Historic Preservation

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Start date: 2024Subject: search.filters.subject.Historic Preservation

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    Maryland's Colonial History at West Ashcom the Archaeology Site (18ST871)
    (2024-12) Gill, Katherine; Pavão-Zuckerman, Barnet; Linebaugh, Donald; Gijanto, Liza; Shackel, Paul
    The archaeology site West Ashcom (18ST871) has been the focus of archaeological excavation in earnest from 2012 to the present day. This report focuses on the historical background of this site's history, primarily focusing on its 17th and 18th century histories and the results of the 2016 field season excavations. The excavations at site 18ST871 have recovered materials identifying this site as a late 17th century occupation by the Ashcom family on the early colonial Maryland landscape. Methods used at this archaeological site include shovel test surveys, unit excavation, magnetometer survey, materials characterization using x-ray fluorescence, and x-radiography of metal artifacts.
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    The World in an Oyster: The Architectural and Cultural Landscape of Canton's Canning Industry
    (2024-05-21) Hutter, Christopher; Kern, Susan; Sprinkle, John
    Canton, a neighborhood in southeast Baltimore listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the former center of the food-canning industry that once dominated the economy in the city and in the state of Maryland. Canning was developed in France in the early 19th century and spread to America shortly thereafter, but it did not achieve widespread commercial success until the decades after the Civil War, when technical advancements made canning on an industrial scale possible. Baltimore canneries combined several natural features, including the Chesapeake Bay’s large oyster population and rich surrounding farmlands, with an influx of new immigrants from central and eastern Europe to create an industrial district that was the leading producer of canned foods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much as the canneries were designed architecturally to optimize their natural and commercial settings, the entire neighborhood of Canton came to be oriented, physically and socially, around the canneries, as a working-class neighborhood bound by ethnicity, language, religion, and occupation. Canning’s physical impact extended even beyond Baltimore to the Eastern Shore communities impacted by the increased demand for oysters, as sudden profits led to profound changes in the oystering industry that had long been the domain of rural watermen. Advances in technology like refrigeration and trucking largely obviated the need for Canton’s canneries in their designed form, and all of the firms along Boston Street closed down in the mid-20th century. Following a period of economic stagnation, redevelopment starting in the 1980s transformed Canton into a trendy, gentrified residential neighborhood by the turn of the century. Historic preservation had some success in retaining the area’s architectural fabric, but all of the former canneries have been demolished and largely replaced with apartment complexes and condominiums. The ways in which preservation handled, or perhaps failed to handle, this transition to modernity raise profound questions about the limits of preservation, especially in a maritime industrial context where the structures in question no longer support the prevailing economic impetus. Ultimately, new residents are drawn to Canton for both waterfront access and its historic associations, but when the forces that shaped the neighborhood have changed so dramatically, it is unclear what, exactly, has been preserved.
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    National Register Nomination for Captain William Henry Burtis House, Annapolis, Maryland
    (2024) Turner, II, Vincent P.; Kern, Susan; Magalong, Michelle
    The Burtis House, at 69 Prince George Street Annapolis, Maryland, is located within the Annapolis Historic District and is the last waterman’s house directly on the city waterfront. Burtis House was constructed circa 1882 and its period of significance spans from ca. 1882 to 1910, the years William Burtis, the house’s original owner, resided there. The property has a Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (MIHP) number, AA-1152, although the nomination form, which was written in 1983, contains only cursory information about the house. The form has no information about who William Burtis was, why Burtis or the house is significant, or even context about its location. Recent research illuminates the history of the Burtis family, Burtis House, and the working-class Annapolis neighborhood it was once a part of, known as Hell Point. This study examines the historical context of Burtis House to create a new understanding of the property, which will emphasize the importance of William Burtis in Annapolis’s history, tell the story of the Burtis family, reveal the largely forgotten history of Hell Point and nineteenth century Annapolis, and illustrate the significance of Burtis House’s survival to the present day.