School, doughnut maker, music venue were cast aside, but warehouse, train station stayed in neighborhood
By Laura Van Pate
When Baltimoreans in the 1980s passed by the properties just west of downtown, they’d have seen a junior high school, a sausage company, a food wholesaler and a couple of old warehouses, among other buildings. Now, they’d see Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Nearly two dozen properties were on the 85 acres before the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) spent nearly $90 million to buy the land, according to the MSA’s 1990 annual report.
Owners of a few of the properties, including the B&O Warehouse, the backdrop of Camden Yards today, didn’t want to sell for the money initially offered. That price had to be settled in court.
Another property owner, Richard Wolfe, a co-owner of Donut Delight, the largest doughnut maker in the city, told The Baltimore Sun back then that he was worried about a “donut gap.” Wolfe said no one could pick up the slack in the volume.
“I think about this every day,” Wolfe said in a 1988 Sun article. “I think about it when I take a shower, I think about it when I eat supper, I think about it when I go to sleep. There isn’t anything more important to me.”
Somehow, the city made it through.
Hammerjacks, a music hall that hosted some of rock’s biggest acts — including the Ramones and Guns N’ Roses — didn’t want to move either. But the stadium authority eventually bought Hammerjacks, which called itself the biggest nightclub on the East Coast, and in 1997 it was razed for football stadium parking.
Diggs-Johnson Junior High School was torn down for Camden Yards. Gary Witherspoon, a former journalist for The Sun, attended elementary school there in the 1960s.
“You’re mildly disappointed to lose some of your past and it’s bittersweet,” Witherspoon said. “But cities change. I understand there’s progress that’s important for Baltimore to grow. And having the stadium there is better for the economy.”
Most of the buildings the stadium authority bought were torn down, and the authority didn’t waste a chance to bring attention to the work it was doing. It staged elaborate demolition ceremonies for television cameras — including one that featured the governor at the controls of a wrecking ball.
But the stadium authority saved two distinctive buildings: Camden Station and the B&O Warehouse, with the latter becoming a signature feature of the new ballpark.
Camden Station, built between 1856 and 1857, was owned by CSX, a descendant of the B&O Railroad. The station has a rich history, with President Abraham Lincoln traveling through many times. Lincoln’s body was carried through the station in his funeral procession.
But the historic station was in bad shape when the stadium authority took control, said Bruce Hoffman, the stadium authority’s executive director from 1989 to 2000.
“The station was a mess when we were building that stadium,” Hoffman said. “So we quickly realized we gotta do something — even if we don’t do anything inside, the outside of the building has got to look good.”
“It was the front door of the stadium, so we hired a company to make the station look like it did when it was built,” Hoffman said.
The station was renovated with a budget of $8.5 million, according to the stadium authority.
The other building the stadium authority kept, the B&O Warehouse, was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By the 1970s and 1980s, it was largely uninhabited. And that’s not all.
“It was a dump,” Hoffman said. “They used the place to keep the horses back when they had horses and buggies hauling people through Baltimore. The horses lived there at night, and they peed and made a mess all over the floor.
“The windows were all busted, there were pigeons living in there, there was bird poop everywhere, the roof leaked, the elevators were nonfunctioning. There wasn’t one thing that was right with that building,” Hoffman said, “other than the fact it had potential.”
The warehouse was owned by Baltimore businessmen Willard Hackerman and Morton Macks. Hoffman said the owners of the warehouse gave them a hard time when the MSA was trying to buy it, and a deal had to be settled in court.
Hackerman and Macks wanted $18 million for the warehouse; the stadium authority thought the building was worth $7.5 million. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan ruled in April 1991 that the warehouse price was $11 million.
Although his father got less in the settlement than he sought, Larry Macks, the son of Morton Macks, is happy to attend Orioles games and see the warehouse still standing.
“We’re huge fans of the Orioles. We’ve had season tickets on the dugout since they came to Baltimore in 1954,” Macks said. “We’re very proud of what the stadium authority created with Camden Yards, and then with the football stadium, and how important it is for the city of Baltimore, and what a great statement it makes as you enter Baltimore from the south.
“We go right to the building to park and walk near the warehouse to go to our seats,” Macks said. “The right thing ended up being done with the building.”