Fort Howard

When students from the local high school want to volunteer their weekends at a haunted house, even if they already have nearly 200 hours of community service, you know it's a success. Such is the case at the Haunted Dungeons at Fort Howard Park.Dedication is obvious as dozens of local residents show up at the park gate to volunteer their time. Some are wearing costumes, others are talking of slimy maggots in jars, and a few plain-clothed people are just looking to help."Most of our adults started off as kids working [here]

Fort Howard, the once-bustling military hub on a Baltimore County peninsula, saw its last major activity end nearly a decade ago, when the veterans hospital there closed in 2002. Aside from a still-operating outpatient clinic, the 95-acre expanse has been left to time and the elements, and today is a rundown, desolate site — if one with stunning views of the Chesapeake Bay and the Patapsco River. But if plans by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which owns the site, and private developers come through, Fort Howard will become a veterans community with mixed-income housing, health care and amenities such as restaurants and museums.

During the most bitter hours of the Depression, even th lowest-level Maryland Baking Co. employee could stop by the Baltimore home of Chief Executive Joseph Shapiro, who would happily ladle out a bucket of homemade crab soup."

The Fort Howard Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in eastern Baltimore County is expected to reopen in six to eight weeks - rather than six months - after being closed by flooding from Tropical Storm Isabel. At the urging of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi sent an assessment team to the clinic last week to determine the extent of damage. The team found that repairs could be started right away and the clinic opened sooner than anticipated. Officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs initially estimated the clinic would be closed for six months while renovations were being completed.

Elmer H. Cook Jr., a teacher, historian and the proprietor of a famous North Point house that was burned during the 1814 British invasion of Baltimore, took his own life Sunday. He was 54.Mr. Cook struggled with depression during the last few months of his life, family members said.At the time of his death, Mr. Cook was a faculty member at Dundalk Community College. Earlier, he taught science and mathematics at Sparrows Point High School for 27 years.Born in Baltimore and raised in Fort Howard, Mr. Cook fell under the spell of the area's history as a boy, and it became a longtime passion.

After years of delays in getting Fort Howard redeveloped as a retirement community for veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday scrapped those plans and said it will seek a new partner for the project. Fort Howard Senior Housing Association had signed a 75-year lease with the VA in 2004 to build what would have been the nation's largest continuing-care community for veterans. But the project, Bayside at Fort Howard, had become enmeshed in disputes over building permits, zoning regulations and taxes.

The suspicious planned unit development process raises concerns of North Point peninsula residents, like myself, over the proposed redevelopment of Fort Howard ("A flexible building approach or way around zoning rules," June 15). The potential 1,800-unit size of the veterans-preferred "self contained" community greatly exceeds the limit prescribed by current zoning and requires a planned unit development designation to proceed. However, the role of Councilman John Olszewski Sr., who represents the area, in reinstating the PUD process for an ill-advised project in Catonsville, and the close ties of County Executive Kevin Kamenetz to developers, make many wonder if the Fort Howard project is a done deal, despite considerable community opposition.

On May 6, 2004, JAMES PHILLIP STEWART, SR., beloved husband of Laura A. (nee Komornik), devoted father of Kathylene Kellar, James P. Stewart, Jr., Kelly Di Fatta and Kimberly Stewart; loving stepfather of John J. Stone, dear brother of Charles D. Stewart and his wife Rosalie; also survived by several grandchildren and great-grandchildren Friends may call at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk Inc., 7922 Wise Ave., on Saturday and Sunday, 3...

Helena Sudina went to the picnic for nursing home residents at the Fort Howard Veterans Administration Medical Center even though her husband, Chuck, died at the facility six months ago."These people are my family," Sudina said yesterday, gesturing toward the guests at the hospital's eighth annual picnic. "I have so many friends here. You just get so close."Fort Howard spokeswoman Laurie Bailey said the event at the eastern Baltimore County facility helps patients and their families maintain the bonds that moving into a nursing home often disrupt.

A Mass of Christian burial for Edward Michael Gillern Jr., the longtime owner of the Jolly Post Tavern in Sparrows Point, will be at 9 a.m. today at St. Rita's Roman Catholic Church, 2903 Dunleer Road in Dundalk.Mr. Gillern, known as "Rip," died Friday at the Fort Howard Veterans Medical Center after a brief illness. He was 82.Born in Scranton, Pa., Mr. Gillern moved to Baltimore in 1938 and soon began working at the Jolly Post, a popular hangout for steelworkers and others after World War II. He married the owner's daughter, the former Mary Jane Burkehouse, and bought the bar in 1949.