Happy Holidays

    
      Uncle Jack wrote one of those letters to put in with his Christmas cards this year and here
it is:

      We are very happy to report that 2010 has confirmed the rightness of our move to Baltimore
two years ago. The longer we live in this delightful city the more we love it. Our condo across
the street from Johns Hopkins University is happily located close to most of the cultural
institutions we frequent such as Symphony Hall, Peabody Conservatory, Shriver Concert Hall
and the Charles Theater, the best art movie house in the city.
     We have been exploring Charm City’s many fascinating neighborhoods, mostly on foot,
and have joined Baltimore Heritage, a group dedicated to preservation of landmark homes and
buildings in the city. Recently we both became docents at Evergreen House, one of the fabled
residences of Baltimore’s incredibly wealthy (B and O Railroad stock, primarily) Garrett family.
Evergreen is a 44 room mansion housing a spectacular collection of rare books, maps and
paintings which was left to Johns Hopkins University by Ambassador John Work Garrett upon
his death in 1942. Naturally we both feel right at home there.
     Persistent robust health on both our parts facilitated a fair amount of travel including
New Orleans in April for the French Quarter Festival; Indian River, Florida in May to visit
friends; Minnesota and Wisconsin in June to celebrate Jack’s 80th birthday in the bosom of
his remaining family; Camden, Maine in August with visits en route with friends in Seaside
Park, N.J., (no, not Snookie) ; Portland, Maine and Old Bennington, Vt. This trip also included a
stopover in Fitchburg, Mass. to visit Jack’s adorable great-granddaughter, Sweet Adeline Van
Hazinga, age 2, and her parents, Andy and Liz (who are expecting great-grandchild number two
early in 2011).
     Washington, D.C. is only a short train ride away ($7.00 round-trip for seniors) so we took in
several excellent plays at the Kennedy Center and also visited the new Newseum (fabulous)
in the company of Jack’s daughter Emily who came out from California in August. A visit from
Jack’s son Eric and family from Los Angeles in June prompted two more trips to D.C. during
which most of the usual tourist meccas (The Mall, National Museum, Air and Space Center,
etc.) received a dash-through.
     We managed to squeeze in several trips to Nags Head during the year. In February we
escaped to the beach just ahead of the second big blizzard in a week which left Baltimore
buried under nearly six feet of snow for weeks. It was nostalgia time for Jack who grew up in
northern Wisconsin where such weather extremes are commonplace.
Sue’s three grandchildren (Isabella, 6; Sophia 5; and Michael, 2) are a constant source of
delight. They live just ten minutes away with their mom and dad, Colleen and Ed Sabatino.
Sue’s Baltimore family grew by one earlier this year with the arrival of her artist daughter, Katie,
who is home after several years in South Africa and now lives just a few blocks from us in
Charles Village. She is recuperating nicely from brain surgery in August.
       We both joined the Mencken Society last year and Jack has volunteered to set up and
maintain a Mencken Society page on Facebook. F.B. members can check it out by typing
Mencken Society into the F.B. search bar. Jack is also doing a very occasional blog called
Uncle Jack’s Baltimore Blog which is mostly about their adventures in Charm City. .
Our address is 1 East University Parkway, #705, Baltimore, MD 21218
email   jsandberg3143@gmail.com

Happy Holidays to All.

Work continues on the JHU library project in spite of the frigid temperatures of the past few weeks. This is the way it looked on December 20.

We visited Baltimore's Museum of Industry last week.  It's full of interesting memorabilia from the time when Charm City was a major industrial center.  Those days are long gone (as they are in almost every other city in the northeast) but the museum is first rate.

This handsome Tudor mansion was once part of the Evergreen estate where we are now docents.  The house was intended to be the residence of a Garrett family member but he died of cancer before he and his new bride could move in.  It is now part of the Loyola University campus next door to Evergreen House.  Google "Evergreen House" to get an idea of how the other half lived in Baltimore during the gilded age.

Big doings at the JHU library construction site

Uncle Jack's last post presented a brief pictorial history of the progress so far of the men and machines who are building the new Brody Learning Commons adjacent to the Eisenhower Library on the Johns Hopkins campus.  A major development occurred a few days ago which he deems worthy of special attention.  He has been waiting for this shoe to drop for months and the fact that it finally has indicates that some serious new work on the building is about to begin.

Uncle Jack was baffled a couple of weeks ago when workmen poured this concrete slab on the upper level of the construction site.  He was unable to discern any possible use for it given its size and location.

Now he knows.  It was the base for an enormous construction crane that was assembled with help of a very large portable crane last Thursday.

Here the portable crane is lifting the operator's cabin into place on the top of the tower.  Several very brave men are up there bolting things together in a nasty wind.

Up goes another piece.  This was a fascinating process to watch.  (This photo was taken from the comfort of Uncle Jack's living room so you can get an idea of how far he has to walk to the construction site).

And here is the completely assembled crane ready to go to work.  Assembly took only one working day which Uncle Jack thought was amazing.

Meanwhile, down in the hole, infrastructure work goes on.  Horizontal pipe has been laid and covered and the first stage of piping for wastewater collection has been installed in a couple of places.  Every day it gets a little more complicated and he still has no idea how they will get that big shovel out of the hole when the time comes.

All around the campus and the neighborhood in general leaves are turning and presenting beautiful bursts of color everywhere.

These trees are in Uncle Jack's backyard, so to speak.

    And these are on the JHU campus. (top photo).  The mural is painted on the side of DiPasquale's Italian grocery, a fixture in the Highlandtown district of Baltimore since 1914.  A culinary treasure.

Sunset a couple of days ago.  There have been some beauties lately.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.

A Library Grows in Baltimore

     Nearly every morning Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. start the day with a brisk walk through the beautiful Johns Hopkins University campus right across Charles Street from their apartment.  One day back in July they encountered something new as they climbed the hill toward the Milton Eisenhower Library---a sign announcing the forthcoming construction of a large addition to the library to be called the Brody Learning Commons.  Chain link and plastic fencing was already in place to keep students and gawkers like Uncle Jack out of trouble and earthmoving equipment was already at work.  Uncle Jack took some pictures that day and has continued to take pictures at intervals ever since.  He hopes to live long enough to follow the construction process with his camera until the building opens for business sometime in 2012 if all goes well.  It's fascinating to watch a major building project like this unfold and he marvels at the ability of the engineers in charge to plan every last detail in advance and then make it happen in the correct sequence.  Look for another set of pictures in a couple of months. (Click to enlarge the pictures).

The existing Eisenhower library (Milton was Ike's brother and president of Johns Hopkins after WWII) is at the extreme right of the architect's drawing---with the arch. The new building will be attached to the old but will mostly be underground.

One lonely shovel has begun the noisy task of knocking down an existing reinforced concrete wall.  Students and faculty are already complaining about the racket but they ain't heard nothing yet.  This was taken on July 27, 2010.

A month later a lot more equipment is on hand, a lot of earth has been moved and a drill is making holes for steel pilings.  It will drill a lot of holes in the next few weeks, hopefully in all the right places.

Meanwhile work proceeds at another level with much moving of earth and installation of infrastructure like stormwater drainpipes.

Down in the hole another section of concrete wall is hammered into submission and the amount of machinery on the premises continues to grow.

Two months after construction began the first retaining walls are beginning to appear but there's a lot more dirt to be moved as you will see.

On the upper level the drill is making big holes for big pipes and more retaining walls are under construction.

The big hole gets deeper every day and the retaining walls follow suit.  Enormous amounts of dirt have been hauled away in trucks but there is much more to come.

While the diggers have been digging other workmen have been drilling holes in the retaining walls and somehow dragging what look like electrical cables into the space.  Where they come from is a mystery to Uncle Jack.  The last of the reinforced concrete walls lies in pieces at the left. This picture was taken on October 8.

On the upper level preparations are made to pour concrete into this hole full of rebar.   What it's for is anybody's guess.

After the pour.  The first of many thousands of cubic feet of concrete that will go into the new building before it's finished.  This picture was taken on November 10.

The pit as of November 11.  How will they get that big shovel out of the hole when the time comes?  Stay tuned.

Glorious Fall on the Outer Banks

    Uncle Jack has always thought that October was prime time on the Outer Banks and his recent two-week sojourn in Nags Head did nothing to change his mind.  The last two weeks were about as perfect weatherwise as one could hope for in these troubled meteorological times and he and Mrs. U.J. enjoyed almost every minute of their stay, the exception being their disappointment in the hushpuppies at Darrell's which didn't seem to be quite as delectable as he remembered them. (They will try again on their next visit---a hushpuppy is a terrible thing to waste). Baltimore has its charms (they wouldn't call it Charm City otherwise) but there's no place he would rather be in the month of October than the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
    While they mostly hung around home and walked on the beach they did make a few excursions and took a few pictures, a few samples of which you will find below.  Click on the pictures to make them larger if you wish.

South Nags Head on Dwellable

      The Currituck Lighthouse-Whalehead Club area has metamorphosed into a major (and lovely) tourist attraction since the last time we visited a few years ago.  The Wildlife Museum was closed on the Sunday we were there but the entire outdoor complex is visually pleasing and the late-October crowd was thin enough to allow visitors to enjoy it.  Deer no longer wander the lighthouse grounds but it's probably just as well, both for them and their tormenters.  The keepers' houses, one of which is shown above,  have been lovingly restored and the landscaping around  them is a treat for the eyes.

It was a great day to climb to the observation deck from which a great view of the rampant over-development of the northern Outer Banks may be had.  Uncle Jack's acute acrophobia saved him from that prospect but he later saw an aerial photograph by Eve Turek at Yellowhouse Gallery that covers the same ground.  Unbelievable.

An oasis of peace and quiet at the foot of the lighthouse.  That's the old keeper's house, now a gift shop, almost hidden in the lush vegetation.

We saw this woman swimming on our first beachwalk in Sonag. She was only one of many intrepid swimmers as it turned out.

Jennette's Pier is coming along nicely.  The wind generators have been operating just long enough to produce the first complaints from nearby residents about how much noise they make when spinning at full speed.  Sigh.

Two new structures have appeared at the base of the pier.  The one on the left will be a bath house for users of the public beach and the other is a pumphouse for pushing wastewater across the street to a new disposal plant out in back of Sam and Omie's somewhere.  There is a very impressive website about the Jennette's Pier project if you want to learn more. Google Jennette's Pier.

The condemned row of derelict houses fronting what used to be Seagull Drive remain in place.  You could perhaps call them the Unpainted Aristocracy if the name were not already taken.

                              This "planter" might turn up on Craig's List one day.

The beach in South Nags Head was extremely wide during our entire visit.  A great time to try to sell oceanfront property to the unwary.

What could be more fun than a trip to Ocracoke on a gorgeous fall day when you don't have to wait in line for the ferry for two hours?

A great place to sit in the sun for a couple of hours.  The docks on Silver Lake never seem to change very much.

The venerable Island Inn was sold at a foreclosure auction the day before our visit but Uncle Jack doesn't know who bought it or for how much.  Many island residents fear that it may be torn down.

                        From a distance Bodie Island lighthouse looks a bit fuzzy these days.

Up close you can see the scaffolding required for the two-year preservation project now underway.  Your tax dollars at work in a worthy cause.

The gigantic wind-blown dune that nearly engulfed the old lifesaving station at Oregon Inlet a year ago has been removed and the building extensively refurbished.  It belongs to the North Carolina Aquariums now but Uncle Jack is not sure what they have in mind for it.

Uncle Jack never did manage to get up early enough to take a picture of the sunrise but he thought this sunset over Sonag was rather pretty.

Bopping around Baltimore

    Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. have been taking advantage of a spate of perfect fall weather to explore some parts of Charm City that have eluded them until now.  Even though they have lived in Baltimore for almost two years now they realize they have hardly begun to to get acquainted with this fascinating city.  With the help of a growing library of books about Baltimore, past and present, they are learning more about the its history  and at the same time scoping out future walking trips. They will be spending the next couple of weeks in Nags Head but stay tuned for further adventures in the Monumental City when they return.

    Union Square, a once-lovely neighborhood a few blocks west of downtown, was one of our recent destinations, primarily because it was for most of his life the home of  Henry L. Mencken , the Sage of Baltimore.  The rowhouse at 1524 Hollins Street (above) is where he lived with his brother, August, after the untimely death of his wife, Sara, after only five blissful years of marriage.  The house is now owned by the city but is kept up by a group of people dedicated to the preservation of this historic house which is opened a couple of times a year for meetings of the Mencken Society, of which we are proud members.

     Mencken is memorialized by this mosaic on the exterior wall of the Hollins Street Market only a few blocks from his house.  This is one of a series of mosaics done by a group of  students from the neighborhood junior high school.  The Hollins Street Market is purported to be the oldest of the several public markets still operating which date back to the early 19th century.  Unfortunately the neighborhood is not quite as elegant as it was in Mencken's time.  Even he began to complain about the deterioration that had set in during World War II when thousands of unlettered people began to pour into Baltimore from the hills of Virginia and West Virginia to work in the factories. Today the lovely park across from Mencken's house shows obvious signs of neglect and some of the nearby neighborhoods are among the city's diciest.  Sic transit.

    A story in this month's "Urbanite" magazine featured this magnificent building on Baltimore's east side which has recently been rehabilitated and is now the headquarters of a non-profit social work organization called Humanim.  Built in 1887 it was the main building of the American Brewing Company, then the largest brewery in the city.  It closed during prohibition but under new ownership beer was brewed here into the 1960's when it closed and began a long slide toward near oblivion.  Preservationists managed to assemble a $26 million fund to restore it with the hope that it will serve as a catalyst for redevelopment of what had become one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.

We were fortunate to meet the maintenance supervisor who proudly took us on a grand tour of the five-story main building.  The view from the roof in all directions is fantastic.  That's downtown in the distance, about a ten minute drive from the brewery.

It's even closer to the Johns Hopkins Medical Center which is actually within walking distance to the south. You wouldn't want to walk there today but the time may come when this is once again a safe and attractive area to live in.

Looking northwest it becomes obvious that there is a lot more of Baltimore to explore.  Unfortunately a large segment of the population has fled to the suburbs so many of the buildings in this picture stand empty in various states of disrepair.

Looking north toward Johns Hopkins University and Uncle Jack's neighborhood called Charles Village.

On the day we visited Mencken's house we had lunch on a park bench in Federal Hill overlooking the harbor where we were treated to the sight of a two-masted sailboat coming in under sail.  That's the National Aquarium right behind it.

We also walked around in Seton Hill, an almost perfectly preserved enclave of early 19th century homes and other buildings just north of downtown on Paca Street.  This was the home of  Mother Elizabeth Seton who became the first American saint in the Roman Catholic Church for her lifetime of work on behalf of others.  Along with her chapel nearby it is the anchor for this lovely neighborhood.

This plaque in front of the house tells a bit about her career and about the house as well.  Click to enlarge.

These beautifully restored rowhouses are typical of many in the elegant Seton Hill neighborhood.

This amazing trompe l'oiel painting adorns a house in the Butchers Hill neighborhood north of Fells Point which has also undergone extensive renewal in recent years.  Once the home of several slaughterhouses it is now a highly desirable place for urban homesteaders to buy and fix up houses, partly because it adjoins Patterson Park, a huge and well-kept city recreational area and also because it is close to downtown.

These twin houses are next door to the one with the mural.  The one on the left has been re-sided with an imitation rock product called Formstone which has been the bane of preservationists all over the city because of its phoniness. These workers houses would have sold for perhaps $500 a hundred years ago but after renovation and modernization they bring tidy sums now, even after the collapse of the housing market.

This massive Greek Orthodox church built of stone occupies most of a square block in Butchers Hill which has been home for many ethnic groups over the centuries.

This elegant dwelling is one of the largest in Butchers Hill.  It, too, has been elegantly restored and has a fine view of Patterson Park and the harbor beyond.