Falls Road

The long and unconventional life of Charlie Barber ended quietly a week ago in his room at Stella Maris in Timonium. Although disinclined in life to ask for much at all, the soft-spoken man had asked for a glass of water, received it and soon after slipped away. He was by some accounts in his late 90s, by others more than 100. This biographical detail, along with others, remains vague. Homeless but not homeless, a presence in the lives of many people while not tied to family, occupation or property, Mr. Barber lived from one moment to the next, taking what fate brought his way. It could be a breakfast, then another breakfast the same day, several lunches strung together in an afternoon or a free drink or meal offered by a restaurateur.

Each April, I look forward to the Saturday when the Grand National Steeplechase jockeys ride across a swath of unspoiled Baltimore County valley. From a vantage point atop a hill off Butler Road, just off Falls Road, I look out across the Western Run Valley and think how fortunate we are to have this setting — and the chance to visit it on a single spring afternoon. That's enough; too much traffic is not what this location needs. The countryside race, held Saturday, is over private estates and farms.

Baltimore County Police are investigating a single vehicle crash that killed two people late Saturday, April 14, in the area of Falls Road at Beckleysville Road near the northwestern edge of the county. Police said the incident occurred on April 14, at 10 p.m. Police responded to the intersection of Falls Road and Beckleysville Road, west of Prettyboy Reservoir, and found a 1994 Honda Civic at the location. Investigation revealed that the vehicle was traveling southbound on Falls Road, when the driver lost control of the car, left the roadway, and rolled the vehicle.

Baltimore County Police are investigating a single vehicle crash that killed two people late Saturday, April 14, in the area of Falls Road at Beckleysville Road near the northwestern edge of the county. Police said the incident occurred on April 14, at 10 p.m. Police responded to the intersection of Falls Road and Beckleysville Road, west of Prettyboy Reservoir, and found a 1994 Honda Civic at the location. Investigation revealed that the vehicle was traveling southbound on Falls Road, when the driver lost control of the car, left the roadway, and rolled the vehicle.

THE CHARACTER of the Falls Road corridor from Cross Keys to Mount Washington and north to Bare Hills has become a mecca for change. When I first arrived in Baltimore in the early 1960s, we rented a house in Mount Washington. The village then was a collection of shabby frame homes with a small A&P where the locals shopped. A year later we bought an old barn-red pile on Falls Road above Poly-Western in Roland Park. It was bucolic at the time since Cross Keys did not exist and from our front porch we looked out on part of the Baltimore Country Club's golf course.

The Mayor's Hampden Christmas Parade will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, necessitating the closing of Falls Road between Cold Spring Lane and 36th Street.Sponsored by community associations and businesses in the Hampden-Medfield neighborhoods in North Baltimore, the parade will begin at the Poly-Western High School complex, proceed south on Falls Road and turn east on 36th Street before dispersing along Chestnut Avenue. Information: Kurt Kocher, Department of Public Works, 410-396-5198.

A woman and a young child were found dead in an attic last night after a fire damaged a century-old house near Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane. The 33-year-old woman and her niece, 4, were trapped in the house in the 4600 block of Falls Road when the fire broke out shortly after 9 p.m. As many as 10 others believed to have been in the house - more than half of them children - escaped unhurt, officials said. "I could smell the smoke, a bunch of children were running out of the house, and I saw smoke coming out the window," said Amanda Sheridan, a pharmacist who was working at the CVS store next door.

It was former newspaper columnist Hollis Paschen's misfortune to be the first motorist who rolled up to the crumbling, 59-year-old Falls Road Bridge just after it closed.Headed for a job interview at a professional office center just north of the short, high bridge near Lake Roland, she pulled up yesterday just as barricades were put into place. The bridge is to be demolished and rebuilt by Dec. 20."I can't believe it," she said, contemplating a seven-mile detour to get about 700 feet north.

A water main break reopened Wednesday at Falls Road and Northern Parkway in Baltimore, and repair work is likely to affect traffic in the area through the end of the week, according to public works officials. The break was initially found Tuesday on southbound Falls Road about 200 feet north of its intersection with Northern Parkway, according to city Department of Public Works spokesman Kurt Kocher. A clamp on the leak failed Wednesday morning, Kocher said. A portion of Falls Road south of Northern Parkway was being used as a staging area for construction equipment, causing southbound Falls Road traffic to be detoured onto westbound Northern Parkway, Kocher said.

The married couple and the widowed cousins live on the same street -- 30 miles and several worlds apart -- and they wouldn't trade places for anything.Yet they are connected by Falls Road, the oldest and one of the most historic roads leading out of Baltimore. Once an Indian trail along the Jones Falls, the road offers picturesque views of rolling countryside and glimpses of the industrial past.Crossroads named Clipper Mill, Benson Mill, Resh Mill and Gorsuch Mill recall the mills that operated along the Jones Falls ,, and other nearby streams.

Two men in their 20s are dead after a single-vehicle accident in upper Reisterstown at 10 p.m. Saturday, officials said Sunday. Justin Stambaugh, 22, of the 3800 block of Rockdale Road, was driving a 1994 Honda Civic southbound on Falls Road at a high rate of speed when he lost control and the car left the roadway and rolled over, Baltimore County Police said. Stambaugh and his passenger, Willie Green Jr., 21, of the 19600 block of Old York Road, were both ejected and died from their injuries, police said.

A winter weather advisory remains in effect for the Baltimore area until 1 p.m. Saturday, as rain continues to fall on top of last night's snow, creating an icy mess. The wintry mix left less than an inch of snow around Baltimore City, but higher accumulations in the outer suburbs, according to observations from the National Weather Service, which lists 1.9 inches near Bel Air and 1.4 inches near Laurel. Freezing rain will continue to fall in the morning, changing to rain in the early afternoon, the National Weather Service says.

Spike Gjerde's Hampden project has a name - Half Acre - says the Baltimore Business Journal.  First reported on here last April, Spike Gjerde's new project is located at 3801 Falls Road in Hampden. Half Acre will have no table service, although there will be limited seating inside and out. When the project was first announced last spring, Gjerde said that it, like Woodberry Kitchen, would be driven and inspired by the food of the region.      

As of 9 a.m. Monday, there were no major accidents on Baltimore area roads. The Maryland Transit Administration is advising patrons that there will be delays to the Central Maryland light rail line due to an incident Monday morning in which a pedestrian was struck on the tracks north of Lutherville. Service has been temporarily suspended between the Falls Road and Lutherville stops, and a shuttle bus service will be available to carry passengers. Gates are stuck in the down position at some crossings where the light rail line meets roads in Baltimore County.

Heavy rains infiltrated sanitary sewer lines at two locations in Baltimore and caused more than 24,000 gallons of untreated sewage to overflow from Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, according to the city Department of Public Works. A 12,100-gallon spill occurred in the 1700 block of East Chase Street and 12,300 gallons overflowed in the 1900 block of Falls Road. "Rain gets into the cracks of these old pipes," said Kurt Kocher, DPW spokesman. "We are aware of the problems at these locations, when it rains heavily.

James Floyd Jackson, a retired truck driver and Baltimore church musician, died Nov. 16 of a heart attack at Church of God by Faith while preparing to play for evening services. The Loch Raven resident was 74. Mr. Jackson was born in Baltimore and raised in Franklin Square. After graduating from Frederick Douglass High School in 1955, he enlisted in the Air Force, from which he was honorably discharged in 1959. A long-distance truck driver, Mr. Jackson retired in the 1980s.

Robert Pollock, a Baltimore County builder and real estate salesman who constructed homes along the Falls Road corridor, died yesterday of cancer at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 47 and lived in Reisterstown. Mr. Pollock built homes in the Laurelford and Westwicke sections of Baltimore County, wooded subdivisions he helped develop in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a leading sales agent at the Greenspring office of O'Conor Piper & Flynn real estate firm. "He built magnificent homes," said Candace Claster, a business associate.

The 5800 block of Falls Road in North Baltimore will be closed indefinitely as public works employees repair a huge break in a 20-inch water main, the city Office of Transportation announced yesterday. The break, which occurred about 2 p.m. yesterday, flooded a swath of Falls Road, created traffic delays and forced area businesses to close. The city suggested motorists take alternative routes around the problem area.

Look around! Christmas has come to Hampden once again. As if it wouldn't. As if you could miss if it you wanted to. But if I may speak frankly for just a moment (and really, would you be reading this column if I didn't speak frankly?), of all the great neighborhoods in our city, Hampden by far is the most Christmasey. Don't get me wrong, other neighborhoods display really nice holiday spirit, but no one can touch the holiday cheer that Hampden puts on display. Aside from the Miracle on 34th Street, we also have the Mayor's Christmas Parade.