Retro Baltimore

A permanent exhibit about the journeys of escaped slaves on the railroad is likely to open at the B&O Museum in Baltimore in spring 2022.

It’s the time of year when some of us are craving a good scare. Fortunately for us, Baltimore is home to many spooky stories.

While the Orioles’ stellar starters (Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Jim Palmer and Pat Dobson) pitched well, Pittsburgh’s unheralded staff was better, stopping the champs on a two-hitter, a three-hitter and two four-hitters.

In late September, the Baltimore City Fire Department renamed Engine Company 52 on Woodbrook Avenue in West Baltimore the Hilton L. Roberts Sr. Fire Station in honor of a pioneering Black firefighter who was a member of the second class that graduated Black Americans in 1954 from the firefighter’s academy.

From around 1830 to 1850, Black laborers dominated Baltimore’s ship caulking industry, ensuring that the ships that left Baltimore’s harbor were watertight. It was demanding and important work, and they were able to band together and negotiate higher wages than would have been available to other free Black workers at the time.

Nowadays Dove, a great-grandfather who lives in Pasadena, still draws crowds at local venues.

The morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, was especially beautiful, with clear skies and cool temperatures and none of humidity that plagues Baltimore during the late summer. The day was shattered at 8:46 a.m., when the first aircraft hit the World Trade Center in New York.

The day Gov. Larry Hogan announced the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in March 2020, Baltimore Heritage’s weekly schedule of walking tours to showcase local history ground to a halt, but Johns Hopkins, executive director of the historical preservation organization, wasn’t ready to give up on its work.

Severe Maryland earthquakes are fairly rare, which has ensured they make headlines whenever one rumbles across the region.

Sixty-five years ago Billy Blair, a 15-year-old schoolboy from Ruxton, won the Sunpapers Soap Box Derby, a heralded event that mirrored America’s passion for kids’ racing back then.

The pandemic has shown us how volatile the life span of a restaurant is. As much as we may savor a certain dish and anticipate a favorite dessert, there is no guarantee it will be around for another year.

Snowballs are popular summer treats in Baltimore and New Orleans. But which city has the oldest snowball stand?