Fort Mchenry

Five years after the water taxi Lady D flipped over in Baltimore Harbor, killing five passengers, two federal agencies remain divided over the cause of the tragedy and the lessons to be learned from it. The National Transportation Safety Board, after its investigation, made recommendations to the Coast Guard on steps to be taken to prevent future small-craft accidents. But the Coast Guard has staked out a contrary position on several points as it struggles to rewrite its safety rules in the aftermath of a calamity that shook the maritime agency to its core.

Besides being known as the birthplace of the national anthem, Baltimore's Fort McHenry is considered one of the finest examples of fort design in North America. In 1939, it was designated a national monument and historic shrine -- the only fort in the country to have that double distinction. Now it appears the fort finally may get a visitor center worthy of the historic site it promotes. Drawings unveiled last week by the architect GWWO Inc. of Baltimore indicate that the $14 million visitor center will be a vast improvement over the nondescript brick box that has served as front door to the fort since the 1960s.

Usually it's a glass bottle or an abandoned tire. But workers sorting litter out of the piles of sand and dirt scooped from the bottom of the Patapsco River in South Baltimore this week came across an unusual find - Civil War-era cannonballs. Given the proximity of Fort McHenry, state officials say, it's not uncommon for Baltimore-area barges to return to shore with long-submerged ordnance. But cannonballs are another story. "I've been involved in dredging for 30-some years, and I've seen [munitions]

FAMILY KIDS IN THE GARDEN Kids young and old can learn about gardening and the natural sciences through play at Port Discovery's new exhibit, A Garden of Gizmos, tomorrow through Sept. 4. Children can take part in hands-on activities, which teach important environmental lessons, including conservation, preservation, biodiversity and solar energy. Visitors can play at the groundhog display, watch how a garden changes in a year's span, control a fountain made of rope, dance with swaying palm trees and more.

As the floats, fancy cars and marching bands streamed down Bosley Avenue yesterday during the Towson Fourth of July parade, Norma Solomon, with her 3-year-old grandson at her side, let loose an impassioned speech directed at anyone within earshot on why she considers an event like this important. "The community comes together," said Solomon, 61, of Towson. "Children. People of all ethnic groups. We're at peace. If we're not at peace no other day, we're at peace today when we see a parade.

For more than 30 years, none of the park rangers at the Baltimore military landmark knew there was a musical piece called the "Fort McHenry March." Not Ranger Vince Vaise, who organizes summer events each year. Not Ranger Paul Plamann, who had been working at Fort McHenry for 40 years. Not a single one of the 75 employees who have passed through the 18th-century fort during the past three decades had heard of the composition. Then Vaise heard about a lady named Betty G. Hocker, a retired opera singer who lived in a Timonium retirement community.

As Smithsonian scientists and historians take on the monumental task of painstakingly cleaning and restoring the 34-by-30-foot wool and cotton flag that flew over Fort McHenry on the night of Sept. 13-14, 1814, the original manuscript of the song that it inspired, "The Star-Spangled Banner," will also be examined and subjected to space-age conservation methods by experts at the National Archives.The manuscript, which has been in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society since 1953, is the earliest extant copy of the poem that Francis Scott Key wrote while watching the bombardment of the fort from a British truce vessel.

In Baltimore CityCity Council targets incentives for bulk tax-sale purchasesThe Baltimore City Council has given preliminary approval to a bill that would cut interest paid on tax-delinquent properties from 24 percent to 18 percent.The council voted late Thursday to trim the rate to reduce the incentive to companies outside the city buying tax-delinquent properties in bulk. The city allows investors to pay the delinquent taxes in return for being able to seek a higher-than-average interest rate on the money in return.

Mission: To preserve the star-shaped fort, associated buildings, archaeology and landscapes as a perpetual national monument and as a shrine of the birthplace of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the nation's anthem, and to interpret the fort's military history in the defense of Baltimore during the War of 1812 for generations to come. The survival of the fort's giant 15-star flag in the "dawn's early light" of Sept. 14, 1814, after an unsuccessful British attack, inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem.

FORT WASHINGTON -- You can hum it or sing it, and pretty soon you might be able to walk or bike it.A Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail linking more than 30 landmarks of the War of 1812 is being championed by members of Maryland's congressional delegation.Yesterday, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes toured one of the sites in Prince George's County -- Fort Washington -- with National Park Service Director Robert Stanton and community activists to rally support."We are getting close to the bicentennial of the war, and we think this would be a tremendous attraction," said Sarbanes.

The Rev. Arnold Lorenz "Lory" Grumm, former pastor of Nazareth Lutheran Church in Highlandtown and a Fort McHenry volunteer, died from respiratory failure Sept. 11 at the Glen Meadows Retirement Community in Glen Arm. He was 85. Mr. Grumm, the son of a Lutheran minister and a homemaker, was born in Garrison, N.D., and was raised there and in Fargo, N.D. After graduating from Fargo High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1945 from Concordia College in St. Paul, Minn. He earned his divinity degree from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and was ordained a Lutheran minister in 1947.

On his inaugural whistle-stop tour that rolled through Baltimore this year, President Barack Obama made a point of mentioning that a runaway slave was among the troops who beat back the British during the battle in 1814 that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner." He didn't name the soldier, but the history buffs of Fort McHenry knew exactly who he was talking about. "He was referring to Frederick Hall, who escaped from a plantation in Prince George's County and joined the regular U.S. Army under the assumed name of William Williams," said Vincent Vaise, a park ranger at Fort McHenry who commands the historical guard and serves as a font of historical knowledge.

The redcoats descended on North Point Sunday morning, ready to challenge American soldiers and militiamen standing between them and Baltimore. "We're here to reclaim what is rightfully ours," said Matt Moore, of Aston, Pa., who was dressed in British military garb from the period and toting a musket. Moore and several other men donned British and American uniforms to re-create the Battle of North Point, which took place Sept. 12, 1814 - one day before the famous Battle of Baltimore at Fort McHenry - during the War of 1812.

Anne Arundel Annapolis: : Celebrate an old-fashioned Fourth of July in Annapolis. The parade starts at 6:30 p.m. today at Amos Garrett Boulevard and proceeds downtown. A concert by the U.S. Naval Academy Band follows at 8 p.m., concluding with a 9:15 p.m. fireworks display. The concert is at Susan Campbell Park, City Dock, 160 Duke of Gloucester St. Free. Go to hometownannapolis.com Arundel Mills: : Get all decked out in your best Uncle Sam gear for the Arundel Mills July 4th Parade. There will be prizes for best red-white-and-blue costume.

Anne Arundel County Annapolis: : Celebrate an old-fashioned Fourth of July in Annapolis. The parade starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Amos Garrett Boulevard and proceeds downtown. A concert by the U.S. Naval Academy Band follows at 8 p.m., concluding with a 9:15 p.m. fireworks display. The concert is at Susan Campbell Park, City Dock, 160 Duke of Gloucester St. Free. Go to hometownannapolis.com. Arundel Mills: : Get all decked out in your best Uncle Sam gear for Saturday's Arundel Mills July Fourth Parade.

Fort McHenry visitors center Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine will break ground Monday on a visitors center that will commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. The new building will open in the fall of 2010 and replace the existing facility, which opened in 1966 and was built to accommodate 250,000 visitors a year. Fort McHenry officials said they now host about 600,000 visitors a year. Congress allocated more than $11 million in 2005 for the construction of the facility at Fort McHenry, which is a national park.

Five years after the water taxi Lady D flipped over in Baltimore Harbor, killing five passengers, two federal agencies remain divided over the cause of the tragedy and the lessons to be learned from it. The National Transportation Safety Board, after its investigation, made recommendations to the Coast Guard on steps to be taken to prevent future small-craft accidents. But the Coast Guard has staked out a contrary position on several points as it struggles to rewrite its safety rules in the aftermath of a calamity that shook the maritime agency to its core.

Slanted rays of late afternoon sunshine hit the enormous American flag billowing over Fort McHenry, spotlighting the stars and stripes in a dazzling glow of red, white and blue. Old Glory always flies at the Baltimore fort. And on this day the biggest of four versions in the landmark's repertoire happened to be atop the flagpole - a 30-by-42-foot replica of the one that inspired a certain poem-turned-anthem 195 years ago. Better still for the couple dozen visitors who braved the icy breeze, there was more to do than just look.

A restored Star-spangled Banner, originally sewn by Baltimore seamstress Mary Pickersgill in her East Pratt Street home and flown over Fort McHenry in the British attack of 1814, debuted several weeks ago to wide acclaim in its new gallery home at the National Museum of American History in Washington. Recent press accounts about the flag's reappearance prompted W. Boulton Kelly, the noted Baltimore architect and preservationist, to drop me a note. He had been a member of the governor's commission for the 1964-1965 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., and his firm, Tatar and Kelly and Van Fossen Schwab Architects, was the associated architects for the design of the Maryland Pavilion.

For those who love Maryland's place in American history, there is no more precious artifact than the oversized American flag that flew triumphantly over Fort McHenry in the dawn's early light on the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, after a futile British assault that marked one of the turning points in the War of 1812. The flag and the fort were center stage when Francis Scott Key framed "The Star-Spangled Banner" a song that much later became our vocally challenging national anthem. Major George Armistead, who commanded the American force at Fort McHenry, commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker, to sew a flag "so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance."