Charles Street

MAY 15 CAME and went this year, and Glimpses saw only one man wearing a straw hat. That is not the way it used to be in Baltimore.Up until World War II May 15 was "Straw Hat Day" -- the day set aside for men to switch from their winter fedoras to lighter, brighter straws.Straw Hat Day was born in Baltimore and enjoyed widespread support here because Baltimore was the world center for the manufacture of straw hats; commercial interests here promoted it strongly.A straw hat was made of braided, dried grasses of one kind or another, shaped either like the traditional felt hat or flat-topped; the latter is sometimes called a "boater" or "skimmer."

Shoppers wander through the Nouveau Contemporary Goods store in the 500 block of North Charles Street, perusing the art deco teapots, tables made from Gothic columns and ceramic Marilyn Monroe and James Dean coffee mugs."

Charles Street, once a thriving shopping district, now suffers a 21 percent vacancy rate for street-level retail space between Pratt Street and North Avenue. An effort is under way to help improve the fortunes of the diverse, 22-block corridor, building on recent investments such as the revamped Walters Art Museum in Mount Vernon. A group of business and civic leaders has set up a private nonprofit group called the Charles Street Development Corp. Its purpose: to lure retailers and developers to the street, in part by tackling problems such as parking.

They converged from all over town yesterday to stand on the new Charles Street bridge, drinking white wine, swaying to live jazz music and watching a Korean dance troupe kick off a long-anticipated event -- the official reopening of Baltimore's main thoroughfare. "We're ready," said Dan Gilbert, a Midtown neighborhood leader, as he stood on the bridge during a lively block party last night. "I think the area will really pop now." The new bridge opens today after an oft-delayed construction project detoured traffic from one of the city's most crucial passages for three years, splitting the street in two. After a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, Charles Street will become whole again and traffic will be able to navigate north past Pennsylvania Station.

The morning after a gunbattle sent restaurant patrons in historic Mount Vernon diving for cover, business owners complained that a reduction in police foot patrols on North Charles Street has made the area feel less safe.Police said the shooting of a 19-year-old Southwest Baltimore man by an undercover drug investigator at 9 p.m. Tuesday does not reflect crime rates in the neighborhood around the Walters Art Gallery. Crime there is down about 24 percent this year, they said.But that did not satisfy Napoleon Zaharopoulos, owner of Gampy's restaurant in the 900 block of N. Charles St., which had two bullet holes in its facade yesterday.

While wandering down Charles Street this week, I spotted a carpenter carrying a new door into a commercial building Baltimoreans will recognize, depending upon their age, as the Mount Vernon Restaurant or Gampy's. I've put in plenty of time at dinner tables at both locations. It's been regrettable that this building at 904 N. Charles St. has been boarded up for a decade.

THE GROWTH of the University of Baltimore since joining the state college system in 1975 has strengthened upper Mount Vernon, filling voids while other uses departed. Happily, this goes on.The Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland has approved spending $5 million to acquire the handsome building at 1300 North Charles Street that for many decades served as the headquarters of the former Loyola Federal Savings and Loan, and the parking lot adjoining it on Maryland Ave.The former bank headquarters, originally used as a fraternal and banquet hall, would serve as an administration building to bring services for students and the institution together.

GOOD NEWS concerning the Jones Falls Expressway always seems to have a downside. Now that the Charles Street ramp at Pennsylvania Station has been reopened, guess what? In about 10 days, work crews will start resurfacing both the north- and southbound lanes of Baltimore's most popular commuter artery, from the city line to North Avenue. This $5.4 million job isn't expected to be completed until late spring or early summer. Even though most work will be done during off-peak hours, more than 110,000 daily commuters can expect delays, frayed nerves and fender-benders.

A CHARLES STREET landmark is off the endangered list this month after it was sold to a company that owns two hotels nearby.The Masonic Temple, a seven-story building at 223-225 N. Charles St., was sold for $500,000 last month to William C. Smith Co., owner of Tremont Plaza Hotel at 222 St. Paul Place. and Tremont Hotel at 8 E. Pleasant St. in Baltimore.The sale ends more than a year of uncertainty about the vacant building, also known as the Grand Lodge of Maryland.Though it's considered one of Charles Street's gems, the 129-year-old building is unprotected by landmark status and preservationists feared it would be torn down to make way for a parking lot. It was partially stripped of ornaments and fixtures during an "attic sale" in 1997, but many of the items have since been returned.

A group of businesses renewed yesterday their opposition to a small, public high school that would open in Charles Plaza next fall -- even as Mayor Martin O'Malley said he believes the school system should continue to seek alternatives to the location approved by the board last week. The statement delivered to the mayor and school officials by nearby businesses says the school would have a negative impact on efforts by the city to revitalize a key downtown artery. "Such a facility at this location is not only harmful to the city in achieving its goal of rescuing Charles Street from decline, but could prove harmful to students as well," the statement said.