Shot Tower

IN THE early 1920s, there was a move afoot to raze the Shot Tower. No longer in use at the time, the structure was the only one of its kind still standing anywhere, according to one account from 70 years ago.Baltimore newspapers decided to conduct a Shot Tower poetry contest, in order to generate interest in maintaining the tower as a historic landmark. A great many poets were inspired to use their talents for a worthy cause.There were two 1st prizes, in cash. One of them went to my grandfather, William James Price, for his sonnet, "The Shot Tower Speaks."

The developer of city-owned land over the Shot Tower Metro station wants to again revise its plans for the parcel, which has sat unused since 2004, the city's development corporation said Wednesday. The Cordish Cos., which gained development rights to 701 E. Baltimore St. in 2005, now wants to build a structure that contains 226 apartments, 15,000 square feet of retail space and 225 parking spots, according to a statement from the Baltimore Development Corp. The revised project is expected to cost about $63 million, according to the BDC statement.

About the time the stock market crashed in October 1929, a Baltimore carpenter was salting away some small pieces of city history in a ketchup bottle.Each afternoon after his daily work's quitting time, Emil Urban carried home a bucket of dirt on the streetcar to his Monument Street home a few blocks east of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.The dirt was from the ground floor of Baltimore's 1828 Shot Tower at Fayette and Front streets, just across from today's main city post office. Mixed in with ordinary soil, sand and pigeon-droppings were about five pounds of lead shot used in 19th Century firearms.

City Hall is considering selling or leasing 15 historic Baltimore landmarks, including the iconic Shot Tower and stately War Memorial building, which officials believe are underused and could bring the city sorely needed cash. The idea has excited those who say the sites have been neglected and allowed to fall into disrepair. But some preservationists are worried about an uncertain future for buildings they hold dear. "I've never heard about them thinking about anything like this," said Richard S.B. Smith Sr., director of the Friends of Orianda House in Leakin Park, one of the properties to be evaluated.

The Baltimore City Life Museums, a private, nonprofit group that operates five attractions on the east side of the Inner Harbor, is negotiating with the Schmoke administration to take over operation of the historic Shot Tower by July 1.Built at Fallsway and Fayette Street in 1828 to manufacture musket balls and other kinds of "shot," and now one of the last remaining structures of its kind in the world, the 234-foot-tall Shot Tower has been operated as...

Most people go to a subway station for transportation. But at one of the Metro stations that opened in Baltimore this week, patrons get a history lesson along with the ride.On the mezzanine level of the Shot Tower/Market Place stop, a small but informative exhibit traces the successive layers of construction that have shaped the surrounding area, one of the first sections of Baltimore to see extensive development."Few of us would ever think of a subway train as a time machine," curators note in the introduction to the exhibit, which visitors can see without paying a fare.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton might be shocked to see the stout brick mansion on East Lombard Street where he lived and died in the early 1800s. Paint peels from shutters. Leaves, trash and weeds seem to jockey for space under its classical columns. Grime coats the upper windows. Now, new life is being breathed into the empty 194-year-old house that belonged to the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. The city Board of Estimates agreed yesterday to turn over operation of it and several nearby buildings - including the Shot Tower on East Fayette Street - to a group led by Baltimore County innkeeper Anne Pomykala.

Yesterday was the public's first day on the new $353 million extension of the Baltimore Metro from Charles Street to Johns Hopkins Hospital. And the public was pleased.A few people were more than pleased."This is the best thing they ever did," said Patricia Battle, 36, of Upton, in West Baltimore. "I just thank God! This morning it took me only 10 minutes to get to work."Ms. Battle works at Maryland Messenger, a courier company on Albemarle Street near the new Shot Tower/Market Place station.

Leaders of a 4-year-old campaign to build a memorial to Baltimore police officers killed in the line of duty have scaled down their plans and hope to turn around a sluggish fund-raising effort that has seen them spend, in some years, far more than they raised. The memorial - to be built next to the Shot Tower - was scheduled to be completed by spring 1999 at a cost originally estimated at $2.2 million and later as high as $3.5 million. But the board of trustees of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Memorial Fund Inc. - composed primarily of widows of slain police officers - has switched architects and is now looking at plans for a memorial that would cost less than $1 million.

One Saturday night in September 1878, the Shot Tower on downtown's east side looked like a 215-foot candle ready to blow. A fire raged inside the brick cylinder where workers for decades had made shot by dropping molten lead. "At that time, the spectacle viewed from any elevated point about the city, or from the harbor or river, was strikingly grand," reported The Sun. "The tower was enveloped in flames, and from the top they shot far up into the air, giving to the distant looker-on the appearance of a great column of fire."

Baltimore police said someone crashed a vehicle into the historic Phoenix Shot Tower near Little Italy Sunday afternoon just before 2 p.m. No injuries were reported, and no further information was immediately available. In a separate incident Sunday night, a car flipped over around 9:20 at East Baltimore and President streets, a block south of the Shot Tower. Fire officials say two people were extricated and taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. No further information was immediately available.

This photo was taken in Paris at the Eiffel Tower last November. It was a cold night, but you hardly think about the weather when confronted with the beauty of this monument, not to mention the city itself. Marco A. Padro Perry Hall The Sun welcomes submissions for "My Best Shot." Photos should be accompanied by a description of when and where you took the picture and your name, address and phone number. Submissions cannot be individually acknowledged or returned, and upon submission become the property of The Sun. Write to: Travel Department, The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278, or e-mail Travel@baltsun.

From a secluded garden in downtown Baltimore, shaded by four ailanthus trees, there's hardly any sense of the high-rise office buildings several blocks away or the traffic whizzing by on the Jones Falls Expressway. The garden once bordered the estate owned in the early 19th century by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Much later, it became part of the Baltimore City Life Museums campus, a public attraction that told the story of Baltimore's history before the museums closed abruptly in 1997.

It's difficult to predict what in Baltimore will one day be revered as a landmark, but it's not hard to distinguish the ones that have already achieved that status. Take a tour: I was walking down Caroline Street the other morning and reached Fayette. The light glanced off the Shot Tower, which stands like a sentry at the eastern edge of downtown Baltimore. Wilbur H. Hunter, who before his death directed the old Peale Museum, taught me that the roads that lead into Baltimore are like the fingers on your hand.

Local preservationists are pushing Baltimore's long-dormant Carroll Mansion into the limelight, just as the area around it is buzzing with redevelopment. Carroll Museums Inc., a nonprofit group that operates the historic mansion at 800 E. Lombard St., has reopened the building for tours and made part of the first floor into the Jonestown Visitors Center, a stop on the new Heritage Walk tour from the Inner Harbor to East Baltimore. The group is making space available for art exhibits, conferences and community events at the mansion, considered one of the finest examples of a Federal-era merchant's townhouse standing in Baltimore.

CROSS STREET MARKET OPENS Tomorrow and Saturday, Cross Street Market will have a grand re-opening to celebrate the completion of its major renovations. Mayor Martin O'Malley and other local officials will commence the festivities with a ribbon-cutting at noon tomorrow. The newly improved market has 23 merchants and a wide variety of fresh food, beverages and flowers. Musicians are scheduled to perform from noon to 2 p.m. both days. The celebration takes place tomorrow and Saturday at noon at Cross Street Market, Cross Street between Light and Charles streets.

Baltimore's Phoenix Shot Tower was the tallest building in the country for 18 years, from 1828 to 1846. Though it no longer holds that distinction, its current operators are working to make sure it doesn't get any shorter - by repairing 10 brick piers that are part of its parapet. The $33,000 project, which will begin Sept. 22 and take about a month to complete, is part of a comprehensive effort to keep one of Baltimore's most unusual landmarks in sound condition and accessible to visitors year-round.

THE FOUR-story building next to the Shot Tower in Baltimore has been home to a candy factory, a German restaurant and a discotheque, among other establishments. This spring, it has found new life as the statewide headquarters for a nonprofit organization that works to improve life for children and families.The Pressley Ridge Schools, a 164-year-old organization that teaches adults to be foster parents of "troubled and troubling" children and sponsors classes in "family preservation," acquired the building at 805 E. Fayette St. last fall for $525,000.

The city will reopen this afternoon the two blocks of Baltimore Street behind police headquarters that have been closed for security since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark and city transportation Director Alfred Foxx will announce the reopening at an 11:30 a.m. news conference and cut a ceremonial ribbon. The road has been closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic since the day after the attacks. "We felt it was the right decision to close after Sept.

Baltimore's Phoenix Shot Tower was the tallest building in the country for 18 years, from 1828 to 1846. Though it no longer holds that distinction, its current operators are working to make sure it doesn't get any shorter - by repairing 10 brick piers that are part of its parapet. The $33,000 project, which will begin Sept. 22 and take about a month to complete, is part of a comprehensive effort to keep one of Baltimore's most unusual landmarks in sound condition and accessible to visitors year-round.