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ederal Hill made a fine Union fort during America’s Civil War.
Cannon batteries guarded the waterfront area, which had
strategic value to the Union as a seaport and rail link between
Washington and northern East Coast cities.
With the Civil War over and the economy in tatters, Maryland’s
leaders looked once again toward the Port for deliverance. The first
order of business was to revitalize Baltimore’s shipping industry
and repair railroads damaged by Confederate raiders. The business
community seized upon a southern strategy; efforts soon were
A ship off-loads raw sugar at
the American Sugar Refining
Company, manufacturer of
Domino Sugar, an Inner Harbor
landmark since 1921.
The
M
arch of
I
ndustry
under way to help rebuild the Confederacy and expand trade with
South America, a source for the importation of sugar, and then
Peruvian bird guano.
Baltimore became a world leader in manufacturing fertilizer,
which was also in demand regionally to replenish soils depleted
by decades of tobacco growing. By 1880, the city had 27 fertilizer
factories. The Lazaretto Guano Works in Canton was an early
producer. Lazaretto Point was also home to the harbor’s most
famous lighthouse; in 1916 it became the first such sentinel in
