Druid Mill, built in 1866, unique for its Italianate style.

Photo by: Mark Reutter

In anticipation of Saturday’s May Day Roll, co-sponsored by The Baltimore Brew and Baltimore Bicycle Works, here’s the history behind what you’ll see on the first leg of our journey – the old mill towns of Woodberry and Lower Hampden. (Information on the Roll)

Nestled below the bridge pylons and roaring traffic of the Jones Falls Expressway lies the cradle of Baltimore industry.

The mill towns of Woodberry and Lower Hampden once produced 80 percent of all cotton duck used throughout the world, to say nothing of twine, yarn, lamp wick, twill, shirting and calico prints. The Poole & Hunt Foundry, at the foot of Union Ave., cast the three-foot-wide columns supporting the U.S. Capitol dome.

These stone-faced factories remain remarkably intact, finding new uses today as artists’ studios, offices, restaurants and small manufacturing units, while the miniature houses built for mill workers shelter a new generation of Baltimoreans.

Water and Rails

Two elements brought the industrial age to Baltimore – water and the railroad. The first was found in seasonal abundance along the Jones Falls, which descended from the rolling hills of Baltimore County in a jumble of rocky falls.

Several flour mills, powered by waterwheels, were established in the 1790s on a tract of land known as “Come by Chance.” One of them, the Woodberry Flour Mill, gave the area its name.

In 1830, the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad ventured forth from Bolton Hill into the valley. By 1831, track had been laid to Cockeysville, but more importantly for Woodberry, a spur was built to the harbor that followed today’s JFX to the State Penitentiary, veered east to present-day Central Avenue, then made a beeline to City Dock and Fells Point.

In the 1840s, investors began acquiring the flour mills, enlarging them, powering them with steam engines, and converting them into spinning and weaving mills. By the Civil War, textile mills lined the valley, and Woodberry was considered a New England town that just happened to be in Maryland.

Child Labor

Whole families worked in the mills and lived in company houses a stone’s throw away. Women were especially prized for their fine-hand coordination on the looms. One district in Hampden was dubbed “Good Husband’s Row” because the husbands kept house, tended the children and carried lunch to their wives at noontime.

By age 12, children entered the mills. In 1874, the Maryland legislature passed a law – then considered radical – barring children under 16 from working more than 10 hours a day in the mills.

The manufacture of cotton duck (water-resistant canvas used for ship sails, tents, hammocks, tarpaulin, etc.) became a specialty. “Mt. Vernon Duck” was exported around the world. Altogether, about 4,000 people worked in the factories.

In 1888, Hampden-Woodberry was annexed by Baltimore City, much to the chagrin of local residents. Even so, the outside world impeded minimally on the valley until World War I created a spectacular boom, followed by a bust in the early 1920s.

A long and exhausting strike at the Mt. Vernon-Woodberry Mills in 1923 – spurred by low wages and long working hours – was the impetus for the slow decline of the mills.

The company, owned by Baltimore’s Bancroft family, opened factories in South Carolina and Alabama.

The paternalist link between owners and workers was further severed during the 1930s Depression, as mill owners sold off the company houses and shifted production South.

Last Mill to Close

Meadow Mill, with its distinctive 1877 Victorian tower, produced conveyor belts, convertible tops and other industrial fabrics until the 1960s, when it was acquired by London Fog Co. to make rainwear.

Mt. Vernon Mill, at Chestnut Ave. on Falls Rd., was the last textile mill to operate in the valley. It closed in 1973.

In the hilltops above the mill – on Pacific, Puritan, Bay and Field streets – is one of the most intact examples of early stone houses in the city.

Our bike trip will pass by these mills as well as the historic Stone Hill district.

TOMORROW: The Bottlecap Capital of the World

—–

Links to the full series: BIKING INTO BALTIMORE’S HISTORY

Part 1 (4/28/10): Born by the Falls

Part 2 (4/29) : The Bottlecap Capital of the World

Part 3 (4/30): Conflict on the Docks