15
he evolution of Ellicott City previewed the torrid growth
which lay ahead for Baltimore, where conditions were
coalescing to prime the Port’s pump. The textbook factors of
production were falling into place: labor, capital goods such as
machines, factories and infrastructure, and an entrepreneurial
class for organization and risk-taking.
Grain soon would overtake tobacco as Baltimore’s leading
export. Few know the name of John Stevenson, but a cargo of flour
this shipyard owner shipped to his native Ireland in 1750 proved
instrumental in putting Baltimore on the world map. The flour,
because it was pure andmold-resistant, was a resounding success in
Ireland. More overseas orders soon followed. Stevenson’s ambition
was to establish the Port of Baltimore as
the
flour exporter of
choice for foreign markets; many regard him as the maritime
pioneer whose vision was responsible for the bulk cargo trans-
actions for which the Port subsequently became famous.
Carved into the waterfront just downriver from Baltimore Town
lay Fell’s Point, whose cobble-stoned roadways and English street
names still evoke a quality of other-worldliness.
Even after Baltimore annexed Fell’s Point in 1773, the river
rivals remained a world apart in a sense, separated more by their
differences than real distance. Baltimore was but a backwater, with
little to recommend it except a rudimentary port, while Fell’s Point,
with its natural deep-water port, dealt in fast ships and fast times.
If relatively little is known about Baltimore or its port before the
Revolutionary War era, it’s because there was little worth knowing.
But that would change; Baltimore’s time was coming. Be-
tween 1752 and 1774, its housing stock increased from 24 to 564.
Baltimore became the county seat in 1768, taking the weighty
functions of local government — courts, jails and land records
— from Joppa Town. Cottage industry was complimented by new,
heavier industry, such as a clayworks supplying building brick for
a growing city. The quality and fine, natural color of Baltimore
brick made it highly desirable; as an export, it was said to gild the
front of opulent homes in Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
The fit between land and water in the port area was improved,
expediting the critical commercial function of transporting goods
between ship and shore. Port activity increased in lockstep with
growing domestic demand; America was a growing nation.
Ships anchored in the harbor served as floating stores whose
wares were advertised by word-of-mouth ashore to the man on the
street — innkeepers, sail-makers, tailors, shoemakers, bricklayers,
schoolmasters, hatters, teamsters, bakers,
blacksmiths, clerks, barrel-makers, barbers,
millers, stevedores and ship carpenters.
Above: TheWashington Flour
mill in Ellicott City still churns
out flour and cake mixes.
Below: Baltimore’s clayworks
supplied building bricks for
a city on the move. Due to its
quality and color, Baltimore
brick was in demand for the
facades of many elegant East
Coast mansions.
P
rime the
P
ump
