A history of Maryland ground rents

Ground rent -- Maryland's arcane system in which thousands of homeowners lease the land under their houses -- is as much a part of Baltimore's history as crabs.

The system dates to 1632, when King Charles I of England gave Cecilius Calvert -- otherwise known as the second Lord Baltimore -- all the land in what is now Maryland.

Calvert collected rents from the colonists who built on his land, and he also paid rents to the king each Easter at Windsor Castle. He promised King Charles I two American Indian arrowheads and a fifth of any gold and silver found in the colony, though no gold and silver were ever found.

Shortly after the American Revolution, Maryland's legislature spread the wealth, empowering any landholder to demand rent. Some took cash, others trade.

In Fells Point, for instance, precursors to ground rents were paid in tobacco. One owner accepted a single red rose, in keeping with the flower's history of tribute.

Ground rents played a pivotal role as Baltimore grew into an industrial powerhouse in the early 20th century, spurring development of miles of affordable red-brick and white-marble-stepped rowhouses.

Developers knew that working-class families could more easily afford to buy a home if they didn't need to pay for the land. So they leased these families the ground at minimal cost and drew on the rent payments to boost their profits and help build even more new blocks of homes.

As the city's housing needs grew, particularly with returning GIs after World War II, the ground rent system seemed to serve everyone's interests. Developers and investors pointed to ground rent as a key enabler of affordable housing in the city.

There have been critics along the way, however.

"It is customary in Baltimore to wag our heads complacently over the ground rent system," begins a nonbylined column written by "our social trends correspondent" in the March 18, 1941, edition of The Evening Sun.

The writer goes on to accuse developers of "profiteering" by buying cheap parcels of land and boosting the value more than 1,000 percent overnight simply by creating ground rents. At that time, ground rents were valued by dividing the annual fee by six and multiplying by 100. A $60 ground rent, for example, was worth $1,000.

Also, the writer said, the homes built on these tiny lots were "congenitally substandard," so jammed and narrow that daylight couldn't find its way in.

The writer predicted that many of these homes would wind up as a "pesthole," slums that would be abandoned, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for tearing them down.

Nearly two decades later, Ann Miller of Baltimore wrote a letter to the editor of The Evening Sun urging support for a state bill to "put an end to the ground-rent racket" and the "handful of profiteers who hold thousands of our neighbors in bondage."

The bill, filed by Del. Joseph A. Acker in 1959, sought to phase out ground rents by requiring that they be sold along with the homes. Miller said she hoped lawmakers would show the "courage" to support Acker's bill when the "influence peddlers and lobbyists corner them in Annapolis."

Nearly a half-century later, new ground rents are being created when some houses are sold.

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