Baltimore is Still Home

We have just returned from our vacation in Baltimore. No matter how long I've been away, Baltimore is still my home. As much as it has changed, it still feels familiar. Here in Charleston they talk of protecting their skyline. While I like Charleston very much, they don't have a skyline. THIS is a skyline.


We stayed at the Embassy Suites at Baltimore Washington Marshall Thurgood International Airport. This is the Atrium--it is where their restaurant is.

No visit home can be without a visit or two or three to Ann's. Four generations of my family have eaten at Ann's. This little restaurant is in a spot on Ritchie Highway in front of a large shopping center. When the shopping center was built they tried to make Ann's move, but were unsuccessful. The store has been the same size since it opened in 1951. The menu is limited, but sooooo good.

The only difference in the store is it has been painted. Everything else is the same.
As I said, the menu is limited--hotdogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, a couple subs, ice cream and drinks. Maybe today's fast food restaurants should take a hint--limit the menu and make it good.


This is one of their hot dogs. As strange as it may sound the hot dogs are deep fried. All they put on it is chili, onions and mustard. Very basic, but they have tasted the same for as long as I can remember. It is one of the few things that has not changed in the area.
For as long as I can remember the waitresses in Ann's take orders from several people at a time, but never use any kind of pads to write the orders on, and I have never had them get an order wrong. At lunch time the place is packed and the line well into the parking lot, but they still get the orders right.

I don't know what people would do if Ann's ever closed, or even moved. I can only say I sure would miss them. Here's to at least 50 more years to Ann's.

Once again we see that beautiful skyline, this time from the Inner Harbor.

We didn't ride one of these, but maybe next year. They are so cool. They take you all through the City of Baltimore. . .
. . . to include the actual Inner Harbor!!!!!
Of course, we stopped at the Enoch Pratt Free Library--I had to renew my card so I can continue researching my family. The Pratt Library System is one of the oldest free libraries in the United States. It was established in 1882 and first opened in 1886 thanks to a grant from Enoch Pratt. Pratt intended his gift to establish a library that, according to its website, "shall be for all, rich and poor without distinction of race or color, who, when properly accredited, can take out the books if they will handle them carefully and return them". The Central Library, shown in the above picture, is on Cathedral Street. It is massive and so very impressive. I love this library. They have a Maryland Room, a Poe Room (for Edgar Allen Poe), a Mencken ( Henry L. Mencken was a famous Baltimore journalist), among others, and the most books and reference materials you can imagine. In addition to the Central Library, Pratt has twenty branches throughout Baltimore.

What would be a visit to Baltimore without going to Lexington Market. This market has been in continuous operation for 226 years, and is the world's largest continuously running market. More than six generations have shopped here for the fresh produce, poultry, seafood, pastries, cakes, pies and doughnuts, and of course it is a great place to have lunch. Let me give you a short history of Lexington Market. It is situated on Lexington Street, between Eutaw and Greene Streets. General John Eager Howard (he has two streets named after him--Eager and Howard), who was a Revolutionary War Hero, donated the land for the market on his return from the war. It had been a pasture on his family's estate, spreading north and west to where Washington's Monument (The first such monument in the country) and General Howard's statue now stand. The market was named for the Battle of Lexington. As soon as General Howard gave the word, outlying farmers came to the site in "great Conestoga wagons, their horses strung with bells, making their own roads. On the rolling green yard, they spread out hams, butter, eggs, turkeys and produce." These farmers did not wait for streets, sheds or stalls to be built. Soon Merchants joined the farmers in setting up a purchase and barter exchange for grain, hay, farm staples and livestock. Farmers would stay up all night long loading their goods and traveling the twenty miles from Towson and Reisterstown, with sales beginning at dawn. No sheds were put up until 1803, and then the market grew by leaps and bounds until the formal marketplace sprawled over another block to Greene Street. At first it was only open on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 2:00 AM until noon, with an historic starting and closing bell ringing for 145 years. History tells of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson passing by Lexington Market on their way to and from their estates in Virginia and Philadelphia. Daniel Webster visited Lexington Market. Art was brought to the market by painter James McNeill and novelist William Thackeray. Ralph Waldo Emerson visited the market and proclaimed Baltimore the "gastronomic capital of the world." With the name change from Western Precincts Market to Lexington MArket, Howard's Hill became one of the wonders of the 19th century. In 1817 the city finally took over. Five years alter the Market was extolled by the visiting United States Attorney General, William Wirt, who wrote to his daughter:

"You may conceive the vast quantity of provisions that must be brought to the market when you are told that 60,000 people draw their daily supplies from 'which is more than twice as many people as there are 'in Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria and Richmond, all in one." The growth of Baltimore Town over Howard's Hill had made it the second largest city. Turnpikes linked it to Harrisburg and Richmond, with lines of wagon teams rumbling north and south to the bustling junction of bay, canal and turnpike. Lexington Market was the hub. From Pennsylvania, Cumberland and Virginia countrymen traveled three and four days to hawk their butter, winter apples, handmade socks, yarn gloves and hams at the Market. By the mid 19th century Lexington Market had reached its full growth and was hailed everywhere as the largest and best market on earth. Although commission merchants moved into the picture, nearby farmers, who preferred to keep the huckster's profit, jammed the area with as many as 600 wagons on Saturdays. After the Civil War and through the turn of the 20th century Lexington Market was a recognized social center for the most democratic traditions. Social leaders exchanges gossip about current news and produce prices. Atmosphere abounded. Street singers, musicians, fortune tellers and evangelists competed with soap box economists for shoppers' attention. Gourmet dining took place at oilcloth covered tables set in teeming aisles. As new tides of immigrants moved into the area, Lexington Market acquired new blood among its stall keepers and exotic foods on its counters. In 1916, a Greek-Italian peanut war cut prices 3 cents a quart and prompted a stall sign blasting, "Remember. We Do Not Sell Common Peanuts Here." By 1925 there were over 1,000 stalls under 3 block-long sheds, with as many stands and carts outside, and traffic in the area had become a problem. "Lexington Market must go" declared and exasperated Mayor Preston in 1912. "Whether the tenants desire it or not." But the market refused to go, despite many attacks. Though street stalls were banned by Mayor Jackson's Traffic Committee in 1935, they not only survived but seemed to multiply with the publicity. In 1937 the movement to replace the old buildings with something new and modern was well under way, but the plans stayed on the drawing board until 1949. In that year, what civic leaders seemed unable to do in a decade, happened overnight in a six-alarm fire that raged in the main buildings, destroyed $2,000,000 worth of merchandise, and $500,000 in stalls and equipment. The blaze, which broke out on March 29, 1949, hurled flames hundreds of feet into the sky, and brought out twenty-four engine companies, six truck companies, two high pressure units, a water tower and six ambulances. "The Market is dead. Long live the Market!" Exulted the Baltimore Sun the next morning. "Fire merely hastened what progress was prepared to do." Progress moved quickly after that. Today the Market houses one hundred forty merchants and the tradition lives on as customers hand down their market baskets from gneration to generation.
As the signs says, Lexington Market has been in operation since 1782, and this is the original site.
As a kid I can remember my parents talking about Berger's Bakery. . .
My parents were married in 1941. When they were dating Dad bought a pound of Rheb's Candy for Mom--he paid something like 39 cents for it. I don't think they really thought it was going to be very good, but it was the thought that counts. Well, the candy was THAT good, and even today we are still eating it, even when we have to order it through the mail. Rhebs has a small store out on Wilkens Avenue, again, a store that has not changed for as long as I can remember, which is also where their "factory" is. All their candy is hand made and hand dipped, and this is another thing that tastes the same now as it did then. The store is very small, tucked away down a small side street. At Christmas and Easter be sure to order early, and if you are going to the store to pick it up, make sure you have plenty time, because the lines are long. Rheb's used to have the main store, and stall at Hollins Market and a stall at Lexington Market. I'm not sure if other markets in the area had stalls, but I would assume at least some of them did. Now there is only the main store and the stall in Lexington Market.
Now, you have to understand my Dad is 94 years old, so he remembers "before Ann's". When I was a kid there were two place my parents talked about getting hot dogs--Pollack Johnny's and Coney Island. Pollack Johnny's sells fresh Polish sausage. Mike bought one while we were there and said it was still a great sausage.

And here is Coney Island. Amazing how something as common as sausage and hot dogs can be so in demand for so many years.
Now Muhly's bakery was where my parents used to get the great Peach Cake. Oh, I do wish you could still get it today. It was so sinfully delicious. If someone reads this that has a recipe for a good Baltimore Peach Cake I sure would like to have it.

If you can't read the upper signe it says, "They are hot, Hon." Everyone in Baltimore calls everyone "Hon".
This is a view of some of the stalls in the market. It is so cool going through here.
AHHHHHHH! And who could go to Baltimore and not get Utz's potato chips? When I was little you could go to the markets and buy them loose. When you ordered them they would put them in bags. They made them as you watched. They were and are delicious. When my daughter and her family lived in Chesapeake, Virginia we were able to get them there, but now we are back to having to go to Baltimore to get them.






To be continued . . .