Locust Point

Baltimore-based Under Armour Inc. is planning to add 350 employees at a site in walking distance of its waterfront headquarters, significantly increasing its city work force at a time when it is aggressively expanding into new markets. The sports apparel company expects to open offices in a building now used as a warehouse and freight terminal in Locust Point. Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse has a contract to purchase the 7.2-acre property, between Beason Street and Key Highway, and wants to do a $14.2 million renovation if it can get zoning approval.

Millard R. Hart Sr., a retired master woodworker and lifelong tugboat enthusiast, died May 11 of congestive heart failure at the Maples, a Towson assisted-living facility. The longtime Hamilton resident was 85. Millard Raymond Hart born at his family's Belt Street home in Locust Point. His father, James F. Hart, was captain of the tug A.G. Laun, and his mother was a homemaker. Mr. Hart demonstrated an aptitude for woodworking and he studied at the old Thomas A. Edison Vocational High School at Howard and Centre streets "I didn't have to draw anything," he told Jim Burger, a Baltimore photographer and writer in a recent interview.

He was married, the proud father of three. He'd founded a construction company that was doing well, even in the midst of a recession. And after years of working what he calls "32-hour days," Michael Pomory was even finding time for a hobby he'd dropped years before: jamming with friends on his guitar. "I really thought I'd found a groove that would last the rest of my life," says Pomory, a South Baltimore native, in a voice made gravelly from years of smoking. Then he lost it all. Even now, it's hard to grasp how so much hard luck could hit one person in a single year: the divorce, the foundering of the company, the depression that set in and wouldn't go away.

Free circulator bus service will be extended to Fort McHenry in Locust Point, city officials said Monday. Called the Banner Route, the new service will provide a free bus link to the historic site beginning in June, in time for bicentennial celebrations of the War of 1812. U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes joined Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and his father, former Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, in announcing the Charm City Circulator service to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine on Fort Avenue.

Locust Point was sleepy last Friday night, mostly. Few cars zoomed down Fort Avenue. The sidewalks were empty. The brightest neon sign on the peninsula didn't come from a bar but from the Domino Sugars factory. Music emanated from some bars, but the only noise came from three of us in our 20s walking down the pockmarked sidewalks, past a McDonald's, a strip mall, some warehouses, on a bar crawl in the neighborhood. Locust Point's bar scene got two additions recently — Barracudas and 5 Points — that suggest an infusion of much-needed new blood.

Millard R. Hart Sr., a retired master woodworker and lifelong tugboat enthusiast, died May 11 of congestive heart failure at the Maples, a Towson assisted-living facility. The longtime Hamilton resident was 85. Millard Raymond Hart born at his family's Belt Street home in Locust Point. His father, James F. Hart, was captain of the tug A.G. Laun, and his mother was a homemaker. Mr. Hart demonstrated an aptitude for woodworking and he studied at the old Thomas A. Edison Vocational High School at Howard and Centre streets "I didn't have to draw anything," he told Jim Burger, a Baltimore photographer and writer in a recent interview.

Don't be fooled. Silo.5%, the new wine bar in Locust Point, stands out for more than their extensive list of vino. The scene - a modern lounge with black leather furniture, intimately arranged; the bar - a clean slate-marble accented in green lighting; and the scenery - a panoramic glass exterior opens to a harbor view. It's a perfect venue for a cool, casual cocktail date. Its drink menu runs seamlessly together with its style - classic with a modern edge. My favorite, Catch U in the Rye, is a spicy, sexy take on an old-school American favorite: the Manhattan.

Natural gas service has been restored to almost all customers affected by the gas main break Monday in Locust Point, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday. South Baltimore customers who still lack service should contact BGE at 1-800-685-0123 to schedule an appointment for mechanics to reactivate their meters and light pilots on gas appliances, according to a statement by the utility. More than 200 people, including personnel from utilities outside Maryland, worked to restore gas service, which was disrupted Monday after a bridge contractor accidentally broke a 12-inch gas main in the 1200 block of E. Fort Ave. steve.kilar@baltsun.com twitter.com/stevekilar

Police charged two men Friday in the death of a missing Locust Point man whose body was found in Patapsco Valley State Park last month. Kevin M. Skipper, 30, of the 500 block of E. Fort Ave. was arrested Friday and Christopher S. Calvert, 31, of the 1300 block of Richardson St., for whom police are still searching, are both charged in the death of 31-year-old Matthew C. Martin. Martin was last seen April 9 and was reported missing by his mother, JoAnn Martin, on April 11. His body was found by two fisherman May 15 in the state park.

Harris Teeter will open its long-awaited supermarket in Locust Point on Dec. 7, spokeswoman Catherine Reuhl told me today. The 61,000-square-foot grocer will be part of  McHenry Row , a mixed-use development located on the site of the old Chesapeake Paperboard property. Citypeek.com reported that the grocer will sell wine, but that is not the case, according to the developer of the site Mark Sapperstein. Harris Teeter doesn't have a liquor license. But there will be a store that sells wine and beer directly next door to the grocer.

The setting for Silo.5% Wine Bar is Silo Point, a glamorous luxury condominium carved out of a former working grain terminal in Locust Point. The complex is surrounded by the remnants of industry, and even from the ground floor, the views of the freight lines and the working harbor are stirring. On its best day, peninsula-bound Locust Point is one of your more remote Baltimore neighborhoods. With the Fort Avenue bridge under construction, it has taken on a lost-colony feel. Right now, that's part of the attraction for Silo.5%, which still has the allure of a secret despite being open for about six months.

With bridge construction and a large truck parking lot next to Barracudas in Locust Point, you probably wouldn't think "tropical paradise" when you first step through the door. But co-owner Paul Cuda's namesake, Cuda Punch, will bring your taste buds as close as they can get to Tahiti without booking a flight or cruise. The Cuda Punch is fully loaded with fruit. A base of their secret rum infusion, containing large amounts of pineapple, oranges and other citrusy goodness, lays the groundwork for this tropical libation, topped off with fresh-squeezed orange juice, club soda and a splash of fruit punch for color.

The Baltimore City Council's Land Use and Transportation Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would enable sports apparel maker Under Armour to double the size of its Locust Point headquarters, hire hundreds more workers and help retain the city's last major corporate headquarters. Under Armour, which has grown in more than a decade into a $1 billion global sports apparel brand, plans to build a large new office tower and the city's first Under Armour store. It also plans to expand other buildings on the Tide Point waterfront campus in Locust Point, a converted Procter & Gamble factory.

If you've been needing a reason to head down to the Wine Market, you got it. Every Monday through Thursday in March, The Wine Market in Locust Point is offering a list of delicious but lesser known wines by the glass at half price. Lucien Walsh, the Wine Market's wine director, spent all February sniffing out  some unusual verities for you to try. So, go. While we're talking about the Wine Market, we might as well remind you about happy hour, Monday through Thursday, 5 to 7 p.m., featuring $3 off a selection of cocktails, small plates and large plates.

The building at the corner of Belair and Mountain Roads in Fallston has a reputation as one of those spots where no restaurant seems able to survive. Tony Ashe, owner and general manager of the Mallet, the newest restaurant at the location, hopes to change all that with his combination fine dining/crab house/martini lounge/tiki bar establishment. In the dining room, tasty if traditional steak and seafood dishes and friendly service suggest the Mallet might be the restaurant that breaks through on this corner.

In the minds of some people today, immigration is a bad word ("Immigrants key to reaching mayor's population goal," Jan. 7). Overlooked is the fact that a half century ago, residents of Canton, Highlandtown, Locust Point and Curtis Bay were either immigrants or sons/daughters of immigrants. However, those immigrants were technically immigrants - they arrived at the front doors of the United States through Ellis Island or the foot of Broadway. They did not sneak in. Some even had to pay a bond or someone paid the bond for them.

A 24-year-old man has been indicted on charges that he helped dispose of the body of a man killed in Locust Point last spring, city prosecutors announced. Jeremy Michael Smith , 24, of the 1500 block of Covington St. faces charges of being an accessory after the fact in the killing of Matthew Martin, 31, who disappeared April 9. Fishermen at Patapsco State Park discovered his body. Two men, Christopher Calvert and Kevin Skipper, were indicted July 1 in the killing. Prosecutors said that Smith picked up Calvert at a house on Fort Avenue and went with him to a Lowe's hardware store to purchase a large plastic storage container, which they used to take Martin's body out of a house on Richardson Street in Locust Point.

Locust Point has long been dominated by neighborhood bars, corner watering holes and colorful dives. The bars that dot Fort Avenue - and other venerable hangouts like Down the Hatch and J. Patrick's - embody the neighborhood's profile: modest, self-effacing, pure Baltimore. Like other working-class neighborhoods in the city, Locust Point has seen a surge of development recently, and high-rises such as Silo Point now occupy spaces that were grain elevators. Tucked away on the first floor of Silo Point is Silo.5, a wine bar that opened this fall.

Jean W. South, a retired National Security Agency analyst and school bus driver, died of liver failure Monday at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Annapolis resident was 69. Born Jean Wisniewski in Baltimore and raised on Andre Street in Locust Point, she was a 1960 Seton High School graduate. She earned a degree at Anne Arundel Community College and attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She met her future husband, Larry South, a defense contractor, while on a skiing trip in Vermont.

The Greene Turtle keeps reproducing. The McHenry Row location in Locust Point will be opening in a matter of weeks, and a Pasadena location opened quietly at the end of October on Magothy Beach Road. The Pasadena location is operated by James King, a former member of the Maryland General Assembly, who owns both Kaufmann's Tavern and King Catering in Gambrills. Including McHenry Row, that makes, by my count, 30 Greene Turtles. Pretty impressive for the Md.-based sports-bar franchise, which first opened in Ocean City 1976.