Get To the Point…Fell's Point in Baltimore

Gary, Thanks for reading.

Margaret from Maryland, Fells Point is a fun place for us to visit.

Carole, Please make plans..I find that "some day" never happens.

Pat, Thanks and again, welcome to the Active Rain community.

Todd and Karen,

I posed both of your questions to my friend Zippy and below are her answers.

I will attempt to answer your second question first, about the Rec Center. You are asking about HLOTS --David Simon's highly creative television show adopted from his book by the same name, Homicide Life on the Street.  For the show, the squad room was up one flight of stairs and the gym up the next flight. The roof was off the second floor. I sat in a director's chair and watched the actors work in the Rec Center. I know the casting director and helped get parts for people. I took 200 people on a Baltimore tour with a stop inside the Rec Center one memorable night when the crew was out filming in the city. 

Interior scenes from HLOTS were filmed inside this old Recreation Center on Thames.  No police station was ever housed in that building.  On the exterior wall of the Rec Center is a plaque that reads: On this site from 1992 to 1999 a group of talented people created a television legend. That's the gist of it, I am writing this from memory. The city of Baltimore leased the building to HLOTS for one dollar a year for the run of the show.  The stars lived in Baltimore 9 months a year. A welcome back crab feast was held for them. I met the cast and crew at these events and others. I have an impressive scrap book on HLOTS.

As to the actors returning, I talked to Clark Johnson when he returned, and over my shoulder in a frame is a quote from Reed Diamond:  "Baltimore stole my heart. I get back as often as I can."

The Rec Center was constructed over the water as a pier, where horses and wagons and later trucks could turn off Thames Street, on to the pier, and drive out to the ships at the far end.  Cargo was unloaded and loaded at this location. 

It is a covered pier because the second floor was used as a Recreation Center for the kids in the neighborhood.  Dances were held there too, up until World War 2 when the dances were stopped. Due to air raids, the pier's many large windows would need to be covered with dark shades and the city was not going to pay for that.

The building was purchased by a developer, Joe Clark, husband of Mary Pat Clark, a member of the City Council.  Five or six years ago Clark said it would become a boutique hotel, and we are waiting for this conversion but see no progress, except for the removal of the tug boats which used to dock along the west wall of the Rec Center.  Upscale guests won't appreciate the ear-piercing whistle and long low roar of a tug boat motor at 3, 4 or 5:00 AM.

I've led hundreds of walking tours of Fell's Point, beginning in the late 1980's. I was the first person to bring tourists into the neighborhood, for a walk, and this was before the water taxi even stopped there. I wanted people to learn about its history. For years, I told my tour groups that when the tug boats leave, there will be nothing left of the old neighborhood.  The gentry and their money will have won, and erased all connection to Fell's Point's working class roots. I still recognize and greets the one stevedore and merchant mariner who was born in and has never left the foot of Broadway, as the neighborhood was called.

Your first question deals with the old water taxi stop, on Broadway pier, the extension of the street by the same name. The original restaurant in that space opened as Francie's and was run for a short time by Frances Haussner, who owned the famous Haussner's at Clinton and Eastern. Francie's did not last long and a series of restaurants have opened and closed in that same space. I recall that one was a chain, where food was trucked in and heated up in microwave ovens. I have my own favorite restaurants and they are away from tourist areas.

Today, Fell's Point is all cutesy. Instead of seamen and solid blue collar folks who work the waterfront and run the bars, and who welcomed everyone, now it's the gentry who've brought their bucks and fancy ways to the neighborhood. Few know its history, unless you count Wikipedia as a source, which I discount. I was born in Fell's Point, and recall the best of the neighborhood. One old lady summed it up best: Fell's Point used to be a community and now it's a commodity.

Zippy Larson, Historian, RN, BA, CTA
Talks on the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield Simpson
Talks on Fell's Point, Little Italy & Locust Point
"The most entertaining senior citizen on the planet." CITY PAPER
Winner, Best tours of Baltimore 2005, CITY PAPER
Winner, Best tour guide 1989, BALTIMORE Magazine
410 - 522 - 7334

Zippy, You have such a weath of knowlege about Baltimore. Hope to see you sharing this by blogging on ActiveRain. You are a natural. Let me know if you need any help.

Happy 4th.

Margaret

Hi Zippy, You got it. Let's talk tomorrow afternoon.