Tag Archives: Jones Falls

What Baltimore Could Have Looked Like 1916

30 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, HISTORY, water history

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Here is a 1916 map of the Geological Survey showing the proposals of Senators Ogden and Campbell. They each had their own ideas on how Baltimore should look back then.

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I like how this map shows the reservoirs and the water supply conduits. Of interest to me is the reservoir at Philadelphia Rd. and the Mt Royal Reservoir. There was another Mt Royal one built in 1845. This new one received a name change for some reason.

1845 Original Mount Royal Reservoir:  Started construction of a new reservoir on the east side of Jones Falls above the Belvedere Bridge.

1846 Original Mount Royal Reservoir: The new reservoir replaced the old reservoir located on Calvert Street, and in addition, supplied water to the section of the City east of Jones Falls.  The new reservoir was 18 feet deep, with seven acres of water surface, and a capacity of 15 million gallons.  According to the Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form for the City of Baltimore, Loch Raven Dam, submitted to MHT 1-17-96, this 15 million gallon reservoir was also known as Mount Royal Reservoir.  This Mount Royal Reservoir was built near the location known in the year 1996 as Pennsylvania Station. By 1862, this Mount Royal Reservoir would be abandoned; and, the name of the Mount Royal Reservoir would be transferred to a new reservoir at a different location. (From early water history notes, R. Vann)

Entrance to the Jones Falls

20 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

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On sunday I went looking for the entry point of the Jones Falls conduit. Here is the 1912 description of where it should be:

The extent of this improvement (Jones Falls conduit) will be from Baltimore street bridge to the westerly side of Maryland avenue, a distance of approximately 8,850 linear feet. The structure planned is of reinforced concrete with a flat roof, designed to carry the heaviest city traffic, and curved inverts, lined with vitrified brick. This design was selected after considerable effort to find an arched structure which would fill the requirements and keep the expense within a reasonable figure. The lack of head room over a considerable part of the distance to be covered made the problem very difficult. The structure proposed can be erected without disturbing the present retaining walls, the invert of the east conduit being first erected to carry the ordinary flow of water while the other conduits are under construction. As the retaining walls are not to be taken down they can be reckoned upon to give side support to the structure which, in consequence, has not been designed to carry all of the lateral pressure which the side banks would impart to it if not already safely supported.

A quick view of Google maps is deceiving because of all the growth under and around the JFX. The plain map view shows the Falls ending right about under Howard St. So there I went. This portion appears to have been built later – for the light rail and Amtrak? Looking thru the tunnels you can see daylight and I believe this is where the actual entrance starts. Didn’t have my water shoes on so I didn’t venture thru the first set of tunnels And it actually smelt pretty bad there – sewage! (Sewage does not belong in the Jones Falls!)

Here is a link to some guys who actually went into the tunnels – amazing and I thank them for the trip!

http://ronniekirchner.com/jones-falls-conduit/077

Howard Street bridge up above

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I just added this last one because I like the brick-work.

Bridges Along the Jones Falls

17 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

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Here are some photos from the DPW collection of various bridges along the Jones Falls. These negatives were all in an unmarked box. I posted them on Facebook a while ago and people told me the names as best they could guess. I am no longer on FB and unfortunately I did not write down the names they told me. Some are marked. Some are duplicates from other views – north to south or south to north.

If you can correctly name these bridges I will send you a copy of my book – Baltimore’s Water Supply History. Thanks.

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The Walls of Jones Falls

14 Tuesday Jun 2016

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February 12, 1816: Edward Johnson notes his retiring as mayor after eight years. Jones Falls – A Law has been passed by the General Assembly of Maryland at their late session, authorizing a Lottery to raise a sum of money, not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, clear of all expenses. One half of the net proceeds of which is to be appropriated under the direction of the managers named in the law, to the deepening of Jones’ Falls and walling the public streets binding thereon; the other half in conveying a stream of water that passes down Harford Street in a culvert or tunnel, below the surface of the street into the cove.

January 5, 1829: Jones Falls – The hand rail on Jones’ Falls and Harford Run has been completed, as directed by the resolution No. 15, of February, 1828, and affords security to our citizens. The walling of Harford Run has been continued southerly, as directed by Ordinance. The walling of a part of Jones’ Falls, as directed by the Resolution of April, 1828, has been executed; but the efforts of the City Commissioners in enforcing the provisions of the Ordinance of February, 1826, requiring the owners of property on Jones’ Falls to erect walls, etc., have continued to prove unavailing. It is submitted whether the City Commissioners should not be authorized to have the work done, thereby to avoid future injury to the navigation; and require the owners of property to pay the expenses thereof.

Walls will be built. Walls will be knocked down or tunneled through, all to try and change the course of the Jones Falls, flowing through the city.

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Walls upon walls.

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Tunneling through the walls (I would liked to have seen the park up above)

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Close up of one of the walls (Is that graffiti to the right? HW)

Possible Treasure Trove

10 Friday Jun 2016

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A few years ago, before I was asked to relocate the DPW Museum Archives, I was researching Baltimore’s Water History. I knew there were files kept down at Back River, in the museum storage area and after repeatedly pestering people to let me have access to the building, I was told ok – the only problem being, they sent me to the wrong ‘archives’ area. This building was old, dark, damp and a disaster. I was unable to find anything I could use. (It was so dark, I had to use my camera’s flash to get around!) I told the admin down there that if they were to put in some lights, I would volunteer to clean, organize and document the files. No response. A while later I was given access to the museum files, the ones I originally wanted to see.

For my Sewerage History, I again asked for access to the old building. The museum files have since been moved to my work location, but I knew there were others down at Back River, in that original building I was sent to. The place is still a mess but at least I could see inside. The boards on the windows have rotted and fallen down. Sunlight filtered in. There are a lot of old records in there that need preserving. Maybe someone will give me permission this time to do what needs to be done.

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Early contracts, specification books and drawings.

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Three floors of Early Sewerage History!

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There are even photographs from water filtration. These are of the renovations at Ashburton. Why they are at Back River is beyond me!

Perception

20 Friday May 2016

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Below is the art work of Francis Guy (Brooklyn Museum). Showing what Baltimore looked like in 1802-1803.

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And this is what the mayor had to say about Baltimore in 1803:

Mayor’s Message – February 14, 1803: Mayor Calhoun. Experience evinces that no measure we can take contributes so much to protect us from the malignant effects of fever as cleanliness, and therefore that every exertion ought to be made to remove from the City all impure substances and putrefactive matter, and to fill up low and sunken situations which retain stagnant water and filth; much has already been done in this respect since we have been incorporated, and every observant mind must view with pleasure the great improvements that have been made, as well in the east part of the City as the west, in filling up low and sunken grounds, and in making streets, that were before quagmires, not only passable but elegant; these, together with a variety of other matters, such as watching and lighting the City, erecting and repairing bridges, repairing and improving markets, assisting to build and to support an hospital, erecting a powder magazine, deepening and improving the Harbour, sinking wells and keeping pumps in repair, cleaning the streets, etc., etc., have been attended with heavy expense to the City, and have borne hard on many individuals, but I trust they will reflect that the expense has been unavoidable, and was the only means whereby their property could have been rendered valuable to them.

Hard to see, for me at least, how one is related to the other. The artist shows Baltimore as a clean, nice little town on the Patapsco Basin. The mayor paints a picture of Baltimore as a “quagmire”; talking the politics of how much has improved.

To quote the Talking Heads – it is “The same as it ever was…”

Harper’s Waste Weir

03 Tuesday May 2016

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The Jones Falls became nothing more than an open cesspool that emptied into the Inner Harbor in the early 1800s. It was decided to build a reservoir upstream, outside of town and use conduit to carry drinking and fire fighting water to the public.

In 1858, work begins to increase the supply of water from the Jones Falls by building a dam. The reservoir to be created would be called Swann Lake, later to be renamed Lake Roland. A conduit would connect the reservoir to the Mount Royal Reservoir, and the water would flow by gravity through a 3-mile-long elliptical bricked tunnel. A Valve House was installed on top of the conduit and was originally known as the “Harper Waste Weir” (later to be referred to as “The Cross Keys Valve House”); and its construction would be completed in 1860. The Harper Waste Weir was located between Swann Lake and the Influent Gatehouse at the Hampden Reservoir. The Influent Gatehouse to the Hampden Reservoir pipe configuration was such that Swann Lake water could flow to the Mount Royal Reservoir or to the Hampden Reservoir. The Harper Waste Weir structure was one of three stone Greek Revival gatehouses to be built as part of the Baltimore’s City municipal water system along a conduit that would run from Swann Lake to Mount Royal Reservoir. The other two gatehouse structures (construction would be completed in 1862), being the effluent gatehouse at Swann Lake and the influent gatehouse to the Hampden Reservoir.

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By doing this, the amount of natural water flow down the Jones Falls was impeded and this lack of flow created a worse  situation for Baltimore – the Jones Falls and the Harbor could not be flushed out on a regular basis (except during storms, which caused severe flooding).

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The structure on the left is the original Waste Weir. The wooden portion was built later to hold alum, which was added to the water by hand.

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This building still exists and has recently been added to Baltimore’s list of historic places.

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Odorless Excavating Apparatus

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Health, Sewage History

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Baltimore, situated as she is, with one main water course through her center (Jones Falls), she had plenty of water for the people. Pure, clean drinking water….until people started dumping their sewage into it. Many Health Commissioner’s Reports talk about what to do with the sewage of Baltimore. Contractors were hired to haul it away. Here are a couple HCRs on what happened over a few short years in Baltimore, until a proper system of sewage could be built.

1865 – The withdrawal of a large share of the water flowing in this stream (Jones Falls), by the completion of the lake and storage reservoirs (Lake Roland, originally called Swann Lake), with the extension of the water works in the city, has left too small a portion of water to keep the original course clean if nothing was thrown into it; but to this deficiency of water add its use as a receptacle for every species of offal from factories, foundries, tanneries, stables and dwelling houses, and we are not surprised at its present condition. We have had one of these sources of nuisance carefully examined, and find that not only are most of the privies attached to dwellings on the streets adjoining the Falls drained into it, by means of private sewers, but that wherever a sewer leading to it can be reached, this sewer is connected with privies for drainage purposes.

1873 – The late City Council have distinguished their administration by the passage of an ordinance permitting the use of the “odorless excavating apparatus” for emptying privies in the day time. This is the inauguration of a new era, and destined to prove one of the greatest blessings of the age. As stated in a communication on this subject to the late City Council, your Commissioner holds that a large proportion of the cases of cholera infantum occurring in all large cities during the heated term are to be ascribed to the ancient and vile mode of doing this work, as well as to its transportation through the streets of the city, poisoning the air which is wafted into every open window.

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1875 Odorless Apparatus1888 – The adoption of a proper system of sewers for the present privy-wells will assist the Health Department in its endeavor to bring the City to a point where the ordinary sanitary condition will be such that epidemics of disease, resulting from or aggravated by filth, could be avoided or reduced to a minimum. The danger is greater than the people realize; the trouble is deep-seated and not to be reached by the Spring ‘cleaning up’ nor even by inspection. In most of the houses of this City there exists a latent power for evil, which is liable when its hour arrives to exert itself to the full of its terrible might.

I don’t believe that this apparatus lasted too long. It is no longer mentioned after the 1876 report.

Dumps and Incinerators

21 Thursday Apr 2016

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In the 1884 Street Cleaning report are listed the following five dumps: Canton, Spring Garden, Back Basin, Eager St. and South Baltimore. By the 1920s, Baltimore was burning its garbage at two incinerators. One at Sisson and 28th street. The other on Philadelphia road. What does this have to do with sewage? Both places are on streams. Sisson street on Jones Falls, which still has a household hazardous waste collection site (original building appears to be gone). And Philadelphia road, as seen in the one photo below dumped right into Herring Run, which empties into Back River then on to the Chesapeake Bay. These photographs come from glass plate negatives that were broken due to improper storage. If you have GPNs, handle them with care.

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The horse drawn cart was replaced by the modern dump truck. Here they are backing into the Sisson Street Incinerator, also known as #1 incinerator.

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Instead of just piling the refuse into a dump, hoping somehow it would disappear, the garbage was sorted and then burned. #2 Incinerator on Pulaski Highway.

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Pulaski Highway #2 Incinerator showing how any liquids and washed down materials were dumped into Herring Run. And yes, there use to be Herring in that stream.

Garbage 1886

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

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1886 – From the Mayor’s Message: Health Department –  Garbage, etc. – The amount of garbage collected and removed during the past year was thirty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-nine cart-loads. Table G (below) shows the large number of dead animals, fowls, etc., collected and removed by this Department. The present methods of disposal of garbage and carrion are exceedingly unsatisfactory. Much annoyance and discomfort is experienced by residents adjacent to the present dumps, and frequent and continued complaints are made of the offensive odors. This annoyance, and menace to public health, can be obviated by burning them.

Chart gThis is a lot of dead animals. When this refuse was not picked up immediately and taken to the dumps (5 in the city), it was washed into the sewers which emptied into the Inner Harbor.