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November 2004 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Wow, what a House Tour! Sue Noonan and the Marketing Committee have done it again, spectacularly. And a special thanks to Sue-this was her 16th House Tour. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! After months of discussion and revision, the Land Use Committee has produced a set of neighborhood development standards for us all to look at. And a big "thank you" to everyone who has given their input so far. The standards are not a set of rules, but more of a statement of values. It is our chance to say, as a neighborhood, what we want Butchers Hill to be. Please take some time to look at them; they are linked here.There will be an opportunity to discuss them at the November meeting. Also at the November general meeting, Jenny Kirkbride, the Audubon Society's educator for Patterson Park, will talk about partnership programs with School 27. Jenny has developed programs with our neighborhood school and has included a number of volunteer opportunities. This could be your opportunity to help teach our neighborhood kids about nature and the environment! COMMUNITY DUMPSTER, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH On Friday, November 5th and Saturday, November 6th, there will be a community Dumpster in the unit block of North Collington. No electronics, hazardous materials, batteries, paint, or appliances. The city usually delivers the dumpster about noon on Friday, and then removes it between 10 and 11 on Saturday. 25TH ANNUAL HOUSE TOUR A RESOUNDING SUCCESS! The Silver Anniversary House tour was a resounding success, with 425+ attendees (about 400 paid), a near record. The tour book had more ads and more big ads than previously, covering the increased cost for the silver tour book. This event is always Butchers Hill's largest of the year and also the largest "consumer" of neighborhood volunteers. The tour required dozens of neighborhood volunteers, from house-sitters to balloon carriers, and we thank everyone who gave of their time and talent. The official Committee included: Chair Sue Noonan, Publicity Coordinator Liz Elliott, Marketing Chair Rick Gilmour, and volunteers Virgil Bartram, Carter Bryant, Stephanie Kiley, Megin D. Renaud, Sandy Sales, Mike Wieczorek, and Ann Wolfe. The Friends of Patterson Park graciously provided facilities to support the tour. The Tour Book was printed by National Press. Helium for the balloons was provided courtesy of Bill Cassidy of Long & Foster. Pre-tour tickets were kindly sold by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, The Friends of Patterson Park, Live Baltimore, and Long & Foster. Thanks to all! MAYOR'S FALL CLEAN UP REPORT On Saturday, October 9th, six Butcher's Hill residents (Carolyn, Dave, Tom, Beth, Larry, and myself) gathered in the unit block of South Collington at 9 a.m. for the Mayor's Fall Clean Up. We worked for over 3 hours, hauling illegally dumped materials, miscellaneous dumpster overflows, pulling overgrown weeds and sweeping the alleys. We were accompanied by city employee Leroy Bradford, who drove the dumptruck. Like the six neighbors, Mr. Bradford went beyond the call of duty in cleaning our neighborhood. Immediately after the clean-up, the crew of neighbors went on a mini-COP, venturing over to the unit block of South Duncan Street, where 3+ abandoned houses were being occupied by squatters. To say the least, it was a very full and tiring day! I would like to personally thank the above neighbors for all of their efforts and dedication. If others are interested in helping us out with clean-ups, please contact me at 443-527-1103 or via email: sbwhitson@hotmail.com. - COMMITTEES AND MONTHLY MEETINGS Block Rep/Crime Prevention: Wednesday, November 17th, 7 p.m., 2105 E. Baltimore St. We hope to have one of our patrol officers join us for the November meeting. The committee meets monthly to share information from our 20 block representatives and to coordinate action. Contact Carolyn at 410-522-4991 or e-mail c.boitnott@verizon.net. Reporting Drug Activity: If you see repeated drug activity involving the same place, vehicle, or persons, please call 410-666-DRUG and report as much concrete information as possible. Officers taking information are putting it together with other information to be able to make more significant arrests. If you want the police to respond right away to drug activity you are observing please call 911. Butchers Hill Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.) Butchers Hill Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.) has been regularly patrolling the neighborhood for over three years, and conducts its walk-arounds on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. We meet at 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of Patterson Park Avenue and Lombard Street. All are welcome. For more information, please contact Evan Helfrich at 410-342-2148 or via e-mail, ubik14@netscape.net. Community Representative, School 27 School Improvement Team: Carolyn Boitnott, 410-522-4991. Education Committee: Thursday, November 18th, 7:00 PM, 124 S. Patterson Park Avenue. Contact: Martha DelPizzo 410-522-6046, e-mail mdelpizzo@comcast.net. See education piece on facing page. Land Use: Wednesday, November 17th, 7 PM. Please call for location. The Land Use Committee reminds homeowners in the 2100 and 2200 blocks of E. Baltimore Street and the 2200 block of E. Pratt Street that you live in a City historic district. All exterior work and painting must be submitted to CHAP and Butchers Hill. We are always happy to help with any questions you may have. Contact Virgil Bartram: 410-327-4964. CHAP's number is 410-396-4866. Marketing/House Tour Committee: No regular meeting in November. Committee Members and other Newsletter readers are invited to suggest dates for next year's events, preferably with reasons for any suggested change. Contact Rick Gilmour: 410-342-7061 or <gilmour@qis.net>. The Marketing Chair would like to thank the Committee for work and planning throughout 2004 which helped ensure four well-planned, well-publicized, well-attended, well-run, good-weather events! Kudos to Carter Bryant, Liz Elliott, Sandy Sales, Ann Wolfe, and Bev Wall. Trash Committee: Contact Sue Whitson, 443-527-1103, e-mail sbwhitson@hotmail.com (e-mail preferred). Parking Committee:. William White, 410-563-7941, e-mail: willilicious@hotmail.com. BHA Executive Committee: Tuesday, November 16th at 7 PM, Simon's of Butchers Hill, 2031 E. Fairmount Ave. Contact: Dave Dyer (410-342-7655), or dave@viacapital.net. Newsletter: The deadline for the DECEMBER issue is Friday, November 19th. This is a strict deadline, because of the short Thanksgiving week for the printing. Contact Steve Young: young@umbc.edu. - NO TRASH PICKUP ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd: ELECTION DAY (CITY HOLIDAY) NOVEMBER BHA GENERAL MEETING Wednesday, November 3rd. Coffee & cookies, 6:45 p.m. Meeting 7:00 p.m. St. Andrew's Church hall, corner of Chester & Lombard Sts. (entrance on Lombard). Contact DAVE DYER, 410-342-7655. AGENDA: Jenny Kirkbride from Audubon Maryland/DC; Discussion of Neighborhood Standards; Introduction of Slate of Officers for next year. Parking Committee Report The BHA Parking Committee was organized to study and suggest possible solutions for the ever-diminishing availability of on-street parking in our area. Several concepts were considered (permit parking and creating more off-street parking being two), and the consensus was that the only viable answer was angle parking on certain streets within our community. Two streets were initially looked at (based on their width, and thus ability to be adapted): the unit and 100 blocks of both Collington and Chester Streets. After doing our own study of these, it was determined that Collington would in fact have a reduction of parking spaces if converted to angle parking (due to the number of garages and alleys), whereas Chester seemed almost perfect for such adaptation: if Chester Street was made one-way and angle parking introduced, an additional 18 new parking spaces could be added for these two blocks alone, with a net increase in parking of 65%. The committee suggested at the April 2004 meeting that we go forward with this proposal and contact the city's Department Of Transportation with a formal request for the city to look into this possibility. The majority agreed to this, and a letter was drafted and sent. In the interim, however , the city has changed policy and added a new department to deal specifically with angle parking requests. Our initial point of contact, Alfred Fox, has been replaced by Etta Crofton, and thus the process has been delayed by the changing of offices. We are still awaiting an official decision from the city, even though an answer was initially promised within 45 days. If approved, we would then move onto the next stage, which is to survey the impacted residents and have them vote if such action was desired or even wanted. 70-80% of the impacted would have to approve of this before the city would take action. The residents have the final say in this matter. When and if this comes to a vote, make your sure your voice is heard. Education Committee Report Mrs. Shirey, Principal of Commodore John Rodgers School, held an orientation program for neighborhood volunteers recently and we had a good turnout. She described the types of activities that volunteers will perform: reading to students, having students read to the volunteers, playing math/reading/science games with the students and generally giving one-on-one time to kids. Volunteers chose their preferred grade level and Mrs. Shirey assigned each volunteer a teacher who will have a scheduled activity listed in the folder that will be in the Carson Center at the school. Most volunteers will spend an hour a week in the Center. Jenny Kirkbride has started the Audubon programs with the early childhood group and the 5th graders. John Schock and his mother, a former teacher, volunteered to be the regular assistants in her monthly program, helping with craft activities. John is a landlord on Patterson Park Ave. who has donated to the Education fund. Mrs. Shirey expressed her thanks again for the kindnesses demonstrated by BHA members, including the adopt-a-teacher program and the books and games that were purchased with funds from the BHA. Our group has made a significant contribution in terms of materials and letting teachers know that we appreciate their contribution to our neighborhod. Mrs. Shirey said there is a culture change occurring at School #27 and the BHA attention is a significant part of the reason for that positive change. The new windows installed in the school by Struever Brothers look GREAT; so nice to be able to see out when in the cafeteria! The builder from the Chapel NDP complex replaced all of the faucets in the bathrooms and plans to redo the floors. The mural in the schoolyard, the new fence and the cleanup of the school playground is amazing. The businesses contributions to the beautification of the school, along with the neighborhood work, has significantly changed the feel of the whole school complex. St. Andrews Church, corner of Lombard and Chester Streets, will be having its annual FALL FLEA MARKET on Friday, November 12th, and Saturday, November 13th, from 10 to 3. Clothing, white elephant items, kitchen appliances, jewelry, books, toys and other items will be available for purchase. A bake sale will also be held, and refreshments will be available for a nominal charge. All of our neighbors are welcome! COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD BALTIMORE'S FIRST URBAN PLAN After a decade of work delayed by controversy, City expansion, and even the war of 1812, Thomas H. Poppleton delivered a plan of Baltimore City in manuscript form on January 1, 1822. A year later it was published as a handsome engraving. The work had first been talked about in 1809 and 1811, and took on some urgency in 1816 when the legislature expanded the City by annexation. (That annexation officially incorporated Butchers Hill into Baltimore.) Poppleton's map was the City's first planning document and remained the primary basis for Baltimore's development until 1888. Poppleton himself declared that "no city in the Union can exhibit a more accurate and useful plan," and despite his self-interest, the statement was largely true. The strongest criticism of the plan, then and now, is that it imposes the rigid grid structure of orthogonal streets and alleys on a topography that is not always suited to that grid. The selection of Poppleton in 1811 was controversial because more prominent surveyors were passed over, including one who may have submitted a lower bid. Some speculate that Poppleton was chosen for his artistic ability, based on a well-drawn sample map he submitted. The 1823 engraving certainly has its artistic features (perhaps not all of them Poppleton's). It is approximately 43 by 49 inches, and the map proper is surrounded by 37 engraved illustrations of City buildings and views. The published document was designed by C. P. Harrison and engraved by Joseph Cone, both local artists. Because Poppleton had to plan streets for vast open tracts and yet accommodate already existing development, there are some obvious inconsistencies where new meets old. In Butchers Hill, there had long been a thriving "village" near what is now the northwest corner of Patterson Park, and so the gridlines are broken where the unit block of North Collington jogged around then-existing buildings. Duncan and Madeira also vary from the course charted by Poppleton, and alley streets in Butchers Hill are more irregular than they are in other neighborhoods, sometimes narrowing to walking alleys, sometimes disappearing altogether for a block or two. Poppleton had the task of naming all his planned streets and alleys, including some that would not be opened for decades. In Butchers Hill, his names have largely survived intact, although Patterson Park Avenue was originally Gist Street, and Collington was originally Choptank Street. FOR SALE DEC 4 ART SHOW: Please join Kirsten Lapointe for her Fall Show and Sale of Functional Ceramic Artwork. The show will be held in the artist's home at 2215 E. Lombard St. on December 4 from 1 to 7 pm. Refreshments will be served-join us and find unique gifts.
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