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Fifty Years of History Trails: Highlights from a Half-Century of Stories
Tracing Baltimore County History
Different mastheads, 1966 to present. History Trails Archive, HSBC Collections.
Volume 46 Autumn 2016
Editor:
Kathleen M. Barry
Number 1
PAGE 2 History Trails
INTRODUCTION
With this issue of History Trails, we are proudly
marking the journal’s fiftieth anniversary with some
reflections on its history and highlights from issues
past. September of 1966 brought the first edition of
History Trails by the Publication Committee of the
Baltimore County Historical Society. In the fifty
years since, History Trails has changed with the
times in many ways. But it has consistently offered
readers fact-filled journeys through the history of
Baltimore County and its people, places, properties,
and organizations. Whether tackling local stories of
war, industry, agriculture, sport, or commerce, or
excerpting amusing tidbits from nineteenth-century
newspapers, History Trails has been a steady source
of edification and engagement. It is truly among the
most important and enduring of the Historical
Society’s contributions to preserving, interpreting,
and promoting Baltimore County history.
History Trails could not have reached its fiftieth
anniversary without the volunteer contributors and
editors who have provided content and made
publication possible over five decades. We offer our
sincerest thanks to the many who have worked on
History Trails since its inception. While not all
contributors and editors have been named over the
years, we are nonetheless grateful to all. The
following are some who have played particularly
important roles in the journal’s history:
Founding Publication Committee, 1966-1971:
Myrtle S. Eckhardt (Chair), Eva A. Akehurst,
Bertha Bland, Dr. Mary S. Braun, E. Bennett
Bowen, Mrs. T. Newell Cox, Edwin Gontrum,
Jennie E. Jessop, and Mr. and Mrs. Carroll E.
Saumenig
Acknowledgement is also due to:
Mrs. George Gompf (typist, 1966-1971)
Editor, 1971-1973:
Robert David Williams
Editors, 1974-1977:
John W. McGrain and Robert W. Barnes
Editors, 1977-2008:
John W. McGrain and William Hollifield*
Layout and Editing, 2008-2010:
Adam J. Youssi and Ann Blouse
Editor, 2010-2016:
Adam J. Youssi
*A special note of appreciation is due to
John McGrain and William Hollifield.
Both not only served as longtime editors
of History Trails, but have also been
generous contributors. John McGrain in
particular has been the author of scores
of articles before, during, and after his
thirty four-year tenure as editor. They,
more than anyone, deserve credit for the
success and endurance of History Trails.
Many thanks!
William Hollifield and John McGrain, ca. 1973. Gift from Alice
Martin, HSBC Collections.
50 YEARS OF HISTORY TRAILS PAGE 3
HIGHLIGHTS
The following are summaries with excerpts of
History Trails articles that stood out to us as we
reviewed the many interesting articles since 1966.
Some highlight the work of the Historical Society,
while others focus on topics of enduring general
interest, such as place names and “ghost towns.” All
are articles that struck us as particularly apt
examples of the appealing topics and careful
research that have defined History Trails over the
years. We hope you enjoy them.
—Tom Graf, President of the Board of
Directors of the Historical Society, and
Kathleen Barry, current editor and
Executive Director of the Historical Society
“History Markers,” September 1966 (Vol. 1, No.
1). The inaugural issue of History Trails described
HSBC’s effort to identify and erect Baltimore
County historical markers. Initiated by local
Historical Societies in 1930, the Maryland State
Road Commission launched a statewide roadside
marker program in 1933, with responsibility now
under the Maryland Historical Trust. Approximately
800 markers have been erected on Maryland
roadways, with over seventy located in Baltimore
County.
Among the markers erected by HSBC was a sign
recognizing the location of the Gorsuch Tavern,
built in 1810, and a popular gathering place in
northern Baltimore County. The article noted:
Strategically located on the York Road, the
tavern was a busy place. It catered to the
teamsters and shippers who brought huge
grain shipments from the rich Pennsylvania
farms to the north and hauled them on to
Baltimore Town for export. Stories abound
about the genial hospitality of the host and
his helpers, the good food and lodging, and
a bar that offered the finest of local and
imported beverages. Then, too, there was
the well-stocked store for the ladies of the
countryside where they could shop to their
heart’s content amid the latest importations
of fine fabrics, frocks, hats, shawls,
perfumes, jewelry, as well as tea, coffee and
sugar - additional luxuries.
“Origin of Names,” June 1967 (Vol. 1, No. 4).
The fourth issue of History Trails explained the
origins of many of Baltimore County’s place names.
“Even though sources may not always agree, even
though some findings may not be absolutely
authentic, nevertheless, the attempt to find how
some of our place names originated can become a
bit of interesting research.” The article discussed the
origins of local place names under thematic
headings: “From Our Indian Heritage” (the
Chesapeake, the Patapsco, the Sweathouse Road);
“From Large Landholdings” (Sweet Air, My Lady’s
Manor); “From the Pages of History” (Relay,
Harrisonville, Fort Howard, Pulaski Highway);
“From Industry” (Owings Mills, Dundalk); “From
Other Lands” (Perry Hall, Hereford); “From Family
Names” (Parkton, Kingsville); “From the
Geography of the Area” (Fork, White Marsh, Green
Spring Valley, Long Green Valley); “From Famous
Old Inns” (Johnnycake Road, Wiseburg/Weisburg);
and “From the Unusual” (Glyndon, English
Gorsuch Tavern, 15910 York Rd. at Ensor Mill Rd., built
by Joshua Gorsuch as an inn, ca. 1812. Photographed in
1974. P000432, HSBC Collections.
PAGE 4 History Trails
Consul). Offering a final list of local names that
might provoke curiosity, the article explained,
Black Rock, White House, Greystone, Blue
Mount, Beaver Dam, Cub Hill, Featherbed
Lane, Devil’s Backbone, Frog Pond, Turkey
Point, Bear Creek and Maiden Choice are
among the quaint old names of the county
which incite interest in their origin. More or
less descriptive in nature, many of the above
were assigned for quite obvious reasons.
Buzzards’ Glory, near Grave Run, was so
named (according to a story that is told)
because several old men in the
neighborhood sat on a nearby fence every
morning to enjoy a bit of gossip. One of the
disapproving housewives remarked “look at
the old buzzards sitting there wasting time.”
The name Buzzards’ Glory followed and has
stuck ever since.
“In the selection of names for towns, villages,
valleys, streams, and roadways,” the article
concluded, “Baltimore Countians, over the years,
have shown consistently a keen appreciation for the
fine natural, historical and cultural background with
which they were favored.”
Jennie E. Jessop, “Ghost Towns of Baltimore
County,” December 1969 (Vol. 4, No. 2). This
issue explored the history of Baltimore County’s
ghost towns, such as Hoffmanville and Marblevale.
Warren was a busy textile mill town with nearly
1,000 residents in the mid-1800’s, until business
declined and Baltimore’s need for a stable water
supply led to the village’s sale and eventual
flooding after the second Loch Raven dam was
constructed in 1922 (note: History Trails revisited
Warren in Vol 39, No. 4). Ashland was the site of
an around-the-clock iron works, with three active
furnaces and houses nearby for more than 200
skilled artisans and unskilled laborers. Following a
major fire in 1880 and facing declining demand for
pig iron, the machinery was moved to Sparrows
Point and the Ashland iron works were closed. The
village remained, but the city sold the thirty four-
acre site to furrier and developer Mano Swartz for
$43,000 at auction. Lacking indoor toilets, the
remaining houses were polluting Loch Raven
Reservoir and in the 1980’s the village was sold
again. It was renovated/rebuilt and is now the
development you can see today adjacent to the
Western Run.
Joppa was an early settlement and shipping port,
serving as the county seat of Baltimore County in
the mid-1700’s. Joppa was blessed with a wide
harbor, ample water power, and a thriving social
center. “Dances, horse races, exciting trials, lively
elections, punishment by pillory, whipping posts,
and gallows tree were part of everyday life.” But
little of it remains today:
Why did this settlement which gave so much
promise in the beginning days of Maryland’s
history, lose its prestige and gradually
become an abandoned city? Marsh land
filled up what was once Joppa’s excellent
harbor, for the clearing of timber from the
surrounding area brought down tons of mud
and silt to the river’s mouth. Malaria and an
epidemic of small pox took their toll causing
many to seek new homes. In 1768 the county
seat was moved from Joppa to Baltimore - a
deathblow to the town on the Gunpowder.
For these reasons Joppa became a deserted
village dwindling down through the years to
one building known as the Rumsey Mansion
Joppa Town historic marker (now in Harford County).
This site was the county seat of Baltimore County from
1712-1768. P001535, HSBC Collections.
50 YEARS OF HISTORY TRAILS PAGE 5
and to one grave stone with an epitaph to
David McCulloch, dated 1766. The mansion
and the grave-stone are the sole reminders
of the vanished glory of old Joppa Towne.
“Baltimore County Territorial Changes: 1659-
1919,” Winter 1972-1973 (Vol. 7, No. 2). “At one
time,” this brief article explained, “Baltimore
County embraced the entire northern part of the area
of Maryland from the Patapsco on the West to the
Chester River on the Eastern Shore.” Illustrated
with a map (reprinted below), it noted how
Baltimore County lost territory successively to
adjacent counties. Those counties included: in 1674,
Cecil County; in 1726, Anne Arundel County (parts
of which later became Howard County); in 1773,
Harford County; and in 1836, Carroll County (note:
other sources may give slightly different dates).
Baltimore County’s borders shrank further to
their present size with the expansion of its former
county seat, Baltimore City, which was officially
separated from the County in 1851 by a revised
state constitution.
The city of Baltimore, beginning in 1816,
began to expand its boundaries—first
northward to Boundary Avenue (now North
Avenue). (The line was along the north side
of the street including the front steps but not
the houses on that side!) [sic] then again in
1888 annexing to the west and again
northward taking in an additional seventeen
square miles and another 35,980 people.
Baltimore County boundaries: 1959-1973. Boundary lines wandered up and down the country. At one time the boundary line
between Pennsylvania and Maryland was thought to be above Philadelphia (Dash line at top was original Maryland Charter
Boundary-1632) and at another time below Baltimore. A dispute between the Penns and the Calverts was finally settled by
the employing of two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. In four years (1763-1767) they, together
with a forty man brush-cutting crew and a few local Indians established the north-south line between Maryland and what is
now Delaware and the east-west line between Maryland and Pennsylvania. The shaded area indicates Baltimore County
territory in 1659. Baltimore City was also included in Baltimore County until 1851. Drawings by David Williams. Map and
caption from History Trails, Vol. 7, No. 2, History Trails Archive, HSBC Collections.
PAGE 6 History Trails
In 1918, the City claimed an additional fifty square
miles and 100,000 residents. However, “Citizen
complaints of excessive annexation and other
problems eventually caused a law to be passed in
1948 forbidding further annexations except by
consent of the voters in the area affected.”
Baltimore County’s boundaries have not seen any
major changes since the city’s last annexation in
1918.
William Hollifield, “The Baltimore County
Historical Society of 1886,” Summer 1977 (Vol.
11, No. 4). Although the current iteration of the
Baltimore County Historical Society was founded in
1959, this issue tells the story of the first Historical
Society, organized in 1886 by the Rev. Dr. John G.
Morris (the founder of Lutherville). Rev. Morris
wrote a letter to the Baltimore County Union
newspaper and proposed these objectives:
1. To collect and preserve all old records of
historic value which are now lying in
obscurity and liable to be exterminated by
conflagration, mildew, the depredations of
vermin or natural decay. There must be a
number of old families in our county who
doubtless have such old papers stowed away
in antiquated trunks and barrels, or
neglected cupboards, which have not been
disturbed for years. They would be glad to
have them saved from destruction by
presenting them to a historical society which
would carefully keep and properly value
them.
2. To perpetuate the history of persons of
the olden time, who have distinguished
themselves in any position of life, and whose
deeds should not be suffered to be forgotten
or unrecorded.
3. There are not a few places in our county
associated with interesting historical events,
which are as yet indistinctly known, and
which should be thoroughly investigated and
brought to light.
4. There is a multitude of isolated historical
facts of deep historical interest which are
floating about as traditionary [sic] stories
and many of which are founded on truth.
These could be identified from the old
church records, and many facts could be
gathered from some of our oldest
inhabitants, but especially from the
newspapers of the olden time, which are rich
sources of local information.
Dr. Morris invited enterprising gentlemen as
well as “ladies and the more advanced pupils of our
school” to join. More than twenty county residents
(all men) responded. The first regular meeting was
held in Towson in January 1886. The last recorded
meeting was held in Lutherville in May 1886. It is
assumed that the society disbanded at about that
time. As Dr. Morris summarized his experience, “In
January, 1886, a few of us founded a Baltimore
County Historical Society at Towson, Md, of which
I was chosen President. It was composed of very
few members, and no interest whatever could be
excited in the subject, and the Society soon became
extinct.”
John Gottlieb Morris (1803-1895). Oil on canvas by
Oscar Hallwig, ca. 1895. Courtesy of the Maryland
Historical Society, Item ID #1896.4.3.
50 YEARS OF HISTORY TRAILS PAGE 7
John W. McGrain, “The Presidents in Baltimore
County, Parts 1-3,” Summer, Autumn, Winter
1987 (Vol. 21, No. 4, Vol. 22, Nos. 1-2). At the
beginning of this three-part series, Mr. McGrain
explained that he has been collecting random
mentions of presidential visits to Baltimore County
for years, aspiring to create a comprehensive list
including every president. Hence this article, which
covers every president to have served until the time
of writing. “When no incursion into the county
could be proved,” he explained, “visits to Baltimore
City have been listed as the next best thing. Only
after the development of the helicopter, could a
president skip over the county and land inside the
confines of Charm City.” As a final point he added,
“While this article may not be a contribution to
learning, it is at least a tour de force and a bit of fun,
or is intended to be.”
So what did all those Presidents of the United
States do while in Baltimore County (or City)? The
earliest presidents dined and lodged in local inns.
President Monroe visited Fort McHenry and the
Battle Monument in 1817. President John Quincy
Adams walked in the funeral procession of John
Eager Howard in 1827, one of many visits.
President Jackson enjoyed the first-ever
presidential train trip on the B&O in 1833.
Subsequent presidents availed themselves of the
thriving local rail system, and several were brought
to Baltimore, among other cities, to lie in state.
President Franklin Pierce, accompanied by General
Jefferson Davis, greeted a city crowd of some
100,000 in 1853, while President-elect James
Buchanan passed through almost unnoticed en
route to his inauguration in 1857.
President Lincoln traveled through repeatedly,
including on his historic visit to Gettysburg. He
came on April 18, 1864 to open the Maryland State
Fair for the Benefit of the Sanitary and Christian
Commission. The following year, after his
assassination, Lincoln’s funeral train passed
through the city and “ground slowly through
northern Baltimore County, where crowds of
people turned out at Lutherville, Phoenix, and
Monkton.”
In 1876, President Grant attended
commencement at the Notre Dame Institute, where
his niece was a student, and, in a subsequent trip,
visited the private stately homes at Montebello and
Clifton. President Garfield had the misfortune of
passing through via train three times in illness and
then posthumously in 1881, after being shot by an
assassin on July 2 and eventually dying on
September 19. Again, in 1901, locals turned out to
pay respects to an assassinated president:
A number of citizens of Towson and vicinity
went to Sherwood, Northern Central
Railway, to see the funeral train bearing the
body of President McKinley from Buffalo to
Washington, D.C. The casket was on a
raised bier covered with an American flag,
in full view of the many thousands who
gathered along the lines of route to view the
funeral train.
As travel became easier in the twentieth century,
presidents paid more frequent visits to the
Baltimore area for ceremonial events, political
campaigning and other various reasons. President
Coolidge, however, failed to appear at the opening
of the Fair of the Iron Horse in Halethorpe on 1927
(marking the centennial of the B&O) as the local
press had predicted. In attendance instead was
future president Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of
Chromolithograph picture of Abraham Lincoln, ca.
1884, unsigned. 1962.13.02, HSBC Collections.
PAGE 8 History Trails
Commerce. President Franklin Roosevelt visited
Middle River in 1940 to see construction of
bombers at the Glenn L. Martin plant. After his
death, Roosevelt’s body crossed eastern Baltimore
County on the Pennsylvania Railroad, on the first
electric-powered funeral train. Only a few weeks
before, then-Vice President Harry Truman
addressed the Maryland Historical Society on
Maryland Day, March 25, 1945. Truman later
visited Alto Dale in Reisterstown and appeared at
the Pikesville Armory in 1958. Presidents
Eisenhower and Kennedy, traveling by helicopter,
were the first to visit the city without setting foot in
the county, though Kennedy had previously visited
Towson and Pikesville while campaigning in 1960.
Whatever else we might say about President
Nixon, he is the only US president to have worked
in Baltimore County. He oversaw government
contracts at Glenn L. Martin in 1944-1945. Among
other visits, Nixon and his wife attended the
wedding of his Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew’s
daughter at Towson Presbyterian in 1969. President
Ford kicked off a year of bicentennial celebrations
at Fort McHenry on July 4, 1975. President
Reagan, the current office holder at the time of the
article’s appearance in 1987, had not set foot on
County soil, though he had thrown out the first
pitch at an Orioles’ game and visited Fort
McHenry.
Martha A. Hendrickson, “The Montebello
Water Filtration Plant: Clean Water for City &
Suburb Alike,” Summer 2012 (Vol. 43, Nos. 3-4). Baltimore’s water system serves as a foundation to
the city and county’s growth, stability, safety, and
health. In the late nineteenth century, our city
planners recognized the essential need for a clean
and plentiful water supply and a reliable sewage
system. The great fire of 1904 created an
opportunity to rebuild large portions of the city and
install underground water, sanitary, and storm
sewerage pipes and modernize the system for the
city and county. The Montebello Water Filtration
Plant, drawing water from Loch Raven Reservoir,
was completed in 1915. It received universal
acclaim for its contributions to the public’s health
and well-being, and is still in use today.
The Baltimore Water Board selected James W.
Armstrong to design the plant and head the
Filtration Division. Armstrong had extensive
training in design, engineering, and architecture
and spent formative years involved in the design
and construction of the New Orleans water
filtration plant. After consulting for other plants
around the country, Armstrong came to Baltimore
to work on the Montebello project. Construction of
the plant begin in 1913 and opening ceremonies
were held during the celebration of Defenders Day
in September 1915. The Morning Sun wrote:
Taxpayers who like to see how their
contributions to the city’s maintenance are
spent will have an opportunity to do so if
they are present at 11’ o’clock this morning
when Mayor Preston formally turns on the
water at the great filtration plant that will
henceforth purify Baltimore’s water supply.
A view of this interesting and intricate bit of
mechanism will make the taxpayer realize
that the $5,000,000 water plant is a big
asset and something he can be proud of
when telling his friends in other cities of the
advantages of Baltimore. The filtered water
is now going into every home and the
unpalatable water of the past soon will be a
memory only.
Flag Day Celebration at Fort McHenry, June 14, 1986,
with President and Mrs. Reagan, Governor Hughes and
Senator Mathias, among others. Photographed by White
House photographer. P003014, HSBC Collections.
50 YEARS OF HISTORY TRAILS PAGE 9
The Montebello Plant became known nationally
for its architectural design and engineering
achievements, and was widely featured in
newspapers and engineering journals. Visitors
came from around the world to view the
construction (which could only be appreciated
while it was being built, since much would be
underground during operation). Armstrong led the
filtration division for twenty-five years, continuing
his significant contributions to the quality of our
water supply: completing designs for raising the
Loch Raven Dam, designing a second Montebello
Plant, developing the designs for the Prettyboy
Dam, and proposing locations for the Liberty Dam.
Patrick Cutter, “When No One Else Cared: The
Story of the Upland Home, the Third and Last
Baltimore County Almshouse,” Autumn 2013
(Vol. 44, No. 2). Almshouses were charitable
homes for the elderly, poor and sick, unable to care
for themselves, and people deemed “insane” with
no other family to care for them. Maryland first
established support for relief and aid in 1768, with
Baltimore County passing Chapter 30 in 1775 to
provide “good, strong, sufficient and convenient
houses, habitations and dwellings for the reception
of the poor of said county, and of such vagrants,
beggars, vagabonds and other offenders.”
The third Baltimore County Almshouse, the
Upland Home, was built to serve county residents
following the city-county separation in 1851.
County Commissioners purchased the land in
Texas, Maryland from Dr. John Galloway in 1870,
the County appropriated $60,000 for the
construction of the building, and construction was
completed in 1874. The Baltimore Sun reported:
The new Baltimore county almshouse, a fine
stone building, three stories high, with attic,
situated five miles beyond Towsontown, on
the Northern Central railroad, has been
fully completed. Yesterday the inmates of the
old structure, seventy-two in number,
comprising forty-four males, twenty-eight
females and eighteen colored persons, were
removed to the new building by A. Cole, the
superintendent of the institution. Several
insane people of the county, from the State
hospital at Catonsville are also to be placed
in the new quarters shortly.
The Upland Home was a self-sustaining farm,
with a range of livestock and gardens and orchards,
supported by mentally and physically fit inmates. If
unable to provide physical labor, inmates were
assigned duties within the house such as tailoring,
cooking, cleaning, and even babysitting for the
superintendent’s children. The farm produced
Loch Raven Dam under construction, 1921. P009084, HSBC Collections.
PAGE 10 History Trails
revenue and supplies for the Almshouse and the
county.
Inmates were placed in the Almshouse for a
variety of reasons:
[D]estitution, epilepsy, paralysis, measles,
consumption, “feeble mindedness,” insanity,
dysentery, neuralgia, fistula, ulcers,
remittent fever, burns, heart trouble,
“imbecility,” dropsy, old age, crippled
limbs, stomach troubles, deafness, muteness,
and blindness. The records kept by the
almshouse share a large selection of
“symptoms” that could warrant one’s
internment in the almshouse. Some unlucky
individuals only went there in death, and
were subsequently buried in “Pauper’s
Field,” the unmarked gravesite in the back
of the property where unknown individuals
or those with no family or money were
buried.
In the 1890’s, some residents began to move to
specialized facilities, such as the Sheppard and
Enoch Pratt Hospital. Most of the remaining
inmates were elderly and those suffering from
dementia. Improved health care and social services
continued in the twentieth century, and with the rise
in nursing homes, the Almshouse population
steadily decreased until costs exceeded the value to
the county. In 1958, the third Baltimore County
Almshouse was closed. The 280 acres surrounding
the farm were divided and the main building was
allocated to other County services, such as the
Farm Bureau, the 4-H Club, and the Civil Defense
Hospital Unit. In 1959, it began serving as the
home for the newly incorporated Baltimore County
Historical Society.
Teri Rising, “United by Service: The African
American Fraternal Organizations of Winters
Lane,” Spring 2014 (Vol. 44, No. 3). In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American
fraternal organizations offered fellowship,
community, and status. Typical members were
white, middle-class men, although the wealthy and
working class participated. When African
American men sought the same benefits, they were
turned away from joining the existing lodges and
established their own organizations, attuned to their
needs and communities. This issue describes the
growth of the African American fraternal
organizations in the Winters Lane area of
Catonsville.
The Almshouse (with unidentified visitors or staff) before
a major fire on Dec. 31, 1918, destroyed the original
façade seen here. P009107.02, HSBC Collections.
The Almshouse in 1962, front view (west side), with two staff houses to left that no longer exist. P002025, HSBC Collections.
50 YEARS OF HISTORY TRAILS PAGE 11
Until the Great Depression, fraternal lodges
among African Americans were the most
popular community institution, “no other
organization, except the church, could boast
of reaching into the masses of the Negro
population and at the same time into the
middle class.” White orders made several
attempts to legally challenge the legitimacy
of certain African American organizations,
but the legal fight mounted by the targeted
membership was not only for their right to
organize but also as a matter of racial pride.
The African American community in
Catonsville generally resided in the Winters Lane
area, beginning with former slaves settling in the
northern end and the establishment of a “colored”
school at the southern end. By 1910, over seventy-
five percent of Catonsville’s African Americans
lived on Winters Lane and adjacent streets. The
period between 1870 and 1910 has been called the
“Golden Age of Fraternalism” and so it was in the
Winters Lane community, which became home to
several fraternal organizations including the
Freemasons, the Odd Fellows, and the Elks.
As the neighborhood grew so did the need
for civic institutions. The lodge building
itself was very important and became the
central location for the secret rituals,
recitations and social activities that went
along with the organization. Due to the
popularity of fraternal organizations in that
era, the need for lodge space was great.
The Landmark Lodge No. 40 of Free and
Accepted Masons, established in 1904, is located
on 48 ½ Winters Lane. Most African American
Freemasons are affiliated with the Prince Hall
Grand Lodge, considered the oldest continuous
African American institution in the United States.
Prince Hall, a free craftsman in Boston, founded
the first African American Freemason lodge in
1775. White Freemasons would not grant a charter
to Hall; the lodge remained provisional until 1785
when the Grand Lodge of England granted a
permanent charter.
The African Lodge’s rejection by white
Freemasons highlighted the dual standard
that existed in the United States at the time.
In 1795, Samuel Dexter, a Boston merchant
and patriot, noted the irony of the situation,
“in Boston there is a lodge of free and
accepted Masons, the brethren of which are
negroes... they cannot be denied without
violating the spirit and design of the
institution.” Freemasonry quickly spread
among African American males in New
England and into other urban centers on the
east coast. Prince Hall would go on to
distinguish himself as an important figure
that used the structure and idealism of
Freemasonry as a basis for his public voice.
In 1797, Hall delivered what is considered
to be the earliest publicly recorded anti-
slavery address by an African American.
Although most of the Winters Lane lodges have
disbanded due to loss of members, the Landmark
Lodge No. 40 remains active, and is the only Prince
Hall-affiliated lodge meeting in Baltimore County.
Winters Lane, 2015. Landmark Lodge No. 40 is the building
with the projecting entryway with hipped roof. Photo by
Evart Cornell, HSBC Staff Files.
PAGE 12 History Trails
History Trails is a publication of the
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FOR THE PRESENT AND FUTURE
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Tom Graf, President
Dale Kirchner, Vice President
H. David Delluomo, CPA, Treasurer
Len Kennedy, Secretary
Phyllis Bailey
Scott Batton
Brian Cooper
Evart ‘Bud’ Cornell
Geraldine Diamond
John Gasparini
John Gontrum
Jeff Higdon
Sarah Koch
Jim Long
Mike McCarthy
Larry Trainor
Donna Tyree
Vicki Young
Honorary Board
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Dr. Robert Dubel
Hon. Adrienne Jones
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Images
Except where otherwise noted, the images
included in this issue are from the photograph
collections of the Historical Society of Baltimore
County. With some 8,000 items, the photograph
collections are a rich resource for exploring local
history. For more information, please call or email
the Society (contact information below).
Submissions
While the subject matter of History Trails has
traditionally focused on local concerns, we are
interested in expanding its scope into new areas. For
example, where one article might focus on a single
historic building, person, or event in the county,
others may develop and defend a historic argument,
compare and contrast Baltimore County topics to
other locales, or tie seemingly confined local topics
to larger events.
Articles abiding by the Chicago Manual of Style
Documentary Note (or Humanities) system will be
given priority. For an abbreviated guide to Chicago-
style citations, see Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for
Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations (University of Chicago Press, 2007;
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turab
ian_citationguide.html).
Digital and/or hard copies of articles may be
submitted to the attention of the History Trails
editor at the address below. E-mailed and digital
copies are preferred.
The Historical Society of
Baltimore County 9811 Van Buren Lane
Cockeysville, MD 21030
(Phone) 410-666-1878
(Web) www.hsobc.org
(Email) [email protected]