Light Street

Baltimore transportation officials are planning an extensive array of street closures across the city today for the 7th annual Under Armour/Baltimore Marathon. The marathon -- as well as a variety of other shorter races -- is set to begin at 8 a.m. from Russell and Camden streets. The city advises drivers to avoid the marathon route, which is in the central business district as well as parts of East and South Baltimore. If drivers must travel near the route, the city advises using the Jones Falls Expressway.

I've never been to a bar quite like the Light Street Station. The Station - if that's really its name - sits near the corner of Light and Gittings streets in Federal Hill. Walk by, and you might wonder if it's even a bar at all. There is no sign on the Formstone exterior - just a martini glass in a small window on the front of the building. Stare through the window for a few seconds, and you think it could be someone's living room that just happens to have a bar, a pool table and an old upright piano.

Gerry Sipes was loading the trunk of her car with files on Light Street in Baltimore yesterday when a man started screaming that a bus was barreling toward her. She jumped onto the sidewalk just in time.A 28,000-pound Mass Transit Administration bus, whose brakes had failed, rear-ended an occupied green Honda Civic about 10 a.m. and pushed it under Sipes' black Toyota, stacking the cars like cordwood.Marsha Netus, the driver of the Civic and Sipes' colleague, was trapped for about 15 minutes and had to be removed by firefighters.

Now or never.Joe Clarke isn't quite so absolute in his thinking, but he knows that the area's healthy economy and business expansions give him the best chance in a decade to get a long-planned skyscraper at 1 Light St. downtown out of the ground.The political winds are blowing in his favor, too. Thanks to tax breaks granted in June worth $6.1 million and a $16.1 million city loan to construct parking spaces, Clarke's 35-story One Light Street could be the first significant new office tower added to Baltimore's skyline since 1991.

Phillips restaurant, an original tenant of Harborplace in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, is planning its first major renovation since opening nearly 19 years ago.The popular, family-run restaurant, known for its crab cakes, piano bar and hanging Tiffany lamps, will be redesigned -- but in a way that continues to reflect its Eastern Shore roots, Honey Konicoff, Phillips corporate director of marketing, said yesterday.The local chain, which started in Ocean City and has locations in White Marsh, Washington and Tysons Corner, Va., hasn't settled on a new theme for the renovations, which will be completed over the next couple of years, she said.

The Downtown Partnership and three municipal agencies scheduled a street fair and ribbon-cutting ceremony for 12: 30 p.m. today to celebrate improvements -- including colorful landscaping and new benches -- to the first block of Light Street.The Department of Public Works, Department of Planning and Baltimore Development Corp. and Downtown Partnership, which are sponsoring the fair, will make similar improvements throughout downtown.Pub Date: 9/24/98

EAGER TO begin construction of a $100 million hotel and office tower in downtown Baltimore, developers unveiled yesterday a new rendering that will be used to attract tenants.One Light Street is the name of the tower, planned to replace the former Southern Hotel at 7-11 Light St. and five other buildings in the block bounded by Light, Baltimore, Grant and Redwood streets.The rendering shows a 35-story building with its main entrance off Light Street. Designed by Peter Fillat Architects of Baltimore, it will include a lobby and shops at street level, topped by nine stories of parking (for 660 cars)

150 years ago in The SunAugust 19: Whig Mass Meeting at Cockeysville -- A grand mass meeting of the Whigs of Baltimore County is to be held at Cockeysville to-day, to be addressed by a member of distinguished members of Congress. A train of cars will leave the Susquehanna depot at 9 o'clock this morning to convey a large number of our citizens to Cockeysville, who have expressed a desire to attend the meeting.100 years ago in The SunAugust 17: CARLISLE, Pa., Aug. 16 -- Three prominent young ladies of Baltimore, now at Mount Holly Springs, near this city, were arrested yesterday for riding on the pavement on their bicycles.

Nearly 10 years after Baltimore redevelopment officials first approved demolition of the Southern Hotel, the building's days finally appear to be numbered.Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation recently agreed not to hold up demolition of the landmark 84-year-old hotel, a decision that clears the way for construction of a $120 million, 35-story hotel and office complex called One Light Street.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced that the project is moving ahead during the annual meeting of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

In South Baltimore, people remember Marvin Brent Cooper. He was the Pikesville boy who moved to the neighborhood after he grew up, taught chess to local children, defended grown-ups in court and three years ago, died with a bullet in his stomach."

The first wave of Legg Mason employees showed up at new Harbor East headquarters Monday, representing a new start for the struggling money manager while also creating a potential boon for businesses at the waterfront neighborhood. At the same time, Legg's relocation will leave a big dent in the old central business district. The huge vacancy at 100 Light St., where Legg occupied 22 of the 35 floors, has not been filled. For surrounding businesses at Legg's former home, the loss means more bad news during trying economic times.

Shannon Robertson regularly passes through the 33rd Street intersection near Lake Montebello on her way to her mother's house, where she drops off her children during the week. "It's such a busy intersection, and there are so many different directions that traffic is flowing in," she said. "I've seen many almost-accidents." Which is why replacing the traffic lights with a roundabout "might be a good idea," said Robertson, of West Baltimore, who was biking around the lake with her two daughters Sunday morning.

When Harborplace debuted in 1980, the idea was to lure tourists to Baltimore's waterfront. It was a reflection of a changed city. Tourists came by the car and busload, and over the past two decades, the downtown revival continued up and down Pratt and Light streets. Now change is once again in the offing. A proposal to revitalize the entrance to the city by remaking Pratt Street as a grand urban gateway reflects the desire to attract more tourists and also serve the growing number of downtown residents who have populated the east and west sides of the harbor.

Pity poor Pratt Street. It is a big street but little loved, one that manages to be pedestrian, as in undistinguished, and yet not pedestrian-friendly, as in eminently stroll-able. No lyricists have been moved to immortalize it, as they have "State Street, that great street," or "the avenue, Fifth Avenue." So I had one question yesterday when the city unveiled a huge, $100 million redevelopment plan to freshen up and enliven the street: Is $100 million enough? No, seriously, Pratt in its current incarnation isn't all that bad. It's just neutral - the equivalent of flyover country.

Firefighters assembled yesterday, some in antique firetrucks, for the annual firefighters' convention parade. The procession began on Key Highway, headed to Light Street and ended at the Baltimore Convention Center, where there was a Firehouse Expo flea market.

Baltimore transportation officials are planning an extensive array of street closures across the city today for the 7th annual Under Armour/Baltimore Marathon. The marathon -- as well as a variety of other shorter races -- is set to begin at 8 a.m. from Russell and Camden streets. The city advises drivers to avoid the marathon route, which is in the central business district as well as parts of East and South Baltimore. If drivers must travel near the route, the city advises using the Jones Falls Expressway.

I've never been to a bar quite like the Light Street Station. The Station - if that's really its name - sits near the corner of Light and Gittings streets in Federal Hill. Walk by, and you might wonder if it's even a bar at all. There is no sign on the Formstone exterior - just a martini glass in a small window on the front of the building. Stare through the window for a few seconds, and you think it could be someone's living room that just happens to have a bar, a pool table and an old upright piano.

Baltimore's Columbus Day celebration is planned for Sunday with a parade from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The route is to start at Key Highway, running up Light Street, east across Pratt Street, and then into Little Italy. The events - sponsored by the Columbus Celebrations Inc. and the Office of Promotion and the Arts - are to include a wreath-laying at the Columbus Piazza on President Street at 10:30 a.m., and an Italian Street fair from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Stiles Street.

At least two Baltimoreans are still using their trusty 1960s E. J. Korvette's audio speakers, I learned after last week's look at retail history. Another reader requested equal time for Baltimore's homegrown budget stores, where I spent many Saturdays, not always willingly, as we were fitted for whatever we needed. Let's consider Epstein's, Goldenberg's and Julius Gutman's, later Brager-Gutman's. I can still remember the smell of the rubber of the tennis shoes in the old Goldenberg's basement on Eutaw Street, a building plowed under for the grossly overbuilt Lexington Market subway entrance.

Numerous roads throughout Baltimore will be closed or partially closed for tomorrow's Under Armour Running Festival - which includes a marathon that begins and ends downtown but will take runners on a tour through much of the city. Maryland Transit Administration officials are warning that riders on 20 bus routes will be affected, as route diversions and bus stop changes are planned. The 26.2-mile race starts at 8 a.m. at Paca and Pratt streets. Temporary lane closures will be in place from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. as runners make their way around the course that includes downtown, around Druid Hill Park, East Baltimore, Patterson Park, the waterfront along Fells Point and the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill and Fort McHenry.