If the Walls Could Talk: A Century of Changes Within Sight of the Clifton Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library
By Julius Zuke
Librarian
REACH! Partnership High School on the
Lake Clifton Campus
June, 2016
This year marks a century of service for the Clifton branch library. Walking into its building transports its visitors to a different time in the growth of Baltimore. Rows of computers have replaced wooden tables and the paint on the walls is probably a lot more whimsical than its original hues. Still, the stark granite steps, dark antique shelving, and weathered plaques in the entryway remind us that a century's worth of visitors have preceded us. Such visual stimulation evokes curiosity. Both the books on the shelf and the neighborhood surrounding the library have changed in a century. But how? That's a story that any librarian would be eager to share.
Enoch Pratt was but one of many wealthy people in Baltimore. He died twenty years before the Clifton branch opened. The son of farmers, he arrived in Baltimore with $150.00 in his pocket. His first business venture was selling shoes and nails for mules. By the time of his death in 1896, he acquired considerable wealth. He owned E. Pratt and Brothers, an iron company. He was the director of the Susquehanna Canal Company. He was the president of Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore, which printed its own currency. He was the vice president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad. He had a controlling interest in the Maryland Steamboat Company.
Perhaps because he came from humble beginnings. Enoch Pratt gave back generously to Baltimore. He is, of course, remembered for establishing the Enoch Pratt Library with a central location and four branches. He was ahead of his times in that the library would be free (many libraries of the time charged membership fees), and would be available to people of all races, even as segregation was enforced well into the twentieth century. Pratt would have been pleased to see how his endowment would spread libraries and literacy to his rapidly expanding city. ("About the Library—Enoch Pratt Free Library")
Pratt's generosity did not stop with the library system. He donated land for Cheltenham, a reform school for African American children in Prince Georges County. He also supported the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts (now the Maryland Institute of Art). He donated a Neimann pipe organ to Baltimore's Unitarian Church in 1893, (History of Our Church and Organs) and it is still in regular use. (The Niemann Organ List) Upon his death, Pratt bequeathed an endowment to the Moses Shepard Asylum(now Sheppard-Pratt Hospital).
As rich as Enoch Pratt was, he did not pay for the Clifton building. According to a plaque in the entryway to the branch, that honor fell to Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was born in Scotland under humble conditions, and moved to America at the age of thirteen. He worked his way up from bobbin boy to messenger to telegraph operator to superintendent of the Pittsburgh office of the Pennsylvania Railroad. At this point, he was able to invest heavily in coal, oil, and iron. Consequently, he became very wealthy by the age of thirty. From 1870 until 1892, he built up what would eventually become the Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to banker John Pierpont Morgan in 1901 for $480 million. Like Enoch Pratt, Andrew Carnegie had more money than he could spend. Not only did he pay for the construction of the Clifton branch, but 2,500 more libraries worldwide. He also donated 6,500 pipe organs to churches worldwide and built Carnegie Hall in New York. Carnegie, like Pratt, believed that the rich had a moral obligation to help others. (History.com Staff)
Once completed, the library was likely stocked with the latest bestsellers. To those of us alive in 2016, the shelves might have reminded us of a collection of classic literature from a college English Literature class:
Willa Cather O Pioneers!
O. Henry Rolling Stones
Paul Laurence Dunbar Complete Poems
William Carlos Williams The Tempers
Theodore Dreiser The Financier
Zane Grey Riders of the Purple Sage
James Weldon Johnson The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Ezra Pound Ripostes
Jack London South Sea Tales
Edith Wharton Ethan Frome
Robert Frost A Boy's Will
Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes
Ring Lardner You Know Me Al
Mark Twain The Mysterious Stranger (Tompkins, 26-31)
In the children's section might have been located an assortment of both classics and the latest children's books:
Pictures and Stories from Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853)
Tom Brown's School Days. (1911)
The Water-babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-baby. (1863)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (1866)
The Wonderful Stories of Fuz-buz the Fly and Mother Grabem the Spider. (1867)
Little Women, or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy (1868)
The Wonderful Leaps of Sam Patch. (circa 1870)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. (1876)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade). (1885)
The Jungle Book. (1894)
Three Little Kittens and Other Nursery Stories.(1896)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
The Rocket Book. (1912)
Treasure Island.(1911) ("Stories: After 1850")
A plaque in the entryway of the Clifton Branch lists Frank Novak and his wife as the donor of the land where the Clifton branch library stands. Born in Baltimore two years after his parents emigrated to America, he became a carpenter's apprentice, building houses. At the age of 22, he was working under August Hanneman, a German house builder. When Mr. Hannemannunexpectly died in 1899, Novak bought up the rest of Hanneman's unfinished houses. After that, he began buying up lots and building houses all over. In the end, he built over 7,000 rowhouses in Baltimore. (Baltimore Brick by Brick)
Were the rowhouses across from the Clifton branch built by Novak? One might assume so, since the library stands on Novak land. The 1908 municipal map of proposed sewer lines tell a different story. According to that map, Holy Cross Cemetery (moved to Woodlawn Cemetery in 1969 to make way for Harford Heights Elementary School and William March Middle School) went all the way to the curb across the street from the library. (Baltimore Maps). If, indeed, the cemetery extended that far, by 1930, houses faced the front of the library. (Mother Injured Saving Child). This same 1908 map shows all roads north of North Avenue as being unpaved and not yet scheduled for sewer installation. When the Clifton branch opened in 1916, it may not have had running water, sewers, or sanitary facilities. (Baltimore Maps) The "ultimate" Christmas gift for 1916 was electrifying one's house ($75, according to one ad in The Sun), so the Clifton branch may have been lighted with oil lamps or gas, and may have been heated with coal. Examination of the branch's building may provide clues in this regard.
The Clifton branch served a markedly different patron in 1916. A child born when the library opened could expect to live 54.5 years. Only 5% of the population was over age 65. Because jobs required little schooling, most people had only an elementary school education. Only 14% of teenagers attended high school. Eighty percent of the people rented their homes instead of buying them. Mortgages had to be paid back in three to five years, and the banks could raise their interest without regulation.People lived in crowded rooms. Children shared one bed. Heat came from a potbelly stove or a coal furnace in the basement. If there were an indoor toilet, it would be tucked away in a closet or small room. In 1916, no one thought to put the toilet in the same room as a bathtub. The average adult made $687.00 annually—half that if you were a woman. Women had not yet been given the right to vote, either. (Leon)
The first librarian, like her patrons, would not receive health benefits. That having been said, one doctor on Druid Hill Avenue would remove three corns for a quarter, (Display Ad #4) and Provident Hospital offered a full week of hospitalization for five dollars, everything included. (Display Ad #6) People would travel to the library on foot, by horse-drawn trolleys (Leon), or (if wealthy) by a two-seater, open air Ford vehicle. (Does Henry Ford Ford? You Bet He Does) When it snowed, men would come around with shovels, empty the snow into horse drawn wagons, then haul the snow away. ("See How They Had To Remove Snow 110 Years Ago")
World War One affected the way the patrons of the Clifton branch ate. The library opened in the very middle of the war. Sugar was limited to two pounds per person, per month, by the United States Food Administration. Government posters urged citizens to use no sugar on fruits, and to use sugar sparingly on cereal, coffee, tea, preserves, and cake. Citizens were also urged to eat corn instead of wheat, and fish and beans instead of meat. (WWI Food Rationing Posters).
Many of the brands we find in food stores today were on the shelf in 1916. These include Post Toasties, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Quaker Puffed Rice, Shredded Wheat, and Whitman's candy (Leon). Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour (Vintage Advertising form the 1910's), Gold Meadow Flour, and Pillsbury Flour were also available (Display Ad 3). Pepsi was also for sale (Pepsi Cola: Bracing and Invigorating to Start the Day Right). Other foods available in 1916 gradually disappeared as the age of industry in Baltimore came to an end. These products include Arundel Ice Cream (Food as a Lens), Jersey Ice cream (Display Ad 33), Brimer's Ice Cream, Clark Ice Cream, and Delvale Ice Cream. Across the street from today's Eastern District Court on Harford Road was the General Bakery, which made bread. People drank Royal Farms milk, which was then produced at Baker and Braddish Streets near Coppin State University. Yes, this is the same Royal Farms that is a chain of convenience stores in 2016.
Gunther Beer was available when the library opened. That product became unavailable in 1920, with the start of prohibition. Unphased, George Gunther petitioned the city to manufacture beer,"for medicinal purposes." (Local Concern Asks Permit To Make Beer) Today, this product is known as non-alcoholic beer.
Clothing was expensive because of the war effort. The price of wool was about to double in 1916 because military uniforms were made of wool, shrinking civilian supplies of wool. ("Price of Clothing to Soar") Second hand clothing was available in 1916, just as it is today. (Display Ad 5) In 1916, working or studying in the Clifton branch meant using tools like fountain pens, inkwells, carbon paper, and typewriters. Those tools have been gradually replaced in the years following.
Other items that have gradually faded from the Baltimore scene are cocaine-laced patent medicines such as Dr. Fenner's Cough Cold Syrup, Dr. Miller's Amodyne for Babies, and Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup. One infant product—Victor Infant Relief—contained cannabis. ("The Drug Terror: American Cocaine Addicts (1914) - Click Americana.")
So, too, have some of the landmarks in the neighborhood surrounding the library been replaced. If the 1908 map of proposed city sewers is to be believed, the Clifton branch may have faced the Holy Cross Cemetery (Baltimore Maps), whose graves were moved to Woodlawn Cemetery in 1969 when Baltimore City Schools purchased that land to build Harford Elementary School. ("Holy Cross Cemetery Set for Schools.") Certainly by 1930, the rowhouses that now face the library had been built. ("Mother injured saving child burned lighting fireworks.") Before Sears, Roebuck, and Company (now Eastern District Court ) occupied the land in front of Holy Cross Cemetery (now Harford Heights Elementary School) in 1937, ("Contract Is Let BY Sears, Roebuck ") the site was occupied by a beautiful mansion house which served as the Samuel Ready School for Girls. This private boarding school was established to serve girls, ages five through twelve, who had lost one or both parents. A competitive examination was required for admission. ("Samuel Ready, A Noble Training School For Girls.")
One community landmark across Belair Road from Clifton Park that has been lost forever is the historic Laurel Cemetery. Established in 1852 on what was once a corn farm, it contained many prominent African Americans from Baltimore. (Williams, F.) Unfortunately, perpetual care laws for cemetery had not yet evolved, and the cemetery was beginning to fall into disrepair by the time the Clifton branch opened. An ad in the Afro-American newspaper dated 1928 implored plot owners to contribute one dollar each to help refresh the cemetery, to no avail. ("Display Ad 33 -- no Title.") By 1929, the cemetery was overgrown and marred by trash and junk, including at least one refrigerator and one outdoor toilet. ("Laurel Cemetery has More than Graves and Tombstones"). In 1950, a niece of the Rev. William F. Alexander, the founder of the historic Sharon Baptist Church, had the bodies of Rev. Alexander, his wife, his mother, and his sister relocated to Arbutus Memorial Park because of the chaotic condition of the cemetery. ("Body of Pastor Taken from Laurel") In 1958, a lawsuit attempting to block the sale of the cemetery to three members of the city law department for development as a shopping center was headed by Baltimore NAACP lawyer Tucker R. Dearing. The sale was troubling, not only because there was a possible conflict of interest, but because a previous sale in 1930 to the New Laurel Cemetery Company included only undeeded graves. Yet the 1958 sale would include both undeeded lots and lots to which private citizens still held deeds. Acting city solicitor Hugo Ricciuti promised a full investigation, but Maryland law was not on the lot owner's side. A state bill recently introduced by Delegates Marvin Mandel (later to become governor) and Carl Bacharach (who was also with the city's law department) was signed by Governor McKeldin. The bill "authorized the closing of a cemetery when 75 percent of the acreage is abandoned and the place is a menace detrimental to the public, health safety security or welfare [sic]." ("Laurel Cemetery Lot Owner is Planning to File Suit.") By November, 1958, the last bulldozer had removed all traces of Laurel Cemetery. ("Bulldozers Take Over Historic Laurel Cemetery") Shortly thereafter, a Two Guys discount store opened on the site. When Two Guys went out of business years later, Forman Mills, Food Depot, and a variety of other businesses occupied the site of some of Baltimore's proudest history and some of Baltimore's ugliest resistance to civil rights.
Much has changed within walking distance of the Clifton branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library during its first hundred years. Much more will change in the next hundred years. We must preserve our history so that those who come after us can know us a little better, just as we know those who have come before in these streets of Baltimore.
DEDICATION
This research is dedicated to the many teachers and librarians in the City of Baltimore who promoted books and libraries throughout my life. As a child, I remember the bookmobile and the old Gardenville branch on Belair Road. As a teenager, I loved going to the (then new) Herring Run Branch and the Central branch downtown. As my career as a school librarian in Baltimore progressed, I became grateful for the work and outreach of the librarians at the Reisterstown, Hamilton, Light Street, and, of course, the Clifton branch.
Special thanks to Coach Michael Jones, who makes sure my freshmen get signed up for library cards every year. Special thanks also to Mrs. Burdnell, the current librarian at the Clifton branch, for reaching out to our students.
Thanks especially go to my wife, Beverly, who patiently listened to me rattle off the day's new findings from my research. It is my hope that my grandsons—Donovan, Marcus, and Tommy—will one day read this paper and treasure the history and memories it contains.
This paper may be freely distributed and used for educational, nonprofit purposes.
Julius G. Zuke
Librarian
REACH! Partnership High School
2815 Saint Lo Drive
Baltimore, MD 21213
June 16, 2016
POSTSCRIPT
I have told but a tiny fraction of the story. Much more remains to be discovered. All you need is a computer (will they still have them in 2116?) and a library card. A virtually unlimited amount of primary documents are online at tell "the rest of the story."
Out of respect for the intellectual rights of others, I have not included videos and photos in this paper. You really should use the bibliography which follows to seek them out. I guarantee you that they are addictive and irresistible.
Works Cited
"1915+calendar - Google Search." 1915+calendar - Google Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016. <