The Maryland Department of Corrections plans to demolish the Warden House along with several other structures at the Baltimore City Detention Center complex before 2021. While it is long past time to cease housing inmates here, the Warden House is worth preserving for the lessons it offers.
Baltimore City authorized construction of what would become the Warden House in 1856. The city needed a new jail, and it selected the plans of brothers and architectural partners Thomas and James Dixon. The Dixons described the jail's planned designs as "Romanesque" and "jail within a jail." They incorporated an apartment for the warden's family. The brothers estimated the jail's construction would cost about $120,000.
The completion of the re-constructed jail in 1859 established Baltimore's role in the slave trade. The jail held hundreds of runaways and abolitionists, both black and white, who helped slaves to freedom, according to nonprofit Baltimore Heritage. In addition to the Warden House, private jails housed slaves for several purposes, including the convenience of the slave owners, according to a 1999 article in this paper. Slave owners traveling through Baltimore checked their slaves into a jail while the owners slept comfortably in a nearby inn. These jails also housed unwanted and unreliable slaves until they were sold to southern plantation owners. The jail was a passage to an uncertain future for those who entered and for those who left.
The Warden House is an important aspect of Baltimore's history that shouldn't be forgotten. Just as with the preservation of the preservation of Auschwitz, the former German Nazi Concentration Camp in Poland, people need a physical reminder of the mistakes others have made so that they're not repeated. Other than the Warden House, no other slave jails remain, according to Baltimore Heritage.
We also need to preserve the Warden House for environmental reasons.
Older buildings are more energy efficient than people think. Buildings built before 1920 are about as energy efficient as those built between 2000 and 2003, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration numbers shared in a March 2009 report by The Abell Foundation. Preserving old buildings makes for less waste in landfills. The Abell Report noted that during a 12-year period, Maryland "saved" 387,000 tons of material from the landfill through preserving older structures.
How should the MDC reuse the Warden House? Why not turn it into offices for MDC's use? Better yet, why not convert it into classrooms where parolees can be taught the skills they need to reintegrate into society? This would demonstrate a commitment to correcting the wrongs of the jail's past.
The structure of the Warden House is more than just a landmark, which some locals today call the "castle." Beyond the style of the structure's classic Victorian gothic design that keeps it a building worth preserving, the jail is Baltimore — history and materials. The Dixon brothers used Patapsco granite for the foundations and window sills. They used light blue stone from Jones Falls for the walls, and they trimmed their work with marble from quarries in Baltimore County.
A plaque denoting the history of the Warden House should be erected on the building. Because of its historical significance, it should become a must-see destination for tourists interested in Baltimore's history. Additionally, history and architecture buffs would delight at being able to see this unique structure, even if only from the outside.
Baltimore is a city rich in historical buildings, and these structures all have a story to tell. Preserving them will give us a chance to heed their lessons.
Amanda Nix and Travis Hess are graduate students at Towson University. Their emails are anix1@students.towson.edu and thess3@students.towson.edu.