plate images. I can’t wait to read his book…

One Thing Leads to Another

12 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, engineering, glass plate negatives, HISTORY, Jones Falls, Public Works, Research, Sewage History

Sometimes the requests I receive for historical information have nothing to do with Water and Sewage. A friend from the Pratt Library and then one from the Baltimore City Archives both sent me request for information on a 1990 article in the Maryland Historical Society Magazine. The article concerned rye whiskey made in Maryland. Accompanying the article was this photograph.

The caption underneath states:  “At Wolfe and Aliceanna streets, about 1910 (Actual 1907), a Phillip Lobe Co. vehicle speeds barrels of Ram’s Horn whiskey to saloons. Photograph courtesy Baltimore Public Works Museum.” The person seeking the information wrote me this: I am a relative of Phillip Lobe and am writing an article about his business for a national bottle collector’s magazine. I would love to use this photo in my article as well as getting a nice, clean version of the photo if possible.
Could you help me with that pursuit?
Sincerely,
Susan Adler Davis
Since the photo came from the DPW Museum, of which I have been documenting, I was able to find a much clearer photograph. On the side of the wagon to the right, Rams Horn, it has written; Lobe and Son W. Pratt Street. The caption in my notes states: SWC 2. Wolf and Aliceanna Sts. showing gutter plates and openings.

While searching for the above, I came across some other photographs that I forgot about. And this is how my mind wanders, from one thing to another!

From the same time period, you can see the obstacles that the water department faced in the installation of mains and drains. Caption in notes for the above: SWC 3. Charles and Saratoga Sts. Obstructions in trench. (Storm Water Contract #3)

Another concern while installing mains was trolleys zipping by: SWC 1. Showing excavation at North and Madison Aves. 

Of course there was always a crowd watching: SWC 3. Saratoga St above Gay showing obstructing pipes and conduit.

More pipes: SWC 2. South St at Pratt showing nest of pipes encountered in SW trench.

There was always the possibility of adjacent homes crashing down on the workers: SW87. Belair Rd extension, N of Hamilton, showing rock condition.

And you also had the placing of wood pipe connections to concrete ones: SWC 2. 62” wooden stave pipe at outlet of Light St drain. (Other marking: Showing barrel construction of outlet).

But one of the bigger problems was when you had to go through someone’s house or business: Reinforced concrete sewers through D.E. Foote Canning Factory, Woolford’s Dock, foot of Castle St.

More pipes to work around: SWC 3. Double 50”x69” storm water drain in Market Place at Baltimore, looking towards outlet.

So my mind wanders more times than not, but it is always fun and a pleasure to research these sort of things! I look forward to reading Ms Davis’ article.

Montebello and the Panama-Pacific Exposition 1915

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Dams, HISTORY, water history

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, Dams, engineering, FILTRATION, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, HISTORY, Lake Montebello, Loch Raven, maps, Montebello, Public Works, Research, water history

Finishing up documenting a Water Board Minutes of Meetings Journal, I came across a couple of interesting tidbits concerning the connection between Baltimore and San Francisco. In 2015 we both celebrated a 100 year anniversary. Them celebrating the 1915 World’s Fair and us the building and opening of the Montebello Filtration Plant. The connection being this – February 11, 1915 It was resolved by the Water Board to send the Filtration and Dam models to the Panama-Pacific Exposition. According to the model itself, it was completed in December, 1914.

Here is a lantern slide copy of the model. If you visited Montebello during our 100th anniversary and took a tour, you would have saw the actual model.

The lighting in the hallway is terrible with all the reflections. It was too dark with the lights out and too reflective with a flash.

Here is the nameplate data on the model.

Along with this one. I did a search for information on this company but could not find much. And something else I could not find is – where is the model of Loch Raven?

Howell’s did a pretty good job replicating the filtration plant.

The plant as it looked in the 1920s.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’d like to put little people in here…and maybe Godzilla!!

Showing what the waste lake looked like.

And the detail of the outfall structure.

The waste lake dam and outfall structure being built. Notice the date – October 1914. This means that the model was built conceptually, like an artist’s rendition of something before it is there.

Of course, one research item always leads to more.

In 1884 models of the substructures were built and placed in each gatehouse, Loch Raven and Lake Montebello, to give visitors a better understanding as to how each works. (What happened to them?)
February 6, 1893 the Water Board resolved to send a display to the Columbian Exposition. This was 21 years before the Howell Microcosms were built. so what did they send?
November 18, 1935 letter from M.P. McNulty, he has just completed creating a model of the Loch Raven dams and inquires as to the dates the real dams were built. Small replies that the lower dam was built between 1875 and 1881 by Fenton and Jones, Contractor. The upper dam was constructed by King-Ganey starting in 1912 and finished in 1914 and then raised between 1920 to 1922 by Whiting-Turner. Attached to the letter was a newspaper clipping which shows a picture of the model. (This clipping is at the City Archives)
December 31, 1952 letter from William Eichbaum Scale Models informing Hopkins that they will build a new, Montebello Plant model in the existing case for $1,000.00. This was not done.
And for what appears to be a wonderful book – San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 by Laura Ackley

 

 

The Permanent Gunpowder Water Supply

05 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Archives, Baltimore, water history

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Baltimore, bridges, Dams, engineering, glass plate negatives, Gunpowder Falls, Loch Raven, Public Works, water history

Started planning back in 1854. Elevation of 160’ would supply seven-eighths of population (according to contour lines). Supplying others outside that elevation would be a matter of mechanical detail (pumping stations). The need to keep Lake Roland and the Gunpowder as two distinct and separate supplies, as Lake Roland becomes muddied during rainy season (this was why Druid Lake was constructed). It was first suggested to tap the river as far up as the Warren Factory but concurred by a host of engineers that the proper volume of water could not be obtained by damming at any point above Raven’s Rock and most agreed to a point further downstream about where Mr. Martin has located it. The dam will be erected on the Gunpowder river, at a point admirably adapted for the purpose, a short distance above Mine Bank Run, and the lake thus formed, will extend up the river as far as Meredith’s Ford Bridge at the Dulaney Valley Turnpike, where the pump house connected with the ‘Temporary Supply’ is now located…will flow by natural gravity through a twelve foot pipe to a lake at Montebello, between Hillen and Harford roads, located in a natural basin formed by one of the tributaries of Herring Run (Tiffany Run). The lake will have a water area of about eighty acres and a storage capacity of 700,000,000 gallons. The twelve foot pipe (conduit) will continue to a point on the Harford road opposite Homestead, whence pipes will be laid to connect with the city pipe system at North Boundary Ave. and Washington St. Lake Clifton.

A drawing of the Loch Raven Gate House a couple years after completion, for the engineer’s files.

The Gate House and how it looked in the 1920s.

An interior, cut away view.

The influent drain chamber to the yet to be built Gate House.

Looking over the construction of the dam, towards the east wall.

A recent view of the discharge conduit, below the dam. As shown in third photo above.

Another drawing of the Gate House structure. Where it says Vault Record would be facing the road.

Recent photo from the road, after Gate House was removed, showning vaults and valves.

This photo has me baffled. It is showing two 12′ conduits, whereas all the drawings only show one. On the left you can see where the laborers are building the brick lined conduit. On the right, nothing going on. Wondering if it was built in error or was it for a bypass as the dam was being built?

Drawing of the east wall.

1880s photo of building dam, looking east.

Recent photo looking east. Looking close you can see where the stone work stops and cement starts. In the 1970s they put a parallel pipeline in and cut right thru the wall.

This is an early, beginning of construction photo. Stone excavation looking west. Interesting on zooming in – under the roadway guardrail is a tunnel opening that looks like…

…the top left of these drawings. 

The drawing for Shanghai Run.

A 1920s photograph.

A recent photo of the opening to Shanghai Run. Looking over the wall towards the woods, there is no opening??

City workers lounging and the job is almost completed.

 

Jackson C Gott – Architect

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in engineering, water history

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Architects, Baltimore, engineering, glass plate negatives, HISTORY, Lake Clifton, Public Works, Research, water, water history

I was asked the other day if I knew who the architect of the Clifton Gate House was? I could not find any information after a couple hours of research. Of course, an internet search took me to the Maryland Historical Trust, where it is noted the architect is unknown, so I decided to look through all the Engineers Annual Reports here in my office. I also looked through a lot of drawings.

I found this. Not for the gate house itself, but for the keepers cottage. In very faded print it names the architect for the cottage as Jackson C Gott.

More research revealed a couple interesting photos and prints concerning Gott. He designed two local buildings. The Maryland Penitentiary.

And the Eastern Pumping Station, which I talked about a few weeks ago. Here is a beautiful print I found at the St Croix website.

Below is the Keepers Cottage next to the Clifton Gate House. I do not have time to fix this glass plate negative, unfortunately.

There were two other ramshackle buildings near the gate house, put up by the water engineer to protect the valves, in a pit.

Two drawings of the water mains at the gate house.

Below shows the location of the venturi meter, added later.

Here is the plans for the building. No architect and it comes from the water engineers office. Curran, Martin and Kenly.

With all that said, looking at the three structures: Gate House, Pumping Station and Penitentiary, I would take a long shot guess and say that Jackson C. Gott designed the gate house. Most prints and photos are from the DPW collection except for the recent Pen photo and the EPS print, which is mine.

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