The Patapso forest reserve: Establishing "City Park" for Baltimore, 1907-1941

Historical Geography

Volumn 34, Issue , 2006, Pages 87-108

  Buckley, Geoffrey L ^a   Bailey, Robert F ^b   Grove, J Morgan ^c  

^a OHIO UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES   (United States)

^c U S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 69949149978     PISSN: 10916458     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. W.A.E. Baltimore News, 21 July 1897.
2. Warren Wilmer Brown, The Munìcipal Art Society of Baltimore City: Its Aims and Accomplishments (Baltimore: Municipal Art Society, ca. 1930): 12.
3. According to the Olmsted Report the Gunpowder Falls Valley also received this designation. However, a park would not be established here until the 1960s.
4. Olmsted and his sons continue to benefit from a revival that has seen their creations restored and unfinished plans dusted off. The recently completed Gwynns Falls Trail in Baltimore is one such example. Recent attention in the popular magazine, National Geographic, is another indication of the Olmsteds' enduring legacy. See John G. Mitchell, "Frederick Law Olmsted's Passion for Parks," National Geographic 207:3 (2005): 32-51.
5. Witold Rybczynski, "Why We Need Olmsted Again," Wilson Quarterly 23:3(1999): 15-22. In 1980, the National Science Foundation established the LTER program to support long-term ecological research in the U.S. Of the twenty-four LTER sites scattered across the country, two - the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) and the Central Arizona-Phoenix (CAP) project - are concerned primarily with how urban and suburban areas function as ecosystems.
6. There is an impressive body of literature devoted to this topic. See, for example: Galen Cranz, The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1982);
7. Jon A. Peterson, "The City Beautiful Movement: Forgotten Origins and Lost Meanings," Journal of Urban History 2:4(1976):415-434;
8. Jon A. Peterson, '"The Evolution of Public Open Space in American Cities," Journal of Urban History 12:l(1985):75-85;
9. Rutherford H. Platt, R.A. Rowntree, and P.C. Muick, eds. The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1994);
10. Julie A. Tuason, "Rus in Urbe: The Spatial Evolution of Urban Parks in the United States, 1850-1920," Historical Geography 25(1997): 124-147;
11. William H. Wilson, The City Beautiful Movement (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989);
12. and Terence Young, Building San Francisco's Parks, 1850-1930 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
13. Terence Young, "Modern Urban parks," The Geographical Review 85:4 (1995): 538;
14. Rybczynski, "Why We Need Olmsted Again, 17.
15. See also, Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978).
16. Barry Kessler and David Zang, The Playlife of a City: Baltimore's Recreation and Parks, 1900-1955 (Baltimore: Baltimore City Life Museums and the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, 1989): 1.
17. Terence Young, "Social Reform through Parks: The American Civic Association's Program for a Better America," Journal of Historical Geography 22:4 (1996): 461;
18. James B. Crooks, Politics and Progress: The Rise of Urban Progressivism in Baltimore, 1895-1911 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968): 129-130. To get a sense of the Society's membership, Crooks reports that a survey of the Society's 122 organizers revealed twenty-eight lawyers, twenty-three financiers (eleven bankers), forty businessmen, twelve artists and architects, and seven professors from Johns Hopkins University.
19. Christopher G. Boone, "Obstacles to Infrastructure Provision: The Struggle to Build Comprehensive Sewer "Works in Baltimore," Historical Geography 31(2003): 151-168
20. According to Boone: "Remarkably, in 1900, this city of a half million people did not have a comprehensive sewage system, making Baltimore one of the last cities of its size to hold that dubious distinction." (p. 151)
21. Boone also notes that Mendes Cohen, chief of the sewerage commission, was also a member of the board of directors of the Municipal Art Society: "Similar to the tactic used for the Olmsted plan, Cohen likely used the society as a means to push through a plan that failed in regular political channels" (p. 161).
22. Brown, Municipal Art Society, 20.
23. To recapture the disappearing tax base that was settling in suburban Baltimore County, Baltimore City twice annexed land from the County - in 1888 and 1918. For more on Baltimore's political annexations, see Joseph L. Arnold, "Suburban Growth and Municipal Annexation in Baltimore, 1745-1918," Maryland Historical Magazine 73:2(1978): 109-128.
24. Brown, Municipal Art Society.
25. Ibid., 20.
26. Ibid., 22.
27. Crooks, Politics and Progress, 137.
28. Kevin Zucker, "Falls and Stream Valleys: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Parks of Baltimore," Maryland Historical Magazine 90:1(1995): 82.
29. W. Edward Orser, "A Tale of Two Park Plans: The Olmsted Vision for Baltimore and Seattle, 1903," Maryland Historical Magazine 98:4(2003): 478.
30. Olmsted Brothers, Report upon the Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore (Baltimore: Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City, 1904).
31. Orser, "Tale ofTwo Parks," 476-477
32. Robert and John W. Garrett, April 10, 1907, Garrett Bequest to the State of Maryland. Liber 54, folio 425, Land Records of Garrett County. The Garretts were prepared to withdraw their gift if the state did not comply with their request to institute a program of forest conservation: "Provided, however, that if within the period of the next twenty five years from the date hereof, the said State of Maryland should neglect or fail to carry out the provisions of said Forestry Act, or abandon the property hereby donated, then the title to the said several tracts and parcels of land shall revert to the said donors ... [who] shall have the right to take over the possession of said tracts of land, and hold them the same as if said gift had not been made."
33. Jack Temple Kirby, Poquosin: A Study of Rural Landscape and Society (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995).
34. For a detailed discussion of scientific forestry and utilitarian conservation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Char Miller, Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2001).
35. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1908 and 1909, 8-9.
36. Geoffrey L. Buckley and J. Morgan Grove, "Sowing the Seeds of Forest Conservation: Fred Besley and the Maryland Story, 1906-1923," Maryland Historical Magazine 96:4(2001): 302-327;
37. Ed H. Parkison, "Glenn's 'Hilton,'" Maryland Historical Magazine 65:3(1970): 283-295;
38. Edna Warren, "Forests and Parks in the Old Line State," American Forests 62 (October 1956): 13-25, 56-77;
39. Maryland Legislature, Forest Laws of Maryland, Acts of 1906, chapter 294, "An Act to establish a State Board of Forestry and to promote forest interests and arboriculture in the State," as amended in chapter lól, Acts 1910, and chapter 823, Acts of 1914.
40. Baltimore Sun, 15 November 1910.
41. Baltimore Sun, 22 May 1911. There was evidently a drought that spring.
42. Baltimore Sun, 2 January 1908. Though this particular quote was in reference to the Gunpowder Valley, its line of reasoning was also applicable to the Patapsco Valley.
43. It is possible that Besley was primarily motivated to seek more operating finds. Prior to 1912 the Board of Forestry's efforts to fulfill its mission were hampered by a lack of funding. With a miniscule $3,500 annual appropriation, the Board lacked the financial means to purchase land. In fact, its appropriation was barely large enough to hire one professional forester and a small supporting staff. Following that year's legislative session, however, the Forestry Board's operating budget more than doubled. By the end of the decade, the Board's appropriation was seven times larger than it had been in 1912. The Board of Forestry's operating budget was $4,000 in 1912, $10,000 in 1913, and $28,580 in 1921. Totals were taken from the Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1912 and 1913 and the Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1920 and 1921. The totals are not adjusted for inflation.
44. Baltimore Sun, 31 May 1907. 31 Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1910 and 1911, 22.
45. Ibid., 26.
46. Baltimore Sun, 19 February 1912. Bcslcy also invited Patapsco Valley residents Dr. J. Donaldson Murray (of Elkridge) and William S. Powell (of Ellicott City) to testify on the Forestry Boards behalf. So keen was Besley at securing the support of Baltimore's well-connected urban elite that he even presented an illustrated lecture on the benefits of scientific forestry to members of the Bel Air Country Club on 23 February 1912. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1912 and 1913, 14.
47. It is likely that Brown was most interested in purchasing Fort Frederick - a pet project of his. Brown wrote an extensive article on the history of Fort Frederick that appeared in Maryland Historical Magazine in June 1923.
48. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1912 and 1913, 14.
49. Baltimore Sun, 26 April 1961.
50. Baltimore Sun, 18 June 1911, 26 May 1913.
51. Distinguished Men of Baltimore and Maryland (Baltimore: Baltimore American Publisher, 1914): 25.
52. Neal A. Brooks and Eric G. Rockel, A History of Baltimore County (Towson, Maryland: Friends of the Towson Library, Inc., 1979), 315, 349;
53. Baltimore Sun, 29 February 1929. According to Brooks and Rockel, Benson in the late 1920s briefly assumed the reins of the state's Democratic machine. Another brief biography on Benson can be found in the Report of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Maryland State Bar Association (Annapolis: Maryland State Bar Association, 1929): 51-53.
54. Baltimore Sun, 19 February 1912.
55. Baltimore Sun, 31 March 1912.
56. Baltimore Sun, 3 March 1912.
57. In an editorial by Rev. D. H. Steffens entitled "What May Be Done Toward Reforesting Baltimore" (Baltimore Morning Sun, 6 October 1912)
58. the author notes that real estate values are enhanced when properties are situated near parks and street trees. For examples from other cities, see Craig Colten, An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005);
59. Matthew Gandy, Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002);
60. and Young, Building San Francisco's Barks.
61. See Chapters 348, 749, and 794 in the Laws of the State of Maryland: Made and Passed (Baltimore: King Brothers, State Printers, 1912).
62. Olmsted Brothers, Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore, 107.
63. Baltimore News, 6 June 1912.
64. Baltimore News, 24 April 1913.
65. Baltimore News, 6 June 1912.
66. Deeds on file at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in Annapolis, Maryland.
67. A brief biography on Clinton L. Riggs can be found in John Beverly Riggs, The Riggs Family, (Baltimore: 1939): 348-351
68. and Tercentenary History of' Maryhnd, Volume IV, (Chicago: S. J. Clark Publishing Co., 1925): 157-158.
69. A brief biography on Stephen Paul Harwood can be found in Tercentenary History of Maryland, Volume II, (Chicago: S. J. Clark Publishing Co., 1925): 178.
70. U. S. Census Records, 1910, Howard County, Maryland, District 2. It should be noted that the reader should not confuse Andrew J. Hanson with the Hanson family that owned the Belmont Estate. The "Hanson Estate" that appears in Table 1 references the Belmont Estate owners.
71. Other industrial operations that appear in Table 1 present some questions that require additional research. C. A. Gambrill owned and operated a flourmill in Ellicott City in 1920 and had owned and operated a flourmill in Orange Grove before it burned in 1905. It is unclear which property the Gambrill Company had conferred rights in 1920. Also, according to a survey conducted by James Peirce, the Mentzel paper mill burned in 1895. It is perhaps arguable that the State Board of Forestry was purchasing excess land from abandoned factory operations.
72. Baltimore News, 6 June 1912.
73. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1914 and 1915, 25.
74. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1914 and 1915, 26.
75. It should be noted that the Patapsco Electric & Manufacturing Company was later absorbed by Consolidated Gas & Electric.
76. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1914 and 1915, 26.
77. Arthur B. Musgrave, "Better Times for the Trees: State and Nation Move to Repair the Wasteful Losses of the Past," Baltimore Sun, 29 August 1937.
78. Olmsted Brothers, Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore, 58.
79. Paul J. Travers, The Patapsco: Baltimore's River of History (Centreville, MD: Published in Association with the Maryland Historical Society by Tidewater Publications, 1990), 201.
80. J. Gordon Dorrance, The State Reserves of Maryland: "A Playground for the Public" (Baltimore: Maryland State Board of Forestry, 1919), 7.
81. Dorrance, State Reserves of Maryland. According to Warren James Belasco, autocamping revived what tourists imagined to be the more leisurely pace, personal independence, simplicity, and family solidarity of preindustrial times. Although campers in the Forest Reserve probably shared many of these same feelings, the Patapsco's proximity to Baltimore likely limited its appeal for autocamping. See Warren James Belasco, Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945 (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1979).
82. Report of the Maryland State Board of Forestry for 1918 and 1919, 29.
83. Baltimore Sun, 16 July 1916.
84. Report for 1914 and 1915, 25.
85. Baltimore Sun, 1921 (undated).
86. Baltimore Methodist, 15 July 1920.
87. Quote was taken from unidentified newspaper clipping in Fred W. Besley's scrapbook at the Maryland Hall of Records in Annapolis.
88. F. W. Besley scrapbook.
89. Baltimore Sun, 29 October 1916.
90. Baltimore Methodist, 15 July 1920.
91. Baltimore Sun, 16 July 1916
92. Baltimore Methodist, 15 July 1920.
93. Personal letters written by Robert Garrett to his brother John W reveal a preference for the Adirondack Mountains and Europe. Garrett's personal letters can be found in Special Collections at Johns Hopkins University.
94. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1912 and 1913, 36.
95. Helen Besley Overington, personal communication, 2 December 2002. According to Fred W. Besley's grandson, Kirk Rodgers (personal communication, 29 November 2001), Besley "fought very hard to keep the forest service intact" and "would have resisted any attempt to fragment his authority." He would have been "reluctant to part with parks as a separate entity."
96. Maryland State Planning Commission, Maryland Recreational Areas: A Report on Present Assets and Future Needs for Nonurban Public Recreational Areas. Maryland State Planning Commission in Cooperation with State Department of Forestry, UM Extension Service, U.S. DOI, NPS, September 1940, 17.
97. Report of the State Board of Forestry for 1924 and 1925, 12.
98. Maryland State Planning Commission, Master Plan, Maryland State Planning Commission, Attendance in State Parks and Forests, June 1952, 23.
99. Offutt Johnson, "Maryland's State Forests and Parks: Remembering Ninety Years of Accomplishment," Patapsco Valley Views (Spring-Winter 1996), 1-2.
100. Rutherford H. Platt, Rowan A. Rowntree, and Pamela C. Muick, eds., The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994): 284-285.