Harbor Place, Baltimore Maryland

Day 1121

    Harbor place, Baltimore City, Maryland, opened on July 2, 1980 as a centerpiece of the revival of downtown Baltimore

     

     The last time I was at harbor place, was 4 years ago when I tried a case in the Baltimore City Circuit Court (I won, of course). The first thing I notice was how clean the harbor was. Usually full of trash and debris, it was crystal clear. The reason, I discovered was the Inner Harbor Water Wheel. 

     It uses old and new technology. Powered by the water and the sun, it can produce up to 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The Water Wheel is capable of removing 50,000 pounds of trash every day. 

     The Light at Seven Foot Knoll marked the outlet entrance to Baltimore’s harbor and was manned from 1856 to 1948, when the Coast Guard automated it. In 1988 the lighthouse was retired and moved to it’s present position at Pier 5 in the Inner Harbor.

     Going through the 3 pavillions that make up Harbor Place, I found that 80% of the stores were vacant. Far cry from the vibrant hustle and bustle of 4 years ago. This is probably explained by the fact that as of May 30, 2019, Harborplace was placed into court-ordered receivership.

Rumsey Island, Joppa, Maryland

Day 1120

     Joppa was founded as a British settlement on the Gunpowder River in 1707. The settlement was named for the Biblical town of Jaffa, in the ancient Holy Land of modern day Israel.  

     Joppa was a major seaport in colonial times and served as the county seat of the original Baltimore County. The town proper was located on what is now called Rumsey Island, where the Big Gunpowder Falls and Little Gunpowder Falls meet to form the Gunpowder River. The wide harbor could accommodate the largest ocean-going ships of the day and, long before Baltimore Harbor was established, Joppa was one of the busiest ports in the western hemisphere. It became the focal point of virtually all aspects of public and political life in colonial central Maryland.

     Benjamin Rumsey was born October 6, 1734 at Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Province of Maryland (the Revolutionary War won’t take place for another 44 years). He settled in Joppa about 1768 and lived here the rest of his life. When a new state superior court (the Maryland Court of Appeals) was created in 1778, Benjamin Rumsey was appointed as its first chief justice. Maryland sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777, he was not one of the 4 signers of the Declaration for Independence from Maryland.

     Tidbit of Information: Maryland send a total of 19 delegates to the 1st & 2nd Continental Congresses.

     Over the years, the Gunpowder River and the harbor silted up and in 1768 the county seat was moved to Baltimore, which became Maryland’s major shipping port. By 1814, Joppa was mostly abandoned.

     Church of the Resurrection is an Episcopal Church in Joppa and is a community of the Episcopal Church and the American Anglicans. Located on Rumsey Island in the city of Joppatowne. It was established in 1724. The present Episcopal Church of the Resurrection is located on the property of the original 1724 brick church.

     When ‘redevelopment’ threatened to destroy the original townsite, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy intervened and the grounds of St. John’s parish church, along with adjacent lots, were acquired by the Episcopal Church. The church was reconsecrated and renamed Church of the Resurrection, preserving the archeological ruins.

     To commemorate their original accomplishments, the church puts on an annual celebration.

     We attended a concert by the colonial band,

     Received sage information from one of the old timers,

     Learned the craft of photography of the time.

     They say this was the Maryland flag of 1724, but I found no corroboration of this, and I seriously doubt this flag was present in 1724. Maryland was the 7^th state admitted to the Union on April 28, 1788, but it wasn’t until October 11, 1880 that a flag was first flown representing Maryland, and it wasn’t this flag.