Park Avenue

There's not much that can be said about a hole in the ground, usually. A more mundane thing could hardly be thought of. But for some reason or other, Baltimoreans seem entertained by them.In 1985, a water main broke at the corner of Lafayette and Park avenues. Much of Bolton Hill was flooded, and before the water was turned off and drained away the rupture had gouged a deep hole. It resembled the deep hole gouged into Baltimore's hide Saturday by a sinkhole and gas main explosion at Franklin Street and Park Avenue.

On Tuesday, February 3, 2004, TANYA BENDIT (nee Jacobi); beloved wife of the late Saul Bendit; devoted mother of Dr. Emile Bendit of Baltimore, MD; dear mother-in-law of Gail Bendit; devoted sister of Alec Jacobson of Boston, Mass and the late Rose Jacobi, Gudel Jacobson, Helen Shapiro and Max Jacobi; loving grandmother of Rachel Bendit and Mark Bernstein and Sarah Bendit. Funeral Services and Interment will be held at King David Memorial Gardens, Falls Church, VA, on Thursday, February 5, 11 A.M. Please omit flowers.

The Maryland Historical Society has raised just under 70 percent of its $20 million capital campaign launched in December 1995.MHS board chairman Jack S. Griswold announced the campaign's progress at a preview of the society's new Heritage Gallery, the former Greyhound bus garage converted to 21,000 square feet of gallery and storage space. The building at Park Avenue and Centre Street opens to the public today with a 5,000-square-foot inaugural exhibit, "Baltimore, Inc: From Mobtown to Charm City" marking the bicentennial of the city's incorporation in 1797.

Erin Tierney Kramp, 36, a venture capital investor who drew national attention with a terminal breast cancer diagnosis, died Saturday in Dallas. After her diagnosis in 1994, Mrs. Kramp began preparing for death, writing and making videos for her young daughter. Her story was featured on ABC's "20/20" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show."Besides making the videos for her daughter, Mrs. Kramp selected her burial plot and made a list of things for her husband to do after her death.The list turned into a book.

State police and Department of Social Services officials are investigating the possibility of child neglect after a 3-year-old boy was found cold and walking barefoot on Park Avenue in Mount Airy Sunday morning.The boy, whose diaper and clothing were soaked, was turned over to Social Services, according to a police report."He was brought to the Westminster barracks and turned over to social worker," said 1st Sgt. Steve Reynolds.A spokesman for Social Services declined to "either confirm or deny" the child was turned over to the agency nor would he provide any other information.

THERE IS NO BETTER introduction to the Enoch Pratt Central Library's splendid new annex than its premiere exhibit, "Maryland's First Black Lawyers: 1877-1977." The photo exhibit, which opened Thursday - just days after the annex itself - touches on a number of turning points in Baltimore's modern history. They include the election of the first black City Council member (lawyer Harry S. Cummings, in 1890), the imposition of harsh Jim Crow measures (1910), and the rising civil rights activism (1930s through 1960s)

One of Baltimore's oldest auto repair facilities will soon be reborn as the new headquarters of the Catholic Review newspaper and its parent organization, the Cathedral Foundation. This year, the nonprofit foundation purchased the former Griffin's Garage at 878 Park Ave. - a three-story, 1909 building that most recently housed the Park Sign Co. - and plans to begin converting it this summer. The project is the latest boost for the Mount Royal Cultural District and will keep an influential publishing house in the city.

PROUD LIONS, sleek tigers, majestic elephants and an occasional camel skulk in the moonlight. Automobile traffic is quiet at this hour. Downtown Baltimore sleeps. But the animals are awake, and they're in a hurry. They have a train to catch. Gawky men with pimply faces corral them away from the sidewalks. Men wielding heavy-duty brooms and ultra-large shovels gather any traces of their passing. Tomorrow, the streets will show no signs that anything but automobiles have been here. The ruckus wakes me. I figure it's just another fight at the boys' home across the street.

Sometimes things work out just right, such as the Maryland Historical Society's announcement that it will expand into the former Greyhound Corp. garage at Centre Street and Park Avenue.The fate of the 19,000-square-foot garage has been the topic of ** intense speculation after the rest of the old bus station complex was restored two years ago. A good opportunity arose to get rid of the bus shed altogether after a February 1993 storm collapsed its roof. But the relic won a reprieve."We are hoping that we can begin work on that building within six to eight months and hopefully be occupying it in some way in 18 months," historical society director Dennis Fiori said after Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke recently decided that the garage will be used for museum expansion.

Baltimore radicalism has lost one of its cornerstones: New Era Bookstore in the 400 block Park Avenue has gone out of business.Since its opening three decades ago, New Era, which was closely linked to the U.S. Communist Party, was the city's main purveyor of Marxist literature. Publications from the Soviet Union, China and Cuba could be found there as could an impressive array of fringe newspapers from the United States. The store also had one of the best selections of black-related books and magazines in the city.