Fayette Street

Ever wonder why North Charles Street narrows above Fayette Street? Because that's where the Great Fire of 1904 stopped - and so did the subsequent widening of Charles. The traffic jam-inducing bottleneck is one of many lingering signs of the Burnt District, the 70-block swath of downtown Baltimore that marks the fire's destructive path 100 years ago. Many streets are wider only because of the fire. Many buildings are standing today only because the fire destroyed 1,500 others and created a huge demand for new construction.

Greyhound Lines and the city are focusing on sites along a three-block stretch of Russell Street just south of Ravens Stadium in Southwest Baltimore as the location for a new central bus terminal. Greyhound has been searching for a new location in or near downtown for more than a year, after Mayor Martin O'Malley scuttled a proposal to build a terminal north of Penn Station. The company's lease on its terminal on West Fayette Street expires in less than three years, and the property's owner, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, wants to redevelop the site as part of the Westside Renaissance project.

Fred W. Miller Jr., an owner of the old Kingsville Inn and member of the family that ran a fabled Fayette Street restaurant in Baltimore, died Sunday of a circulation ailment at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium, where he had lived for three years. He was 91. A son of one of the two founders of Miller Brothers Restaurant, he grew up observing the downtown Baltimore institution, which advertised itself as "The place to eat" and offered German and Maryland cooking, especially Chesapeake Bay seafood.

Her dream may yet bloom. His withered long ago in a cloud of heroin addiction. Ellery Beggs is a peppy 23-year-old actress from New York with a role in Big River, a touring musical about to hit towns from Andalusia, Ala., to Wickenburg, Ariz. Michael L. Gross is a regretful 36-year-old addict from Baltimore who hopes rehab this time will put his life on track. On this dreary winter day, amid the thwack thwack of windshield wipers, the two sit rows apart on Greyhound bus No. 2911 as it hurtles down Interstate 95 to Baltimore and the terminal on West Fayette Street.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton might be shocked to see the stout brick mansion on East Lombard Street where he lived and died in the early 1800s. Paint peels from shutters. Leaves, trash and weeds seem to jockey for space under its classical columns. Grime coats the upper windows. Now, new life is being breathed into the empty 194-year-old house that belonged to the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. The city Board of Estimates agreed yesterday to turn over operation of it and several nearby buildings - including the Shot Tower on East Fayette Street - to a group led by Baltimore County innkeeper Anne Pomykala.

AMID THE BAD news and uncertainty, it's easy to overlook signs of a fundamental change in downtown development: For the first time in decades, a flurry of construction activity is taking place north of Baltimore Street, along the Calvert Street corridor. Most encouraging is the mix of intended uses. Mercy Hospital's $110 million expansion plan includes a new seven-story outpatient center and an 800-car garage to be built on currently vacant lots. But while those additions will take five years to complete, several other projects are already under way in the vicinity: The Munsey Building, near the Court House complex at Fayette Street, is being converted into 150 apartments.

The city has announced a number of temporary street closings to accommodate area festivals and events this weekend. Northbound Jones Falls Expressway between Fayette Street and Cold Spring Lane will be closed tomorrow from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the annual Jones Falls Valley celebration. The 1300 block of Bolton St., between Lanvale Street and Lafayette Avenue, will be closed today for the 47th annual Festival on the Hill in Bolton Hill. The free event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will be held rain or shine.

A crowd of more than 2,000 revelers packed Howard Street early yesterday after a spring break party at a nightclub let out, forcing police to call in extra officers to break up minor skirmishes to keep order. Police said they were unprepared for the large crowd outside Infinity Sound Stage in the 200 block of N. Howard St., between Saratoga and Lexington streets, because the party occurred on a weekday and authorities had not been told of the club's plans. "It was just a lot of people milling around and walking down the middle of the street," said Maj. Steven McMahon, commander of the Central District.

Bank One Corp., the nation's fourth-largest bank holding company, plans to bring 500 jobs to downtown Baltimore with a check-remittance center slated to open by October. The facility will be located on a parcel of land in the 1000 block of E. Fayette St. across from the main post office, which is in an empowerment zone. Under an agreement between Bank One and Baltimore and the state, the Maryland Economic Development Corp., a public, nonprofit economic development corporation, will serve as developer for the project.

Six more huge pieces of an aluminum kiln will move through Baltimore's streets starting tonight, causing restricted parking along the waterfront and in other areas. The move was supposed to take place the next two Mondays and Thursdays but has been changed to Tuesdays and Thursdays, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the Department of Public Works. The first piece was moved Thursday night. Parking restrictions imposed by the public works agency will be- gin at 9 p.m. today and last until 3 a.m. as the second of seven 130-ton loads leaves a pier on South Clinton Street for a 10 1/2-hour trip to Lehigh Portland Cement Co. in Union Bridge, Carroll County.