Rainy day in Charm City

     What to do on a rainy Monday in Bawlmer? Not a problem if you like museums.  Bawlmer has enough interesting museums to divert ennui from now 'til Armageddon (which actually may not be too long the way things are going).   Every guide book touts the B & O Railroad Museum as perhaps the world's finest so it has been high on Uncle Jack's list of  places to visit on rainy days ever since they moved here almost two years ago. Yesterday he and Mrs. U.J. drove over there and they are here to tell you that it is one fine museum.
      When the B & O started up in Baltimore in 1827  it was America' s first railroad.  It grew to be a colossus before the decline of  U.S. railroads began after WW II when the interstate highway system boosted the fortunes of  freight-hauling truckers and the airlines wrecked the passenger business. Today the B & O Railroad is but a memory but those memories are in good hands at the museum.

This beautifully preserved roundhouse is only one of several buildings and outdoor displays that make up the whole 100 acre facility.

Imagine the consternation when, in 2004,  a 28-inch snowfall accompanied by high winds caused the roof to collapse and damage many of the meticulously restored engines and other displays in the roundhouse. The roof has been completely rebuilt using modern engineering techniques and all but a couple of the displays have been restored.  Train buffs from all over the country contributed to the expensive repairs. The new roof easily withstood last winter's massive snowfalls.

A comely tourist provides scale for this picture of the largest steam locomotive in the collection.  These behemoths were able to haul enormous loads of freight, including coal, over the steep grades of the Appalachians and to and from the midwest.  The magnificence of this machinery can only be experienced up close which is something the museum makes possible through a network of ramps and walkways.

A view of the engineer's compartment of a steam locomotive.  Almost as bewildering as the cockpit of a modern airliner.

A few of the ancient steam locomotives used in the early days of the B & O.  They supplanted the horses that pulled the trains in the earliest days.

                                                           Some were rolling works of art.

Peter Cooper's "Tom Thumb" was built in Canton, the neighborhood last explored by U.J. and Mrs. U.J., three years after the founding of the B & O.  Cooper got very rich on the success of the railroads and so did a lot of early Baltimore investors.  Railroad stock was the place to be in the early 19th century.

                                       This '37 Buick was converted for use by track inspectors.

The larger and most elegant part of this passenger car was for white travelers only.  All others were confined to the small compartment in the foreground in front of the baggage section.  Jim Crow rode many a train in the south right into the 60's.

The museum sports two wonderful model train layouts.  This picture shows the former site of  Camden Station and its switching yards, now the site of Orioles Park at Camden Yards, the neatest baseball park in all the world. The big red brick warehouse still stands and provides offices and other amenities for the team.

The first B &O office building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1904 along with dozens of other buildings. The replacement still stands in all its opulence even though it houses other companies now.  U.J. and Mrs. U.J. had lunch in the B & O Cafe in this building.  It was not nearly as impressive as the chandelier.

Beautiful Bawlmer

      A number of their acquaintances told Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. that a day trip to Rehoboth Beach on a golden Saturday in September would be foolish in the extreme so they have postponed that outing until some as yet unselected weekday later in the fall.  Apparently the traffic woes of  the Delaware beaches, including the gridlock-prone Bay Bridge, are infinitely worse than those of the Outer Banks at this stage of their development. Proximity to the D.C.-Baltimore colossus is not an unalloyed blessing except for over-the-top monstrosities like Ocean City which welcomes all comers.
      So they used their sunny Saturday for further exploration, on foot, of another of  Baltimore's charming neighborhoods called Canton which was once a bustling waterfront hub of all kinds of manufacturing including shipbuilding, canning and beer-brewing.  Like so many of Charm City's waterfront neighborhoods it has metamorphosed into a fairly upscale residential area whose residents have found proximity to the water to be an irresistible drawing card. Forty years ago one could buy a decent house in Canton for practically nothing but not any more as the pictures suggest.

            Click on the pictures to make them larger.

Many of Canton's old warehouses and factories have been expensively recycled into lavish apartments and condos with magnificent views of the Outer Harbor.  Fort McHenry is directly across the river from Canton. Downtown Baltimore can be seen in the distance, reachable by water taxi or bus or bicycle in only a few minutes.

Wealthy Cantonese can park their boats right in the front yard.  Isn't that nice?

The boatless enjoy another form of recreation on the waterfront---fishing for perch and bluefish as well as crabbing.  This brick promenade continues along the waterfront for eight miles, all the way to downtown.

The cute little sailboat in the center foreground was visiting from New Bern, N.C.  last Saturday.

This historical marker in O'Donnell Square offers a thumbnail sketch of the town.  It was also the home of the American Can Company which produced zillions of cans well into the 20th century,  many of which were used to can Chesapeake Bay oysters, when Chesapeake Bay still had oysters.

Captain John O'Donnell lords it over his eponymous square in the heart of Canton.  He named the town for his favorite port in China whence he imported very profitable goods.  George Washington was one of his favorite customers.  The square is surrounded with well-preserved old rowhouses, many of which have been converted into funky saloons and upscale restaurants.

These modern rowhouses try to imitate the charm of the warehouse conversions and to a great extent succeed.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, work continues on the new JHU library.  Today was dirt removal day with two frontloaders and a couple of mechanical shovels loading a steady stream of dumptrucks.  Uncle Jack could watch this stuff all day.

Sherwood Gardens Revisited

          Weather permitting Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. try to start out each day with a long walk through the neighborhood.  Unlike Nags Head where their only decision was whether to walk north toward Jennette's pier or south toward the Outer Banks pier their Baltimore domicile offers them a host of choices.  The Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus across the street covers many acres of interesting terrain all connected by winding brick pathways which are a joy to walk on.  The campus alone provides miles of scenic perambulation complete with aerobic challenges and interesting stuff to look at like the construction site for the new Brody library (see below).
          The upscale neighborhood called Guilford just to the north of their condo building offers something completely different---miles of sidewalks fronting magnificent mansions surrounded by elegant landscaping.  This morning they chose Guilford for their walk and aimed for the lovely park named Sherwood Gardens which the well-heeled residents of Guilford maintain at their own cost year-round.  The garden is most spectacular in the spring when tens of thousands of tulips blossom but it looks pretty  even in September as the pictures show.
         Tomorrow they plan to take a day trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to check things out.  Stay tuned.

                                                               Sherwood Gardens

                                                                       Ditto

                                                                       Ditto again.

                                                                      And again.

                                             As Count Basie often said, "One more time"

                                           Anybody know what these are?

                                                                    The end.

                                                                     Organized chaos.

Monthly update

      Once again Uncle Jack must beg the forgiveness of that hardy band of readers who continue to look for something in this space every day while the perpetrator dawdles.  He knows it has been a month since he last blogged but the pictures show that he and Mrs. U.J. have not been entirely idle during that time.  Nor have the Orioles who have risen from the dead under their new manager, Buck Showalter, and have actually won more games than they have lost in the past 30 days.  Oh joy.
      In addition to traveling they have enjoyed a number of other activities in recent weeks including "Mencken Day" last Saturday celebrating the Sage of Baltimore's birthday which included a delightful talk by the esteemed author and critic Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post. Uncle Jack bought a book of Yardley's columns for the Post titled "Monday Morning Quarterback" which he has greatly enjoyed reading.  Yardley is a worthy successor to Mencken in the acerbity department and he has a wicked sense of humor to boot.
      Now that the stupefying heat of summer has moved out they have resumed exploring various nooks and crannies of Charm City on foot.  Most recently they visited "Old Town" which still retains a sizable number of 18th and early 19th century buildings including the famous "Shot Tower", a couple of delicatessens and a very old synagogue-museum dating back to the time when it was an enclave of Jewish immigrants. Baltimore is full of charming old neighborhoods like this and they look forward to continuing their explorations through the fall.

Their annual visit to Camden was delightful in spite of the unbelievable heat which curtailed physical activity like the long walks they usually take while there.  They were forced to spend inordinate amounts of time sitting under a ceiling fan in their marginally cooler living room watching the passing parade of yachts.  This monstrosity called "Copasetic" passed by on the way to sea just before Hurricane Earl was supposed to arrive.  She's for sale, by the way.  $22.8 million is what the owner has in mind if you're looking to buy a bigger boat (120 feet long, five levels of  luxury).

A windjammer arrives for what was to be Camden's annual Windjammer Weekend.  The event had to be truncated by the impending arrival of Earl but as it turned out the anti-hurricane precautions were unnecessary as Earl passed by far offshore.  Sound familiar to Outer Banks readers?

This "Observatory" high on a hill overlooking the harbor in Portland, Maine provides a stunning view.  It was built in 1807 by an entrepreneur who kept a lookout for incoming ships and then notified the owners of their arrival.  The climb to the top was a challenge for both Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. but it was worth the effort for the view of the Portland area which is topographically fascinating.

Winded tourists at the top of the observatory with their guide and host, Gigi Guyton and the entrance to Portland harbor in the distant background.

They stopped to admire this picturesque but non-functional covered bridge somewhere in southern Vermont on their way home. Anything that will make a tourist stop and perhaps buy something is fair game.

The view from Hogback Mountain overlook which encompasses parts of four states was enough to stop them.

They enjoyed lagniappe in the form of this snazzy bike parked at the overlook.  In the gift shop one could purchase a gallon jug of pure Vermont maple syrup for a mere 60 bucks----more than a lifetime supply for Uncle Jack who doesn't eat that many pancakes any more.

Building of the new library annex at Johns Hopkins is proceeding apace.  Uncle Jack plans, lord willing, to compile a pictorial record of this project over the next couple of years.  He can only hope that somebody over there knows what they are doing because it is bewildering to him.

Another view of the big dig.  Each one of those machines probably does the work of 25 men which doesn't help the unemployment situation.