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Kilduff's Baltimore Harbor page is NOT intended to be a history of the Baltimore
Harbor. It is simply intended to share a few views of the Baltimore skyline
and harbor which I have found over the years. Please feel free to contact
me with corrections, questions, and comments. Baltimore's Harbor basin in a drawing before anything was built. If you look to the right, you can see the Jones Falls stream emptying out onto the Harbor. I'm not sure who to credit the picture to , so if anyone knows, please let me know. The point of perspective is most likely Federal Hill. Below, The development begins along the water line. ........................ 
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By the 1800's, Baltimore's harbor was one of the most popular ports on the East Coast. The port's activity helped to give Baltimore a strong industrial base , and the City grew quickly over the years................. 
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| Scenes of the commerce along
the waterfront, as the Harbor developed. Views are of Light Street over
the years. ............ 
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| East Pratt Street, before
the Baltimore Fire. |
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A look at a ship coming in the harbor
around the 1920's, carrying watermelon, likely from the Eastern Shore
of Maryland. The water in Baltimore's harbor was never all that clean, with
spoiled produce often thrown overboard from ships and boats and left rotting
in the water.Below, Oyster boats unload. ......... 
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Postcard Right : Rare view looking East out of the Harbor, likely taken from the area of the old McCormick Spice Building. The scene shows the old steamboats that would up and down the Chesapeake Bay. This view is likely from the 1900's. ......... 
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........Postcard View...The pictures, to the left and above, are common of what would be seen in the harbor around the 1920's. City Hall can be seen in the rear right of the picture, indicating this picture was probably taken around the area of today's Maryland Science Center. |
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Postcard ViewAbove, the Steamboat " City of Norfolk", and to the right, a unidentified steamboat. |
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| Steamboats out of Baltimore were
common for years , allowing travelers to go to the Eastern Shore and
the amusement parks over there ( Betterton and Tolchester ) or perhaps
to Virginia or New York. In 1927, the below ads were shown in local Baltimore newspapers. Small beaches and amusement parks along the Chesapeake Bay were the popular destinations for Baltimoreans escaping the heat of Baltimore's summers. ........ 
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Here are several different views from the Federal Hill area north towards the City Skyline. In the shot to the right , you can clearly see the Pepsi Cola plant that was located on Key Highway. These photos date from about 1900 to the 1940's. |
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| A 1930's view
of the Harbor shows a steamboat traveling east out into the Bay. The
skyline in the picture shows a Baltimore just beginning to come about.
The tallest building in this picture, the Tower Building, was torn down
in the 1980's ( See Kilduff's Baltimore Building Page for more on the
Tower Building ) ..... 
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Looking north on
Light Street, probably around the 1940's. Baltimore's docks and
wharfs were still very active and Light Street was full on shipping activity
and markets. Much of the water in this view was later filled in to
create the bulkhead for Sam Smith Park, which was later built
into Harbor Place. The buildings directly on the lower left of the
postcard have been replaced by a Hyatt Regency Hotel. ........... |
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old postcards , you can see the skyline slowly beginning to progress.
The smaller buildings on the waterfront have all long been replaced,
except for the power plant building, which is currently used as a restaurant
and attraction. To the far right of the photos, you can see the dome of
Baltimore's City Hall, and just to the left of that, the Tower Building. ........ 
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To the right , is a old postcard view of ocean liners that were once seen everywhere in the Inner Harbor area. |
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| In the 1950's,
The Wilson Line's S.S. Bay Belle was popular for cruising around harbor.
The Bay Belle sailed out of the Broadway Pier for years. ................................................. 
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| Another Wilson Line cruise
boat I have found references to was the S.S. Mount Venon. I
found one reference that shows Towson College in 1962 taking the boat
to a amusement park called Marshall Park. Ring any bells anyone ? |
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Baltimore's Port Welcome around the 1960's. The Port Welcome would cruise up and down the Harbor, and would even travel as far as Annapolis and Betterton. Many of us growing up in Baltimore in the 1960's and 1970's remember the Port Welcome, which gave a great water view of Baltimore's Harbor. |
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| Long before Baltimore came up with the Inner Harbor concept and Harborplace, Baltimore's waterfront was a working harbor, complete with piers, docks and steamboats. The postcard view on the right shows the Harbor in the early 1960's, with a surviving steamboat at Pier One, and a freighter docked in front of the old News American Building . Today 's view , seen below and below right , of the same location show the Harborplace complex and the Baltimore Aquarium. |
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Paul -2007 |
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T. Paul -2007 |
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Just to the East of Federal Hill you could find the Key Highway dry-docks, which survived into the 1980's. The view from Federal Hill was incredible to the East, as you could look over into Canton. That view is slowing disappearing as high rises go up. The old Dry Docks have all been covered up, and built over. |
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Much of the Inner Harbor area is getting developed, and Key Highway is no exception. The old dry docks, which were still standing up until the late 1980's, have been developed, and are now condos. |
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| Baltimore
was, and still is , a working port city. Here are a few pictures , most
from the 1950's, showing the Port of Baltimore's past. ............................................ 
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Above and to the right , is the old McCormick Building, which up into the 1980's, kept the Harbor area in an aroma of spices that I can still remember to this day. McCormick was one of the last of the industrial memories in the harbor area to move out, with the Inner Harbor becoming a tourist destination. |
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| Click here
for a index of Baltimore's Steamboat lines |
Please feel free to email Kilduffs with any questions
or comments . 
Updated 12-20-2008 |
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