![Power plant live - Baltimore 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Power_plant_live_-_Baltimore_2017.jpg)
Power Plant Live! is a collection of bars, restaurants and other businesses in the
Inner Harbor
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". Th ...
section of downtown
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. It was developed by
The Cordish Companies
The Cordish Companies (previously The Cordish Company) is a U.S.-based real estate development and entertainment operating company with its headquarters on the 6th floor of the Pratt Street Power Plant in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded ...
and opened in phases during 2001, 2002, and 2003. The entertainment complex gets its name from the nearby "
Power Plant
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...
" (Pratt Street Power Plant) building, three blocks south on municipal Pier 4 on
East Pratt Street facing the
Inner Harbor
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". Th ...
, which was also later re-developed by Cordish.
The complex is located along Market Place and is served by the
Baltimore Metro Subway
The Metro SubwayLink is a rapid transit line serving the greater area of Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, and is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. The segment in Downtown Baltimore is underground, and most of the line outs ...
's
Shot Tower/Market Place station.
History
The
"Power Plant" is a
mixed-use project re-developed in the late 1990s in a former coal-burning
power generating station, originally built in 1900-05 for the old
United Railways and Electric Company
The United Railways and Electric Company was a street railway company in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1899 to 1935.
In 1900, the company built the Power Plant in Baltimore's Inner Harbor to provide electrical ...
which operated the recently unified public transportation system of
streetcars,
trolleys, and some
cable cars (in the early years), at the beginning of the 20th century up to its re-organization in 1935 as the
Baltimore Transit Company (taken over by the state
Mass Transit Administration
The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is a state-operated mass transit administration in Maryland, and is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The MTA operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Baltimore-Washingt ...
of the
Maryland Department of Transportation
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) is an organization comprising five business units and one Authority:
* Maryland Transportation Authority (Transportation Secretary serves as chairman of the Maryland Transportation Authority)
* ...
in 1968). The President of the U. R. & E. Company at the time was
John Mifflin Hood
John Mifflin Hood (1843–1906) was an American railroad and electric streetcar system executive.
Hood was President of the Western Maryland Railway from 1874 to 1901. In 1901-1902, he became President of United Railways and Electric Company, ...
, (1843-1906), who was also recently longtime president of the
Western Maryland Railway
The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) which operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation.
The WM beca ...
, 1874 to 1901 and developed its large
Port Covington
Port Covington is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously, Port Covington was a railroad terminal built by the Western Maryland Railway in 1904 on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. The terminal facilities included coal, grain an ...
railroad/port terminal on the south side of the city, along the Middle Branch (formerly Ferry Branch) of the
Patapsco River in
Baltimore Harbor on the South Baltimore peninsula to Whetstone Point. The industrial / transport facilities were recently razed in the 1990s and replaced by a commercial re-development of "big box" stores and the printing plant of the major local daily newspaper, the ''"
Baltimore Sun"''
Port Covington is east of
South Hanover Street (Maryland Route 2) and the old 1917
Hanover Street Bridge
The Hanover Street Bridge – officially, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge – is a bascule bridge crossing the middle branch of the Patapsco River along Hanover Street (Maryland Route 2) in Baltimore, Maryland.
The bridge was built to repla ...
and faces onto
Winan's Cove. Earlier it was the site of
Fort Covington
Fort Covington ( moh, Kentsia’kowáhne) is a town in Franklin County, New York. The population was 1,676 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a War of 1812 fortification. The original name of the town was ''French Mills''.
The town i ...
, an artillery redoubt of brick and earthen berms built in 1813 during the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
and came under bombardment attack along with neighboring Camp Look-Out (modern Leone-Riverside Park), Battery Babcock along the shoreline and famous
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack ...
on Whetstone Point by the British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
in the
Battle of Baltimore
The Battle of Baltimore (September 12–15, 1814) was a sea/land battle fought between British invaders and American defenders in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland ...
, September 12-13-14, 1814.
Competition for tourism dollars was fierce in the mid-1980s after the opening of "
Harborplace
Harborplace is a shopping complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland.
Description
The property is composed of 2 two-story pavilions: the Pratt Street Pavilion and the Light Street Pavilion. Each of these buildings contains many stores an ...
", which opened in 1980. These new attractions, joined with the recently constructed (1971) of a new exhibition structure for the ancient cultural institution Maryland Academy of Sciences (from 1797) in its
Maryland Science Center
The Maryland Science Center, located in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, opened to the public in 1976. It includes three levels of exhibits, a planetarium, and an observatory. It was one of the original structures that drove the revitalization of the ...
and the historic ship USS Constellation (1854 Sloop of War)
This was also the historic site of the original Centre Market at East Baltimore Street (formerly "Long Street" when the town was laid out in 1730, and later known as "Market Street", recognizing the important place that it led to in the east), south to Water Street (former original shoreline of the harbor "Basin" in colonial times) and east of South Frederick Street (alley) to the adjacent
Jones Falls
The Jones Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 stream in Maryland. It is impounded to create Lake Roland before running through the city of Baltim ...
stream. It was also traditionally known as the "Marsh Market" because of being on the site of the old Thomas "Harrison's Marsh" on the western banks of the Jones Falls during the colonial era 18th and early 19th centuries which separated old
Baltimore Town from the neighboring village of
Jones' Town to the northeast across the Falls - spanned by a vital link in early 18th century local commerce and growth, a wooden bridge which was built which resulted in the naming of "Bridge Street" (later to be renamed North Gay Street, after a local family) and led to the merger of the two villages by 1745. Here in 1763, the first public market house for both merged towns was constructed and became the most important center for commerce resulting in its original name of "Centre Market".
It wasn't until two decades later, after the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
ended, that additional market houses throughout the expanding city were constructed including today's world-famous "Lexington Market" (old Western Precincts Market) along West Lexington Street between Eutaw, Paca and Greene Streets in 1782 and the "Broadway Market" (old Eastern Precincts Market) at the foot of Broadway - formerly known there too as Market Street (between Fleet
reviously Canton Avenueand Thames Streets) above the waterfront of the
Fells Point
Fell's Point is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland. It was established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. The area has many antique, music, ...
neighborhood. During the 19th century, additional market houses under sponsorship of the municipal government were constructed in all quarters of the growing city such as "Hanover Market", "Belair Market", "Richmond Market", "Lafayette Market" (now "The Avenue Market"), "Hollins Market", "Northeast Market", "Cross Street Market", "North Avenue Market" and others which dominated local trade, especially retail, but the most important, largest and center of the trade (including wholesale) was here at "Centre Market" on Market Place along the
Jones Falls
The Jones Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 stream in Maryland. It is impounded to create Lake Roland before running through the city of Baltim ...
west bank.
Here also was the old second building of the famous
Maryland Institute
The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the ...
(then a college founded 1826, of various curriculums including mechanical arts besides today's art and design for which it is now world-famous), which was built on brick arches above a second market house with two large clock towers at each end in 1851, and held an additional large assembly hall/auditorium and classrooms on the second floor. This was one of the largest and notable buildings in America at that time, and was the site of several pre-
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
national political party conventions (when Baltimore preceded
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
as the common compromise city for presidential nominations, where both candidates
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...
and
Franklin Pierce were nominated to be President. Another famous President,
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
gave his "Liberty Speech" (also known as the "Baltimore Address") on April 18, 1864, at the "
Sanitary Fair" event, one of several held throughout the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
-torn nation, to raise money for the support and assistance of wounded soldiers, widows and orphans and other domestic needs by the
United States Sanitary Commission
The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the United States Army (Federal / Northern / Union Army) during the American Civil W ...
, (a precursor to the later
American Red Cross). Although he passed through Baltimore numerous times, it was the only occasion that the 16th President spoke in the city. He noted the calmer differences in the southern-oriented city, especially then three years after the secessionist tumult resulting in the disastrous
Pratt Street Riots of April 19, 1861 which had solidified Baltimore's reputation and nickname as "Mobtown." It was also the only time that he spoke alive in the city although having traveled through several times in his earlier brief congressional career and presidential administration. The Maryland Institute and the second markethouse below was unfortunately destroyed and lost near the end of the
Great Baltimore Fire
The Great Baltimore Fire raged in Baltimore, Maryland from Sunday, February 7, to Monday, February 8, 1904. More than 1,500 buildings were completely leveled, and some 1,000 severely damaged, bringing property loss from the disaster to an estimate ...
of February 7–8, 1904, on the eastern edge of the blaze along with the rest of the downtown Baltimore business district in the Nation's third largest conflagration ever to hit an American city (Chicago's
Great Fire of 1871
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
was first, followed by the 1906
San Francisco earthquake and fire
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
).
During the general mass re-construction of the city's "Burnt District" in the next few years, three new three-story elaborate brick market buildings adjacent to each other on the east side of the square, running east and west were built by 1907, under the supervision of the Centre Market Commission under chairman, General
Felix Agnus
Felix Agnus (4 July 1839 – 31 October 1925) was a French-born sculptor, newspaper publisher and soldier who served in the Franco-Austrian War and the American Civil War. Agnus studied sculpture before enlisting to fight in the Franco-Austria ...
, (the dominating owner/publisher of the city's largest and oldest newspaper, the ''"
Baltimore American
The ''Baltimore News-American'' was a broadsheet newspaper published in downtown Baltimore, Maryland until May 27, 1986. It had a continuous lineage (in various forms) of more than 200 years. For much of the mid-20th century, it had the largest ...
"'' dating from 1773, reorganized 1799). Newly constructed on the north side was the "Produce Market" for fruits and vegetables, in the middle was the "Fish Market" and to the south end was the "Retail/Wholesale Market" for various sundry dry items. A new plaza was also constructed that year (1907), featuring a beautiful marble and stone fountain specifically designated by a noted animal-loving philanthropist, General A. E. Booth, for the laboring horses of the busy and crowded commercial district who toiled under heavy weights, reins, blinders, stirrups and heavily loaded cargo wagons, at the end of their ancient era and the beginning of motorized trucks and lorries and their smells of gasoline and diesel fuel odors.
By 1984, the traffic concerns and space problems caused the local wholesale fish merchants and those in the other markets to consider moving their delivery and transport centers to a new auto and truck oriented complex built between Baltimore and Washington in
Jessup, Maryland
Jessup ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Howard and Anne Arundel counties, about southwest of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 10,535.
Geography
Jessup is located at ( ...
along the connecting Interstate (95 and 295) and U.S. Route 1 highways. Despite the best efforts of then Mayor
William Donald Schaefer
William Donald Schaefer (November 2, 1921 – April 18, 2011) was an American politician who served in public office for 50 years at both the state and local level in Maryland. As a Democrat, he was the 45th mayor of Baltimore from December 1 ...
and others of his administration and tourism leaders, who had a wonderful vision of an eastern version of San Francisco's famous "
Fisherman's Wharf" and the nearby
Monterey, California's "Fish Cannery" complex, plus
Washington, D.C.'s "Fish Market" which was centered on moored barges along the side channel of the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
at
Maine Avenue
Maine Avenue is a diagonal avenue in the Southwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Maine Avenue connects Independence Avenue with M Street SW, and has an interchange with Interstate 395.
Route description
Maine Avenue begins at 17th Street SW and ...
just south of the National Mall and a continuing center of popularity by the national capital's Washingtonians. Hoping to build something uniquely similar here with the old historic elaborate brick buildings, their Jones Falls-side water access and with the burgeoning "
Inner Harbor
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". Th ...
", several blocks south. Mayor Schaefer even took a tour of an interesting development along the twisting stream,
San Antonio River
The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the ...
, that wound through the urban center of that iconic
Texas city
Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturing ...
and saw the canal boats, canoes, paddle boats, with restaurants, music clubs and strolling tourists along the peaceful route that has since become world-famous attracting tourist visitors from the whole nation, so he attempted to create that vision he called "Fallswalk", for the route along the lower
Jones Falls
The Jones Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 stream in Maryland. It is impounded to create Lake Roland before running through the city of Baltim ...
contained within its old late 19th-century stone retaining walls and its connecting grid of streets and alleys such as The Fallsway (built over the subterranean diversion tunnels for the Falls in 1912-1914) and the web of tangled narrow colonial-era alley streets of Front, President, Concord, Harrison, Frederick and Gay Streets running north to south between the east/west Fayette, Baltimore, Lombard and Pratt Streets. This concept was in the days before additional commercial and residential development had moved east and south across the Falls and began butting up against the tightly packed alley-streets with small brick and a few wooden rowhouses and restaurants of
"Old Town" (renamed of colonial Jones Town), "
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...
" (in the renamed southern portion of old colonial "Jones Town") and the future "Harbor East" of high-rise hotels, office and apartment skyscrapers developed in the 1990s, followed by "Harbor Point" to the southeast on the small heavily polluted soil of the peninsula jutting into the Inner Harbor, formerly the site of a large ugly Allied-Signal chrome manufacturing/refining works since the
Issac Issac may refer to:
Given name
* Issac Amaldas, Indian boxer
* Issac Bailey, American writer
* Issac Blakeney (born 1992), American football wide receiver
* Issac Booth (born 1971), American football player
* Issac Ryan Brown (born 2005), American ...
and
Jesse Tyson
Jesse may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Jesse (biblical figure), father of David in the Bible.
* Jesse (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Jesse (surname), a list of people
Music
* ''Jesse'' ( ...
and
Brian Philpot beginnings in the 1840s.
Here leading further north above East Baltimore Street to the streets where the original Falls were covered over by the newly constructed "Fallsway" and the sometimes flood-prone stream was diverted underground into three great concrete water tunnels during a flood-control public works project in 1912-13-14. Further north at
Pennsylvania Station
Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
, used by various railway lines, the Falls emerges again at Mount Royal Avenue in a somewhat natural setting with small trees and shrubs surrounding its course with occasional concrete culverts continuing north out of the city, past the old stone / brick mills, raceways, culverts and dams of valley villages of
Hampden and
Woodberry,
Mount Washington
Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River.
The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934 ...
to the old
Lake Roland public water reservoir of 1860 and its dam and further north to the
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
state line.
In the early 1980s in the
Pratt Street Power Plant,
Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any a ...
(corporation, owner/operator of amusement/theme parks from Texas) developed a Victorian-era
indoor theme park
A family entertainment center, often abbreviated FEC in the entertainment industry also known as an indoor amusement park, family amusement center, family fun center, or simply fun center, is a small amusement park marketed towards families with s ...
, featuring an imaginary turn-of-the-century explorer/scientist/raconteur named "Phineas Flagg" (modeled after famous author
Jules Verne's literary world traveler character in the science fiction/adventure novel ''"
Around The World in Eighty Days"'', published 1873). Later in the decade, Six Flags expanded their downtown/Inner Harbor interests three blocks north to construct "The Brokerage" complex in the middle of the north end of Market Place bordering East Baltimore Street, on the eastern edge of downtown. This was adjacent to the
Jones Falls
The Jones Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 stream in Maryland. It is impounded to create Lake Roland before running through the city of Baltim ...
west bank, and the new
Shot Tower/Market Place station for the new "Metro" (subway). Across the Falls further east, was the new re-routing of the President Street Boulevard (running from the southern terminus of the Jones Falls Expressway (
nterstate 83to the southeast waterfront in the new hotel/commercial and apartments/condos towers development of "
Harbor East" and the future "
Harbor Point."
But in the mid-1980s, the wholesale merchants could not be persuaded to stay and so moved out on the trucks to the
Anne Arundel
Anne Calvert, Baroness Baltimore (née Hon. Anne Arundell; c. 1615/1616G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, G ...
and
Howard Counties' border line. Eventually the two northern and southern wholesale markets, despite their distinctive industrial but elaborate brick and trim stone architecture were razed, leaving the central structure - Fish Market a lone survivor. It was used briefly as a background scene during several segments about a license-revocation hearing before the newly established state Home Improvement Commission in locally raised, famous Hollywood producer,
Barry Levinson
Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ...
's movie ''"Tin Men"'' (starring
Richard Dreyfuss,
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...
, and
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including weste ...
about Baltimore's nostalgic, but amusing aluminum-siding salesmen of the early 1960s) in 1987.
After Mayor Schaefer had moved on in that year to become
Governor of Maryland
The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...
, a new re-development proposal for the Centre Market Place was considered by expansion from the recent "Power Plant" amusement and retail complex on Pratt Street's old Pier 4 and the Inner Harbor. "The Brokerage" building was constructed on a north-south axis above the historic site of the old Maryland Institute/Centre Market for restaurants, bars, night clubs and a concert hall with some retail stores in the old remaining historic 1905–07 commercial buildings still remaining along the west side of Market Place and the north side of intersecting Water Street. Across the square with the still-flowing former horse fountain on the east side was constructed the
Port Discovery children's museum in the old Wholesale Fish Market building, which was given a long-term lease by the City Council and government agencies (opened 1998). Although three blocks further north, the newly renamed "Power Plant Live!" now includes a new array of
restaurants, bars, comedy clubs, dance clubs, dueling pianos, and other concepts as well as the popular concert hall venue
Rams Head Live!
Rams Head Live! is an indoor music venue, club, and bar located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Located in the Power Plant Live! district of downtown Baltimore, the venue is surrounded by several other bars and clubs. Rams Head Live! ...
(which was an expansion of the famously popular establishment "Rams Head Tavern" from downtown
Annapolis). By 2013, the entertainment, commercial, and tourist aspects of the area still seem to be thriving and popular. To the south of the "
Port Discovery" museum was constructed a large "Harbor Park" structure with a parking garage on its upper floors and several convenience stores/eatery shops on the ground floor with a multi-screen movie theater, the first to be opened in downtown Baltimore since the former New Theatre in
Charles Center
Charles Center is a large-scale urban redevelopment project in central Baltimore's downtown business district of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in 1954, a group called the "Committee for Downtown" promoted a master plan for arresting th ...
's Charles Plaza (at North Charles and West Saratoga Streets) in the 1960s, which lasted until the late 2000s, when it was replaced by a newer "landmark" Cinema theatre further south on President Street Boulevard by the Katyrn Forest Massacre Memorial traffic circle/water fountain.
From 1978, on the west side of Market Place and continuing south across a bridge over East Lombard Street, stands the two-building "Harbor Campus" complex of the former Community College of Baltimore's (later renamed the
Baltimore City Community College). The two red-glazed brick structures with unusual sloping walls facing Lombard Street were named for Dr.
Harry Bard (first president of the new
junior college) and Dr. William Lockwood. Dr. Bard, a legendary local educational leader, had a vision of a downtown campus to direct his vision of an "urban mission" for years to supplement the college's older, more traditional campus from the 1950s in northwest Baltimore on Liberty Heights Avenue. He was a firm supporter of former mayors
Thomas L.J. D'Alesandro, Jr. and
Theodore R. McKeldin with their visions of a future downtown Baltimore with the original "
Charles Center
Charles Center is a large-scale urban redevelopment project in central Baltimore's downtown business district of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in 1954, a group called the "Committee for Downtown" promoted a master plan for arresting th ...
" project in the late 1950s/early 1960s and the subsequent "
Inner Harbor
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". Th ...
" revitalization beginning in the late 1960s. But by the 2000s, the financial pressures on the later state-operated academically troubled junior college and the economic pressure of increasing commercial/residential development in the Inner Harbor/Harbor East areas, led to the sale of the southern Lockwood Building to be razed after only two decades, and to be replaced by a newer development (renamed "Lockwood Place") between East Pratt and Lombard Streets, facing the waterfront and the "
Power Plant
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...
" development with additional upper-level parking garages, offices, apartments/condos, and ground-floor restaurants and night clubs along East Pratt Street. The remaining "Bard Building" is now shuttered and awaits some re-direction from the BCCC Board of Trustees and administration after three decades as to its downtown mission and opportunities of having a two-campus institution.
References
www.powerplant live.com
External links
Power Plant Live! website*, including photo from 1982, at Maryland Historical Trust
{{Baltimore
Buildings and structures in Baltimore
Culture of Baltimore
Inner Harbor, Baltimore
Tourist attractions in Baltimore
2001 establishments in Maryland
The Cordish Companies