National Register

Time moves at a different pace in Linthicum. A railroad suburb carved out of rolling farmland outside Baltimore a century ago, the leafy community in northern Anne Arundel County has retained an unhurried, small-town feel even as development, highways and a sprawling airport have crowded in on its borders in the decades since. Last Friday, state and local dignitaries assembled at the old Linthicum train station to celebrate the neighborhood's designation as a National Historic Place. It was first included in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, but community leaders decided to hold off on an official celebration until Linthicum marked its centennial this year.

Time moves at a different pace in Linthicum. A railroad suburb carved out of rolling farmland outside Baltimore a century ago, the leafy community in northern Anne Arundel County has retained an unhurried, small-town feel even as development, highways and a sprawling airport have crowded in on its borders in the decades since. On April 25, state and local dignitaries assembled at the old Linthicum train station to celebrate the neighborhood's designation as a National Historic Place. It was first included in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, but community leaders decided to hold off on an official celebration until Linthicum marked its centennial this year.

Set in a neighborhood becoming dotted with new homes, the white building that houses the Freetown Improvement Association looks plain and unremarkable. The building, however, used to be a focal point of a small community of black farmers founded by ex-slaves in the mid-1800s. Freetown Elementary was a two-room schoolhouse when it opened in 1925, funded partly by a philanthropist who sought to provide schools to blacks when segregation and discrimination were standard practice. It had no indoor plumbing, so students had to use outhouses.

A long-simmering feud over what to call the Southwest Baltimore neighborhood that sometimes goes by Pigtown, sometimes by Washington Village and other times by a hyphenated hookup of the two, erupted recently in the unlikeliest of spots. This brawl over authenticity, pride and, of course, pigs overwhelmed an otherwise subdued hearing on - of all things - Pigtown's application to the National Register of Historic Places. Name game Do you have a better name for Pigtown? Submit your suggestion at baltimoresun.

It was supposed to be a patch-and-paint job that would take three weeks in 2003. Instead, it was a major restoration that took seven months. But when the plaster dust cleared, what emerged was a gracious, century-old farmhouse in Harwood, now nominated for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance and place in regional history. In 1892, what was then called Richland was commissioned by Robert and Mary Cheston, a couple born into the landed antebellum gentry of southern Anne Arundel County.

Fells Point is one of Baltimore's oldest communities, but it has never officially been recognized as a city historic district. That would change if local preservationists succeed with a new effort to have Fells Point legally designated the city's 31st historic district, under the purview of Baltimore's Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation. The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point is in the early stages of compiling lists of property owners and building support for the designation as a way to protect more buildings from demolition or insensitive alteration.

Baltimore preservation officials have endorsed the creation of the largest historic district in the city -- an area of about 175 blocks containing almost 6,000 significant properties. Dubbed Old West Baltimore, the district is made up of five distinct African-American neighborhoods rich with architectural and cultural significance. The district is one of four that received approval Tuesday night by the city's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

The small gray house blends into the woods north of Westminster so thoroughly as to belie its singular nature: Modern, with a capital "M." Essentially a rectangular glass box set on big stone piers, the house is transformed once inside looking out. "It's an incredible building in and of itself, and when you consider it's set in the middle of this rural county filled with 19th-century farms and barns, it stands out because it is so `other' than what...

HAMPDEN IS SEEKING recognition on the National Register of Historic Places. And why not? Baltimore's eclectic neighborhood of big-hair hons and fantasyland Christmas lights is already a gem of Americana. Surely John Waters' cult flick Pecker counts for something. Nearly 77,000 sites throughout the nation have won National Register designations, qualifying them for federal tax credits and protection. Nominees must be "associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history," decrees the National Park Service.

The Harford community of Berkley, overlooking the Susquehanna River in the northeastern corner of the county, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The hamlet is being recognized for its place in history, which included the effort by the Marquis de LaFayette to quell a rebellion within his troops while encamped at Col. James Rigbie's farm. In addition, Berkley has been home to free land-holding African-Americans since the late 1700s and was a documented stop on the Underground Railroad.