Page 56 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

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LEFT: Bud Nixon, Norman Rukert Sr., Mayor William Donald Schaefer and Norm Rukert Jr. at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the museum’s grand opening.
horses. The top floor of Brown’s Wharf has a sharply
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itched gable below the original Welsh slate roof.
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ails were mended, made and dried in this upper
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amber, where the assemblage of cross beams
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de an excellent system for hoisting the unwieldy
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In the spring of 1978, trustees from the Samuel Ready School for girls offered Norman Sr. a collection of the Fells Point sailmaker-turned- philanthropist’s furniture and household items. The 19th-century collection included Ready’s original bedroom set, silver service, paintings, and several tables and chairs. Norman Sr. decided to buy the house directly opposite his Brown’s Wharf Maritime Museum to display the new artifacts. The house at 1636 Thames Street, built in the late 1790s, was in a state of disrepair. Once the year-long restoration was complete, the first floor of the home was used as a reception center
for the museum. The second floor was restored as Samuel Ready’s bedroom and library, to be used by school alumnae.
Rukert Terminals sold Brown’s Wharf and 1636 Thames Street in 1986. Nearly 200 years after its construction, the Brown’s Wharf complex still stands in the center of historic Fells Point. Now used for offices and retail, the Brown’s Wharf property retains the early maritime character of Baltimore’s original port.
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BROWN’S WHARF MARITIME MUSEUM IN FELLS POINT
WHEN CAP RUKERT PURCHASED BROWN’S WHARF IN 1946,
HE ACQUIRED THE OLDEST WAREHOUSES IN BALTIMORE. The warehouse complex in historic Fells Point was built in 1822 by James and Joseph Biays, and later owned by the son of merchant and banker Alexander Brown. The buildings, constructed from only the finest materials, operated continuously for storage of dry cargoes until the 1970s, when their lack of an elevator rendered them obsolete.
In 1976, Norman Rukert Sr. converted one warehouse at Brown’s Wharf into a Fells Point maritime museum. Visitors entered through an old iron door and, after a visual and audio introduction, received a free guided tour showing stevedoring and warehousing methods as well as equipment from the 19th century.
After a visit, Baltimore reporter Jacques Kelly wrote that the “building is permeated with a pungent, rich scent of coffee and cargoes of years past. Its 18-inch thick Georgia pine beams are a dark aged color of brown, marked by stevedores’ graffiti. The floors are laid with well- worn planking, secured with pegs, and occasionally fitted with trap doors. Casement windows look out over the harbor busy with tugs and the occasional passing freighter.
“The building itself reads like its own lesson on maritime history. Scattered about in the storage area are bulging bales of cotton, old barrels of flour and burlap sacks of coffee, each marked with its country of origin. Massive pulleys hang from old cross beams embedded in the walls of weathered brick. On an upper floor, shuttered doors once swung open to a beam and pulley where heavy cargoes would have been raised with the help of a team of
ABOVE: Long-tenured Rukert Terminals
Crane Operator Larry Otto poses as a sailmaker at the museum.