A 49-year-old Baltimore historian who taught schoolchildren about Billie Holiday and Thurgood Marshall was working on a rowhouse on the city's west side yesterday when he apparently triggered a building collapse that killed him.
Alvin Brunson, who in 2005 was named "Best Community Historian" by the Baltimore City Paper, ran the nonprofit Center for Cultural Education at 541 Wilson St., just around the corner from Pennsylvania Avenue, the one-time cultural heart of the city's African-American community, which Brunson featured in his lectures.
Brunson was across the street, in the basement of a city-owned rowhouse at 562 Wilson St., when the building collapsed on him, according to officials with the Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development. State records show that Brunson owned that house until September 2005, when he sold it to the city for $218,000.
City Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said nobody should have been in the building yesterday, and they don't know why Brunson was there. "It's a city-owned building ... and we are absolutely puzzled why anybody would be there," Graziano said.
A man who lived in the basement of Brunson's cultural education center, Henry Smith, said he knew his landlord, Brunson, was across the street working on the basement when he heard a loud boom about 1:30 p.m.
The whole building collapsed, Smith said. "They just [brought] his body out now. It happened in less than a minute. The whole building coming down on you - he probably died instantly."
Smith said his landlord had been working in the building for years, trying to renovate it. "In these old buildings there is no footing or foundation for the bricks," Smith said. "They just put brick on top of sand. He was in there working in the basement ... and that weakened the foundations."
In 2005, the City Paper praised Brunson as Baltimore's Best Community Historian, calling him a "walking encyclopedia of Baltimore life and culture. Brunson can show and tell you little-known facts about the first Baltimoreans, local landmarks, and how African-Americans figured prominently in that history, especially regarding Pennsylvania Avenue, the cultural artery that courses just steps from his door. But Brunson doesn't just sit around researching and dusting off exhibits. Brunson goes around to schools, community groups, and whoever else will listen to lecture and educate on Baltimore's African-American history and culture. He conducts Thurgood Marshall and Billie Holiday walking and bus tours."
On the bmore news Web site, Brunson wrote last year that he was sad to see the decay of the once-great Pennsylvania Avenue, where jazz legends had played. "I have not heard one [political] candidate talk about what they plan to do to combat, save and rebuild Pennsylvania Avenue. This sinking ship is a vital part of Baltimore's Black history. If we don't save it, it will be lost forever," he wrote.
tom.pelton@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Brent Jones contributed to this article.
