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7 CANTON & BREWERS HILL: OLD INDUSTRY AND RENEWED WATERFRONT

BOUNDARIES: S. Boston St., S. Conkling St., S. Lakewood St., Dillon St., S. Clinton St.

DISTANCE: 2.5 miles

DIFFICULTY: Moderate

PARKING: All along route, but free and easy parking can be found at Canton Crossing and the Canton Waterfront Park.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Water Taxi stops at Canton Waterfront Park. MTA buses #s 7, 11, and 13 stop on Clinton St., near Canton Crossing; #11 and #13 run along Boston St.; #7 runs along S. Conkling; and #13 stops on O’Donnell.

Many locals know Canton primarily as a desirable and safe neighborhood, full of shops and restaurants, new residential construction projects, and an enviable position abutting the northeast section of the Harbor. It is all those things. But Canton also hides an extraordinary history, able to tell some of the more interesting stories in Baltimore’s history. Situated east of the original Baltimore-Town and oriented toward the water, Canton was the site in 1797 of the launching of the Constellation (see Walk 4) and the creation of the armor plates for the USS Monitor. By the 1820s, under the direction of Peter Cooper and Columbus O’Donnell, the son of Canton’s founder, John O’Donnell, Canton constituted the country’s first large industrial park, a 10,000-acre complex of various manufacturers, fertilizer plants, canners, and bottlers, plus nearby sea lanes and rail lines to export it all. But it wasn’t all work; racetracks and beer gardens abounded for recreation. When most of these places disappeared, the US government took over a large swath and created Fort Holabird, where, among other lasting inventions, engineers created army-olive paint, blackout lights, clog-resistant motorcycle fenders, and the US army’s inimitable and iconic Willys jeep. Canton today is a great destination, with wonderful residential spots, easy access to the water, and a bevy of watering holes that do its brewing history proud.

 Begin at the Canton Crossing development off S. Clinton St. The development, anchored by the First Mariner Tower, offers a few restaurants and plenty of street and lot parking. Here, on the south corner of Boston St. and Clinton, is where the Potter’s Course (1823), a second area racetrack and later known as Kendall Track, was built. It was the site of the 1840 Whig Convention, where Henry Clay and Daniel Webster gave speeches and where William Henry Harrison was nominated for president, giving the occasion the distinction of being the country’s first presidential nominating convention. (The Whigs were back four years later, in 1844, when they nominated Henry Clay for the presidency.) Also nearby were the sites of the city’s first public bathing beach, as well as a baptismal area where the city’s Baptists were dunked into the Patapsco in prodigious numbers, earning the spot the moniker “Baptizing Shore.”

 Head north toward Boston St. and go left, more or less following the waterline toward Canton Waterfront Park. To the west, just off Boston St. and S. East St., you’ll see the Baltimore City Marine Police Unit building, a small facility where the police unit’s marine rescue equipment is stored. Across Boston St. is the Clarence “Du” Burns Arena. Named for the city’s first African American mayor, the arena hosts professional lacrosse games and serves as the training facility of the Baltimore Blast, the city’s indoor soccer team and frequent Major Indoor Soccer League champion.

 Canton Waterfront Park is a special place. While all the surrounding streets continue to be swept up in a tide of gentrification, here you can still grab a shady spot, feel the breezes off the water, and simply relax. A favorite haunt of couples, families, and city dwellers looking for some peace and quiet, the park offers a perfect place to check out the water views across the Patapsco (yes, that’s Fort McHenry across the water) and watch the crabbers and fishermen pulling their catch from the murky waters off the Waterfront Promenade. Be sure to check out the attractive Korean War Memorial at the north edge of the park, just off Boston St. Dedicated in 1990, the granite memorial, set into the ground, contains the names of the 527 Marylanders who died during the conflict, as well as the names of those still officially considered missing in action. The center of the memorial features a map of Korea, also in granite.

 Follow the Waterfront Promenade west, passing marinas and restaurants, including Bo Brooks, a great place for steamed crabs, until you come to Boston Street Pier Park. Enjoy this walk; while the city pulses to your right, looking left over the water forces you to slow down and take in the pleasing, lazy atmosphere. Plus, there’s something really nice about hearing the lap of small waves in the middle of a city. You’ll see much development along the water here; many of these condos and apartments are of newer construction, but some make use of older industrial buildings. The development began full bore in the 1980s, with developers recognizing the attractiveness and reclamation potential of waterside living along what had languished for many years as a rather unattractive swath of spent industrial sites. Today, the waterside development, far more tastefully done than otherwise, wraps around the entire water line all the way through Fells Point (Walk 6), Harbor East (Walk 5), and into the Inner Harbor (Walk 4).

  At Boston Street Pier Park, cross Boston St. at the American Can Company development (you’ll see the Safeway across Boston). This is the site of what was in its time the largest can manufacturer in the United States. The American Can Company started in 1901, preceded here by the Norton Tin Can and Plate Company, whose main building still stands and dates from 1895 (one block west of the Safeway). Today, you’ll find plenty of shops and restaurants, another success story in reclaiming old and once-contaminated industrial sites and reusing them to serve the needs and wants of city dwellers.

  Your first street off Boston, south and east of the Can Company complex, is O’Donnell St. Take it heading east, moving in the direction of St. Casimir’s school and church. St. Casimir’s dates to 1902 and was erected to serve Canton’s growing Polish immigrant community. Go to the front of the church to see this beautiful limestone building’s most impressive external features; take note of the two cupolas holding bell towers and carved with niches where 9-foot statues of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua gaze down with benevolence. Inside, see the 14 stained glass windows, a series of impressive murals, and a main altar modeled on the one at the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Italy.

 Moving east along O’Donnell St., you’ll see where much of Canton’s revitalization has taken place. You’ll find an eclectic assortment of shops and restaurants, all spillover from the inland portion of the neighborhood’s focal point, O’Donnell Square, which you will reach in one block. Once the site of Canton Market (1859), O’Donnell Square is where you’ll find locals darting in and out of the shops and bars or simply taking a spot on one of the many benches in the shaded green space. (If there’s a big soccer match taking place somewhere in the world, Claddagh’s Pub, on the square, is the best place in the city to take it in.) In the middle of it all is the statue to the father of Canton, Captain John O’Donnell, who settled in Baltimore-Town in 1780 and initiated trade between Baltimore and Canton, China, in 1785, thus the name. Of course, the local stress here is on the first syllable, “CAN-ton,” as opposed to the Chinese “Can-TON.” Most of Canton was originally O’Donnell’s waterside plantation. (It was on that plantation that local Betsy Patterson met Prince Jerome Bonaparte, Napoléon’s brother, in 1803. They married two years later. Archbishop Carroll presided over the ceremony.) Look for the unique “keyhole” house on the north edge of the square, just before S. Ellwood Ave. This private home stands out for its beautiful stone construction and circular covered entranceway.

 After a respite in O’Donnell Square, continue heading east, toward the granite church on the east side of the square. This is the home of the Messiah English Lutheran Church, dating to 1890. Behind the church is the Canton branch of the Enoch Pratt Library. This branch, on the National Register of Historic Places, was one of the system’s four original branches and has been in continuous use since 1886, making it the city’s oldest branch. Its architect, Charles Carson, designed many Baltimore landmarks (including the Mount Vernon Methodist Church; see Walk 16) and was responsible for the keyhole house noted above. Note: the library is undergoing renovation slated to last until January 2014.

 Continue moving east on O’Donnell St., taking note of Canton’s residential profile: tidy, two-story row homes of brick, stone, and the occasional Formstone (a type of cement designed to imitate stone). Be on the lookout also for painted screens (for the lowdown on painted screens and Formstone, both beloved institutions of Baltimore kitsch, see Walk 9: Patterson Park to Highlandtown). The houses here and on bordering blocks were built primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the large influx of blue-collar immigrant workers, mostly German, Greek, Irish, Polish, and Welsh. Later waves brought immigrants from farther east: Lithuanians, Russians, Ukrainians. As you move east, you’ll see one of the city’s most iconic images, the illuminated one-eyed Mr. Boh (see “Back Story” on the previous page). Eight blocks from the library is S. Conkling St., where you’ll find Natty Boh Tower, named for the adored local brew that has now been embraced by a younger generation of Baltimoreans both paying homage to the city’s past and celebrating its present quirkiness and charm.

  You’re now in the heart of Brewers Hill, an up-and-coming neighborhood that has seen some thoughtful and inventive reuse. This area is where National Brewery and Gunther Brewery operated for decades, beginning in the 1880s, churning out Gunther, Hamms, National Bohemian, National Premium, and Schaefer, among other brands. One of National’s more popular outputs was Colt 45, named for Baltimore Colts running back Jerry Hill, #45. It was here that the six-pack was invented, revolutionizing (cheap) beer consumption. Now, the old complex is used for retail, office, light industrial, and residential use, but reminders of its brewing past abound, with great nostalgia-inducing signage attached to the old brick buildings. To wander around the place, you can go one block north on S. Conkling, to Dillon St., and take a right. Here, breweriana abounds.

 Return to S. Conkling and head south, toward the harbor. Take the first right onto Elliott St., at the massive, brick Hamms Brewery building. Elliott St. reflects Canton’s waterside roots, as the street was named for Jesse Duncan Elliott, the superintendent of the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

 Take your first left onto S. Baylis St. (Conkling and Baylis are the names of past leaders of the industrial Canton Company, as are street names Leakin and Gwynne). It was at the corner of O’Donnell and Baylis where George Pabst opened a small brewery in 1860. The next block south is Toone St., named in honor of a local saloon owner who in the early 1820s owned Toone’s Pleasure Gardens, where patrons could grab a drink and watch the races at the nearby tracks. Boston St. is the next block, and across Boston is Canton Crossing, where you began. If you’re up for it, follow Clinton St. all the way south another quarter mile or so to its water end. A quarantine hospital used to stand here, as did a lighthouse. Visitors to Fort McHenry have no doubt noticed the Lehigh Cement Plant across the water; that is what stands at the end of Clinton St. now. Interestingly, so does the lighthouse, near the water’s edge in front of the cement plant off Mertens Ave. What you can see there now isn’t the original, however, which was constructed in 1831. Sadly, that lighthouse, Chesapeake’s first electric lighthouse, was demolished in 1926 after it was deemed superfluous. What stands there now is a faithful reproduction, erected in the 1980s.

John O’Donnell, Canton’s founder

BACK STORY

Few things scream Baltimore more than the one-eyed, mustachioed Mr. Boh, an icon since his introduction in 1936. Since its inception in 1885, National Bohemian has been proclaiming good tidings from “The Land of Pleasant Living.” The brand came packing wacky and wonderful cartoon pitchmen beyond the famous one-eyed barkeep, including an oyster, a turtle, a seagull or duck (or blue bird) wearing a ship captain’s hat, a pelican, and a vaguely colonial chap toting a banjo. All weirdness and all great fun. At one time, the brewery’s president also owned the Baltimore Orioles and the two became intertwined, with Natty Boh on tap at all O’s games. Yes, the O’s on the radio, a pile of crabs, and a case of Natty Boh: the essential ingredients for Baltimore nirvana.

CONNECTING THE WALKS

From the American Can Company complex, Patterson Park (Walk 9) is five blocks due north. Once on the Harbor Promenade, stay on it heading west and you’ll soon be in Fells Point (Walk 6).

POINTS OF INTEREST (START TO FINISH)

Clarence “Du” Burns Arena 1301 S. Ellwood Ave., 443-573-2450

Canton Waterfront Park 2903 Boston St.

Korean War Memorial Canton Waterfront Park, 2903 Boston St.

Bo Brooks 2701/150 Lighthouse Point, 410-558-0202

American Can Company thecancompany.com, 2400 Boston St., 443-573-4460

St. Casimir’s stcasimir.org, 2800 O’Donnell St., 410-276-1981

O’Donnell Square 2900 block of O’Donnell St.

Claddagh’s Pub claddaghonline.com, 2918 O’Donnell St., 410-522-4220

Messiah English Lutheran Church messiahodsq.com, 1025 South Potomac St., 410-324-4543

Enoch Pratt Free Library, Canton Branch prattlibrary.org/locations/canton, 1030 S. Ellwood Ave., 410-545-7130

Brewers Hill brewershill.net, Conkling St. to O’Donnell and Dillon Sts.

ROUTE SUMMARY

1 Start at Canton Crossing, S. Clinton St. south of Boston St.

2 Go north on S. Clinton and turn left onto Boston St.

3 Enter Canton Waterfront Park.

4 Head west on the Harbor Promenade.

5 Cross Boston St. north of Boston Street Pier Park.

6 Enter the American Can Company complex.

7 Go east on O’Donnell St.

8 Explore Brewers Hill at S. Conkling, O’Donnell, and Dillon Sts.

9 Go south on S. Conkling St.

10 Turn right onto Elliott St.

11 Turn left onto S. Baylis St.

12 Turn right onto Boston St.

13 Turn left onto S. Clinton St.