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Water and Me

Tag Archives: Loch Raven

Fourth Annual Christmas Adventure

11 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, nature, Photography, Road Trips, Trails

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, bridges, Chesapeake Bay, Christmas, Cromwell Park, engineering, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, Loch Raven, nature

Wasn’t sure we would make it to Baltimore this year, to decorate our favorite building in our favorite park – Cromwell Valley Park. But we did! Heading across the field towards the Greenhouse Path (Not sure when they started calling it that), up in the distance we see the little house. Many years ago it was a bath house for the family that use to live near here.

Wondering how many more years our little house will weather the storms. I wish there was a way myself or any of the park volunteers could restore it.

And here I am, decorating.

Our finished Christmas gift to the park.

Time to make a Christmas wish…

We walk the trail to the woods and then head through to the old balancing reservoir shaft.

On to the Sycamore Trail

This is new. Built in 2019 by a Scout for his Eagle Scout Badge.

Hike towards Mine Bank Run. Can still tell this run continues to overflow it’s banks. Stopped to check out what I call the Bubbling Pond. They call it Marble Spring. It bubbles up from lime underground mixing with the water. Not much bubbling today.

From Mine Bank to the Lime Kiln Trail. I am still amazed at how these were rebuilt.

View from the top looking towards Long Island Farm.

The sky was spectacular this evening. This is at the park.

This one was taken from the Eastern Shore at the Bay Bridge. We pulled off of Rte. 50 to eat and look at the water and ships.

Kathy took this one from the car, heading towards Vienna.

Beautiful day! Beautiful adventure!

Last Hike Before First Hike

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, Loch Raven, nature, photography

Saturday was a nice day for a hike, so we thought we would end our year hiking somewhere new. This will be our last hike of the year. We decided to hike the Gunpowder Falls, in a section neither of us have been to. Loch Raven Blue Trail off of Merryman’s Mill Road. We hiked to the Overshot Point and back. A little over two miles, but we spent a couple hours enjoying the sun and trail. AllTrails says we walked further, but I doubt it! This would be pretty damn good if it was true! 

Not a lot of parking at the trail, so get there early. By the time we left, the lot was full.

Some spots were wet. Mostly a rocky, rain-runoff-ditches terrain.

Not sure who R.C. Dye is but they have their own sign.

Other than some debris in the reservoir, the trail was clean. We never take in more than we can carry out – leaving only our foot prints and our love of nature.

The Blue Trail goes all the way up the hillside then cuts over to the power lines. We like hiking along the river, so we found a log and crossed over one of the many streams. Molly not too happy about that.

I always liked these alien writings on the logs.

And I am so glad we went off the trail like we did! Otherwise we may have missed this! 

Another view:

While at work I will try to find an old property map to tell me who this structure belonged to. It appears to be a nice size house.

I think someone lost a Christmas wreath.

Taking the Blue Trail, we probably would have missed the Overshot Point. Nice view of the upper reservoir.

Windy, causing the waves to lap at the shore.

The geese, hanging on a rock.

Kathy and Molly, hanging on the shore.

My turn to enjoy and reflect on my upcoming retirement. (If you could only see the grin on my face!!)

Time to head back. Our contribution to Art in the Park – acorn tops placed like fairy houses on the tree shrooms.

Nice roots.

I like walking in the winter because you get to see things that were hidden by all the growth of summer. We probably would have not seen the remains of that house in the summer. Sometimes in winter hiking, everything looks so desolate, but then you come across a burst of color and get to enjoy the beauty of the moment.

This was our last hike of 2018. I look forward to our first hike of 2019 – Calvert Cliffs!

Thanks God for another year of hiking!

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!

One Last Hike Through Cromwell Park

20 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Hiking

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Baltimore, Cromwell Park, Dams, engineering, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, Loch Raven, nature, photography, water history

A lot has been going on here lately. Took two days to settle on my house, moved my daughter to Virginia, moved in with Kathy, working on the house in Salisbury and signed my retirement papers today. My last day working for the City of Baltimore will be January 4, 2019.

Thinking about the things I will miss when I retire and move away from Baltimore…not really a lot. With my job I will miss some of the historical research I do and some of the people I work with – some. I really won’t miss my house too much. It was too big and lonely for me and I only bought it to be closer to work and save on rent and gas. My neighbors were a pain in the ass.

One thing I will really miss is our walks at Cromwell Valley Park. They have always held a special place in my heart. Not just because I volunteered there for a year and made new friends, but also because it is where I met Kathy. So, here is what may very well be our last walk…

Something you don’t see every day up at Loch Raven. A guy playing a bagpipe! I did take a video but like me, it is a little shaky!

Always enjoyed our little house. The first time Kathy and I exchanged photographs with each other, it was of the little house.

Time to pose…

One of my favorite spots is the Balancing Reservoir Shaft.

With its corresponding spillway.

Heading now to the sycamore tree. I have taken a lot of photographs of this tree – it just oozes with majesty and yet some…

…loneliness.

Being a favorite spot, another selfie.

Kathy and her sister Gail have this thing about the #26 – lucky #.

Heading for the car, another look at the kilns.

Yes, we will miss our hikes in Cromwell, but look forward to the new adventures that await us. God is good!

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/

Loch Raven and the Rain

27 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Dams, Floods, Reservoir, water history

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Tags

Baltimore, Cromwell Park, Dams, engineering, FILTRATION, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, Loch Raven, Montebello, Public Works, water history

The never-ending rains are here so I decided to check out the water works and see what is going on. Montebello Lake has risen quite a bit. If the grounds crew does not cut all the way to the water line, the phragmites will once again encroach the banks.

A look in the gate house on the lake. This flow is normally about 11-13 mgd. Today it is at 21 mgd. And for those of you who do not know – no, this is not drinking water going to waste. The Montebello Lake is where the impurities from the treatment plant settle out along with the dissipation of the chlorine before it goes into Herring Run. 

On my way over to Kathy’s for some steamed crabs, she calls me and says I should check out Loch Raven before coming to her house, so I did. I parked behind Sander’s and walked over to where Mine Bank Run and the Gunpowder Falls meet. Wow!

It hasn’t been this high for a while. On Loch Raven Drive, the bridge over Mine Bank Run. This is the stream we were walking in the other day, towards Cromwell Park.

Heading up the Drive a little farther and looking back towards Cromwell Bridge Road.

Back to my car and headed to the 1881 dam. One of these days someone will fulfill their promise to me and let me in to photograph looking down into these chambers. Not holding my breath! The new, unused maintenance facility up in the background.

From the top of the dam, looking across – that is a lot of water.

I am amazed that this log is still here after all these years. I just want to jump up and down on it to get it the hell off the top of the dam! Damn log! Log jam at the dam.

Climbed down to the bottom of the dam, along the retaining wall. The water is lapping along the top of the wall.

Here we can see that the integrity of the wall is starting to give a little bit. The water is gurgling up through the wall on the left, which means there are holes in the wall. Overall, not bad for a wall that was built in the 1880s.

Looking across the Gunpowder to the opposite shore.

Then towards the dam itself. Remembering when Kathy and I were able to gingerly stroll across here, to get to the other side!

On Loch Raven Drive, looking towards the new dam.

If there is this much mud and silt from the small streams that feed the Gunpowder, can you imagine all the crap in the waters of the Susquehanna River! 444 miles of dirty water emptying into that river and then our Bay!

The water above the new dam is our drinking water. And even though this water looks pretty muddy and full of debris, once filtered at Montebello, it is still some of the best drinking water in the country. (Think I will get a raise for that promo! Ha!!)

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.

 

Looking For A House

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Eastern Shore, water history

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Avalon, Baltimore, Gunpowder Falls, Houses, Loch Raven, Montebello, Pretty Boy, Public Works, Realtors, water history

With retirement not too far away, Kathy and I have been looking at houses the past couple of months. Some have been fairly nice, others would take too much work and still others have since been knocked down!

Of course, working for the Water Department for 37 years, why not live on watershed property or any other house owned by the City of Baltimore?

This first house was right here at the Montebello water plant. The only thing left to this house is the BBQ chimney.

Info on the house and its occupants.

Another house on the Montebello Grounds. I had actually met people who lived here. This too was knocked down.

Info on house. Nice house for a labor foreman.

And the final Montebello house.

Info on house. This is a duplicate of the Armstrong house, that the preservation people are holding up construction on a new chlorine building, but where were they when this house was razed? I guess a youth baseball field makes it ok to knock it down, but not a water process building??

Time to ride up to Loch Raven, to look at some houses:

Info on house.

This next one looks nice – also looks familiar.

Info on house.

Another nice one.

Another laborer’s house.

Moving up the Gunpowder River to check out some houses up near Prettyboy Reservoir.

A fixer upper with chickens.

This one looks like a scary place to raise kids.

Doesn’t appear to be a City employee, but still City property.

I doubt if Jimi lived here, but nice. I guess the owner was tired of people asking where the dam was so he put up a sign.

Info on house.

We leave the Gunpowder area and head back to the City, Roland Park. I like this one. A little skinny but nice. Wish the realtor would have posted some interior pics!

Property info. This guy resigned but is still living in the house.

We left there and headed back over near Montebello. Got a text from my agent saying that a house just came on the market over at Clifton!

Darn! Too late – turned over to the Park Board!

We now head west out of the city towards the Patapsco river. Avalon.

Not sure about that porch and what’s with those small upper windows??

This one looks like the Davidson house above, but it comes with children.

Info on house.

More searching took us to a couple more.

These were double occupancy, I really don’t want to live next to someone that works at the water department! This one below is a semi-detached.

The next house was unbelievably dirty. I felt sorry for this little kid, whose father worked for the City Comptroller.

It does have a mill though.

Info on the house.

A big house on the market, over on the west side – Arlington.

Looks like a school next door – don’t need the noise.

Fire Towers

10 Thursday May 2018

Posted by Ronald Parks in Reservoir, water history

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Tags

Baltimore, engineering, Fires, Gunpowder Falls, Loch Raven, Public Works, Research, water history

I have just about completed scanning and documenting the 1500+ negatives I found a few weeks back (Loose Ends Never End). Only needed to scan just over 700. The others have already been documented elsewhere. I wish someone would have taken the time to at least give a descriptive label to these things, other than the date the photos were taken. From my years of research, most I can identify, others I cannot.

Here are two that were in a group, although not labelled, I recognized as construction of the Susquehanna Conduit. Along with Deer Creek Pumping Station. There are quite a few negatives scattered throughout this collection, although in numerical and chronological order, that should be in other groups of photos.

It looks like a fire tower, just not sure. What my book says about fires in the watersheds:

From File Folder 1194: August 1931 letter concerning the building of a fire tower located near Loch Raven. The State Dept. of Forestry request fire towers at all watershed properties. Rost responds that they (the City) have no money to contribute to the building of these towers. 1932 fire reports: Most report that the fires were caused by smokers. Also a list of damage done: Twenty five acres burned, mostly ten inch hardwoods. 1939 letter from Towson Nurseries concerning property adjacent to the Northern Central RR at Kenilworth. They want to plow some furrows in the field to help stop any fires that may happen. Small gives them permission. January 5, 1943 report of a fire at the Gatekeeper’s house at Lake Roland. May 22, 1945 memo of a fire in the barracks immediately behind of the old gatehouse at Lake Montebello, formerly occupied by the Maryland State Guard. November 20, 1945 fire report, barn owned by City on Mittens’ farm about one mile west of Westminster Pike: On investigation of this fire learned from Paul George, age 46, overseer on Dr. Saffell’s farm, that he was husking corn, in a field near the barn, with five German prisoners. He stated that all of them ate their lunch at this barn around noon. At about 2:45pm, one of these prisoners went on top a hill, to relieve himself, when he came running back and told Mr. George that smoke was coming out of this barn. Mr. George stated that at no time was any of the prisoners in the barn or smoking near same. Dale George, son, said he saw two hunters near the barn earlier but didn’t know them. June 9, 1949 memo concerning all the fires occurring on the property between Pierce’s store and the dam. Mostly are caused by picnickers. 1956 memo concerning fire at Hampton in which fifty acres burnt. Three young boys were caught leaving the fire. Contains lengthy report. 1957 letter from Werner to a Philip Franklin who had started a fire at Loch Raven and then left the scene. Werner wants to know a good reason why he shouldn’t be prosecuted. March 1962 report of a fire north of the dam caused by fishermen.

These two photos are dated May 10, 1965. I know the watersheds have fire roads; I have never seen any of these towers – not that this one would still be standing. Looks pretty rickety to me.

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