Retro Baltimore

When horse-drawn wagons were the preferred method of transportation on York Road and telephones and electric lights were relative novelties, a copper beech tree was sending its roots deep into the rich earth.

Sean Connery, the actor who recently died at age 90, starred in a film partially set in 1960s Baltimore. There is no record of his actually working here on the film, but its director, Alfred Hitchcockcq liked Baltimore’s marble steps, which appear in the completed film.

As the second wave of influenza surged in the fall of 1918 which would culminate in November as the deadliest month of the pandemic, one of the lesser remembered casualties was public gatherings of Halloween revelers in Baltimore. Well, sort of.

The outfit is a riddle. Well-tailored but garish. Expensive, but nothing that a wealthy man would have chosen to wear. The coat’s label: “Tilghman Davis 1888.”

He was 21 and balding, with a quirky name and a Hall of Fame arm that would set him apart if the other stuff didn’t. In the early years of the Baltimore Colts, Yelberton Albert (Y.A.) Tittle wowed football fans who rallied around the young quarterback of their fledgling football team.

Who remembers Hendler's holiday egg nog flavor?

As the wrecking ball continues making its way through the lugubrious and now-closed Maryland Penitentiary that squats for several blocks on East Forrest Street in Baltimore, it’s time to recall the adventures of “Tunnel Joe” Holmes, the only resident of the institution who ever successfully dug his way to temporary freedom, and was returned there after pulling off a stickup in Mount Vernon.

More than a century ago, Baltimore was dealing with a different pandemic, the “Spanish Flu,” as it began to hit Baltimore area military bases this week in 1918 before ravaging the city.

On Sept. 13, 1964, as part of their first official North American tour, the Beatles played Baltimore.

"She was not the largest vessel to claim to be a tugboat, but she was specially built to serve the city as an all-around inspection troubleshooter for the port.”

An 1864 headline in The Baltimore American, proclaimed the event “the great election fraud.” The story played out in the early fall weeks that year as the Civil War was in a critical stage and the country faced a critical election.

Here's the history of the site where Vice President Mike Pence spoke and President Donald J. Trump made a surprise appearance during the Republican National Convention.