White Tower

The planned exhibit of a former White Tower restaurant at the Baltimore City Life Museums is not intended as an exercise in nostalgia for the era of segregation.On the contrary. "The historic change from segregation to integration is revealed in the White Tower story," according to City Life Museums assistant director John Durel, who is planning the exhibition, which opens in 1995.Mr. Durel was responding to recent letters in three Baltimore newspapers objecting to the exhibit of the White Tower because it was segregated in the 1950s.

Rose R. Suit, a former "Towerette" who served up sizzling hamburgers, crispy french fries, generous wedges of pie and cups of coffee to several generations of White Tower customers, died of liver cancer Saturday at Hammonds Lane Nursing Center in Brooklyn Park. She was 81. She was born Rose C. Giles in Baltimore and raised in Woodlawn, where she attended Baltimore County public schools. Mrs. Suit began her career in 1952 at White Tower No. 8 on Howard Street, across from the old Greyhound bus terminal.

Rose R. Suit, a former "Towerette" who served up sizzling hamburgers, crispy french fries, generous wedges of pie and cups of coffee to several generations of White Tower customers, died of liver cancer Saturday at Hammonds Lane Nursing Center in Brooklyn Park. She was 81. She was born Rose C. Giles in Baltimore and raised in Woodlawn, where she attended Baltimore County public schools. Mrs. Suit began her career in 1952 at White Tower No. 8 on Howard Street, across from the old Greyhound bus terminal.

DURING A road trip down scenic Route 1 the other day, I looked up just long enough to notice a familiar white building with a green roof and rusty neon signs among the rug-remnant stores, old motels and car dealers in Laurel - a Little Tavern shop, neither vacant nor covered with graffiti. That was worth a U-turn. This Little Tavern was open for business. It had not been transformed into a Swedish bookstore. It had not been seized by a church group for Sunday meetings. Nor had it been spruced up with new awnings and turned into a sub shop.

The griddle never gets cold at the Erdman Avenue White Tower hamburger shop.For more than 40 years, the restaurant, which seats 17, has also been serving up good coffee and custard pie -- and plenty of talk.This White Tower, at Erdman Avenue and Belair Road, is the lone local survivor of what was once a bustling national chain.The coffee urns and Formica counters never varied from franchise to franchise, from Milwaukee to Manhattan.The thriving Northeast Baltimore restaurant's porcelain enamel exterior shines as snowy white as a line of laundry in the Belair-Edison neighborhood.

It's the last of its breed in Baltimore, and so are they. For decades now, Joe Lancione, Belle Sherman, Ann Harris, Mark Serio and the rest of the regular crowd have been coming to this White Tower Restaurant on Erdman Avenue in East Baltimore. Maybe all they do is sit and talk and ignore the No Smoking sign and wait for someone else to pay for their next cup of coffee. But though some of their cohorts have died, there's still plenty of life left in these folks, just as there's life left in the little eatery they pretty much call home.

* June Clayworth,June Clayworth, an actress who began her career on the Broadway stage and later appeared in films such as "The White Tower," in which she played opposite Claude Rains, died Jan. 1 in Los Angeles at age 80. Her film credits include, "The Good Fairy," "Married Before Breakfast," "Between Two Women," "Live, Love and Learn," "The Truth About Murder" and "The Marriage Go Round." and "The White Tower."* Dewey Weber,Dewey Weber, 53, the man who epitomized the "endless summer" of the California surfing lifestyle, died in Hermosa Beach.

Rose Suit looked at the 1940s juicer with tears streaming down her cheeks.It was just an old-fashioned juicer, the manual type with a handle you yank down hard.But to Rose Suit, it is a touchstone from the best years of her life."Many a time I squeezed that durn orange juice out at Park Circle," said Mrs. Suit, 71. "You squeezed them oranges, you didn't get them out of a can. People wouldn't drink juice out of a can."Park Circle was home to Baltimore's first White Tower restaurant and the juicer is now behind glass at the Peale Museum downtown, where Rose Suit and about a dozen of her retired "Towerette" colleagues gathered last night for a reunion.

|TC IN THE WAKE of the Baltimore City Life Museums unexpected closing last Saturday, much, of course, will be lost. For the few brave staffers who weathered a year of indecision and layoffs caused by a $2.5 million debt it means succumbing to unemployment without notice.For Baltimoreans, it means that we no longer will be able to enjoy exhibits filled with icons associated with the city: blue crabs, rowhouses, street peddlers, white marble steps, the Shot Tower, the 1958 Colts, the cultural renaissance of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Barry Levinson showed in "Diner" that "greasy-spoon" restaurants not only define neighborhoods but individual lives and changing times as well. That's why the closing of Brooklyn Park's White Coffee Pot this Sunday night robs the North Arundel neighborhood not only of a relic of 1950s Americana but also some of its lovable characters.What will happen to Pat Carraway, for example? She was 16 when she joined the White Coffee Pot chain 30 years ago. Will she ever again be asking, "More coffee, babe?"

|TC IN THE WAKE of the Baltimore City Life Museums unexpected closing last Saturday, much, of course, will be lost. For the few brave staffers who weathered a year of indecision and layoffs caused by a $2.5 million debt it means succumbing to unemployment without notice.For Baltimoreans, it means that we no longer will be able to enjoy exhibits filled with icons associated with the city: blue crabs, rowhouses, street peddlers, white marble steps, the Shot Tower, the 1958 Colts, the cultural renaissance of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The former White Tower hamburger shop with the familiar white enamel exterior looked just the way Rodney Barnes remembered it.Inside, the original orange-topped chrome stools lined up at the Formica counter. An old sign outside advertised pancakes, eggs and coffee. But the griddle at the 1940s-style diner had been cold for nearly a year, since the last White Tower in Baltimore closed.On Friday, coffee brewed in the stainless steel urns once again. Barnes, 30, has transformed the Erdman Avenue eatery of his childhood into one where his own children help out. At Jammers, he's serving hoagies, Philadelphia-style, and steamed crabs, Baltimore-style.

Inside the City Life Museums' pristine Morton K. Blaustein center yesterday afternoon, the displays about Baltimore's fascination with Formstone and clean marble steps went unread.The 1950s living room sat unseen. The goodies on the counter of bygone local hamburger joint, the White Tower, were untouched.And therein lies the problem for the museum management: How to get more people to visit an institution that celebrates everything that is Baltimore."My concern is that people are getting the impression that we might close any day now," said museum teacher Ellen Sussman yesterday.

LONDON -- Well, there was at least one team of ravens that had a good year.Protected by royal decree, beloved by tourists, the ravens at the Tower of London didn't disappoint their millions of fans in 1996. ,, They simply showed up and frolicked every day inside the medieval fortress by the Thames River.Too bad football teams don't run as smoothly as these eight birds.Yesterday, Baltimore Ravens executive vice president David Modell showed up at the Tower of London to pay his respects and learn about the world's most famous ravens.

THURMONT -- Patiently sewing pieces of delicate silk and fine brocade into a gracious gown is more than simply dressmaking for Kate Reynolds. It is an adventure in history.In her cluttered workshop, the 44-year-old seamstress re-creates items of clothing as far apart in time as that worn by the Cavaliers who settled Maryland in the 1630s and that emblematic of two Baltimore landmarks in the 1950s -- White Tower diners and Pennsylvania Avenue's Royal Theater.The Baltimore City Life Museums will open exhibitions on the diners and "The Avenue" this year.

I recently heard that the Tower of London's collection of armor will be housed in a new museum. Can you provide details? Is the Tower itself launching any exhibitions that focus on weaponry?For more than 450 years, the collection of arms and armor belonging to the Royal Armories has been displayed in the White Tower at the Tower of London. Limited space at the Tower meant that only 10 percent of the 43,000-piece collection could be viewed.On March 20, a new $66 million, 25,000-square-foot Royal Armories Museum in Leeds will open.

Inside the City Life Museums' pristine Morton K. Blaustein center yesterday afternoon, the displays about Baltimore's fascination with Formstone and clean marble steps went unread.The 1950s living room sat unseen. The goodies on the counter of bygone local hamburger joint, the White Tower, were untouched.And therein lies the problem for the museum management: How to get more people to visit an institution that celebrates everything that is Baltimore."My concern is that people are getting the impression that we might close any day now," said museum teacher Ellen Sussman yesterday.

It's the last of its breed in Baltimore, and so are they. For decades now, Joe Lancione, Belle Sherman, Ann Harris, Mark Serio and the rest of the regular crowd have been coming to this White Tower Restaurant on Erdman Avenue in East Baltimore. Maybe all they do is sit and talk and ignore the No Smoking sign and wait for someone else to pay for their next cup of coffee. But though some of their cohorts have died, there's still plenty of life left in these folks, just as there's life left in the little eatery they pretty much call home.

The planned exhibit of a former White Tower restaurant at the Baltimore City Life Museums is not intended as an exercise in nostalgia for the era of segregation.On the contrary. "The historic change from segregation to integration is revealed in the White Tower story," according to City Life Museums assistant director John Durel, who is planning the exhibition, which opens in 1995.Mr. Durel was responding to recent letters in three Baltimore newspapers objecting to the exhibit of the White Tower because it was segregated in the 1950s.