IN the north eastern part of Baltimore city, the signpost for Swansea Road marks a curving, tree-shaded street lined with tidy red brick row houses. A casual passer-by, or even a modern resident, would have no way of knowing that the signpost is a lasting reminder of a significant part of Baltimore's history.
Swansea Road and Swansea Heights - an adjoining
40-acre triangular estate of some 560 brick terrace houses - occupy the site of the old Swansea Farm, the last working farm in Baltimore city.
Swansea Farm was once part of a larger estate named Swansea. And Swansea was the property of Thomas Swann, mayor of Baltimore City from 1856-1860, governor of the state of Maryland from 1866-1869 and representative to the US Congress from 1869-1879.
Little is known about Swann's Swansea. It would have been a country estate, well beyond the city limits of mid-19th Century Baltimore. According to Rudolph Fischer, the architect who developed the Swansea Heights housing estate, HW Lathrop bought the 125-acre Swansea Farm in 1868. Mr Lathrop is said to have arrived in Baltimore from Swansea, Wales, by way of the midwestern US. Perhaps he liked the name.
Shortly after the turn of the 20th Century, a family named Gamble began renting the farm property, which became part of Baltimore city in 1918. They moved into a stone farmhouse that may have been built before the American Civil War (1861-1865) and used an old stone barn for their herd of dairy cattle. The Gambles were still milking their cows by hand in 1949 when the property was sold for development, as they did not have electricity.
The Swansea Heights development was part of the
post-Second World War building boom which provided employment and affordable housing for returning servicemen. The stone construction and barn served as the builder's office and storage area during the five years of construction, and were razed in 1954 to make way for the last of the new houses. By then, the first new homeowners had settled in. The new brick row houses in Swansea Heights sold for $8,990 in the early 1950s, a bargain for the size and quality of the houses.
One of the original residents remembered looking at a number of new homes in 1952 before buying a house on Northbourne Road. The other houses were smaller, she recalls, and she liked the stairway to the attic in the Swansea Heights house.
She and her husband occupied their new home in May of 1952, even though the row of houses across the street was still under construction and Northbourne Road was not paved. The area just a block west of their home was forest, and she recalls walking on a dirt road through the trees with other young wives to go shopping.
Her husband was sent to serve in the Korean War six months after they moved in. When he returned 18 months later, the woods had been replaced by more new houses, and he got lost trying to find his way home.
Today the name Swansea Heights is virtually unknown, and the development is considered part of the prominent Northwood area of Baltimore.
The long, curving, tree-lined streets on gently sloping hillsides are surprisingly tranquil, and seem far away from the bustle of the surrounding thoroughfares. There is still a feeling of country inside the city. Thomas Swann would probably approve.
By Barbara Morgan of Baltimore.
This article originally appeared in Planet Swansea which was published by the South Wales Evening Post.
Swansea Road and Swansea Heights - an adjoining
40-acre triangular estate of some 560 brick terrace houses - occupy the site of the old Swansea Farm, the last working farm in Baltimore city.
Swansea Farm was once part of a larger estate named Swansea. And Swansea was the property of Thomas Swann, mayor of Baltimore City from 1856-1860, governor of the state of Maryland from 1866-1869 and representative to the US Congress from 1869-1879.
Little is known about Swann's Swansea. It would have been a country estate, well beyond the city limits of mid-19th Century Baltimore. According to Rudolph Fischer, the architect who developed the Swansea Heights housing estate, HW Lathrop bought the 125-acre Swansea Farm in 1868. Mr Lathrop is said to have arrived in Baltimore from Swansea, Wales, by way of the midwestern US. Perhaps he liked the name.
Shortly after the turn of the 20th Century, a family named Gamble began renting the farm property, which became part of Baltimore city in 1918. They moved into a stone farmhouse that may have been built before the American Civil War (1861-1865) and used an old stone barn for their herd of dairy cattle. The Gambles were still milking their cows by hand in 1949 when the property was sold for development, as they did not have electricity.
The Swansea Heights development was part of the
post-Second World War building boom which provided employment and affordable housing for returning servicemen. The stone construction and barn served as the builder's office and storage area during the five years of construction, and were razed in 1954 to make way for the last of the new houses. By then, the first new homeowners had settled in. The new brick row houses in Swansea Heights sold for $8,990 in the early 1950s, a bargain for the size and quality of the houses.
One of the original residents remembered looking at a number of new homes in 1952 before buying a house on Northbourne Road. The other houses were smaller, she recalls, and she liked the stairway to the attic in the Swansea Heights house.
She and her husband occupied their new home in May of 1952, even though the row of houses across the street was still under construction and Northbourne Road was not paved. The area just a block west of their home was forest, and she recalls walking on a dirt road through the trees with other young wives to go shopping.
Her husband was sent to serve in the Korean War six months after they moved in. When he returned 18 months later, the woods had been replaced by more new houses, and he got lost trying to find his way home.
Today the name Swansea Heights is virtually unknown, and the development is considered part of the prominent Northwood area of Baltimore.
The long, curving, tree-lined streets on gently sloping hillsides are surprisingly tranquil, and seem far away from the bustle of the surrounding thoroughfares. There is still a feeling of country inside the city. Thomas Swann would probably approve.
By Barbara Morgan of Baltimore.
This article originally appeared in Planet Swansea which was published by the South Wales Evening Post.
Swansea farmhouse before demolition.
The sign for Swansea Road.
Home from home
A COMMUNITY made up almost entirely of former residents of Swansea, Wales, used to occupy a section of east Baltimore.
Canton, which lies five miles away from Swansea Heights and Swansea Road, was said to be one of the largest Welsh colonies in the US. Having gained unrivalled experience in the copper industry in their home town of Swansea, the smelting capital of Britain, settlers started arriving in the late 1840s to offer skills in a trade which was still in its infancy in North America.
They made their homes in the shadows of the Baltimore Copper Works, set up around 1850. They built their own church - which still stands - and spoke in their native tongue.
It was probably Canton that Henry Hussey Vivian (later Lord Swansea) visited while touring the area. Then the head of the most important copper producing family in Swansea, he wrote in Notes of a Tour in America, August 7 to November 17, 1877: "While at Baltimore I visited a copper works established there, and found it managed by an old White Rock man, and manned chiefly by Welshmen; it is a small and not very flourishing concern, I fear."
The "old White Rock man" may well have been one of his former employees back in Wales. Hussey had established a works at White Rock in 1871, opposite Hafod on the River Tawe, Swansea.
As the Canton plant expanded it became necessary to employ other nationalities for the hard manual labour, while the Welshmen still dominated the skilled jobs.
However, their days were numbered. In the late 1880s management decided to Americanise the works, which later closed down. The Welsh monopoly of Canton, named after the Chinese port, was over.
Today the only reminders of the Swansea invasion are Copper Row, a terrace of two-storey brick houses which were built for the original settlers, and the Welsh Church on Toone Street.
This article originally appeared in Planet Swansea which was published by the South Wales Evening Post.
Canton, which lies five miles away from Swansea Heights and Swansea Road, was said to be one of the largest Welsh colonies in the US. Having gained unrivalled experience in the copper industry in their home town of Swansea, the smelting capital of Britain, settlers started arriving in the late 1840s to offer skills in a trade which was still in its infancy in North America.
They made their homes in the shadows of the Baltimore Copper Works, set up around 1850. They built their own church - which still stands - and spoke in their native tongue.
It was probably Canton that Henry Hussey Vivian (later Lord Swansea) visited while touring the area. Then the head of the most important copper producing family in Swansea, he wrote in Notes of a Tour in America, August 7 to November 17, 1877: "While at Baltimore I visited a copper works established there, and found it managed by an old White Rock man, and manned chiefly by Welshmen; it is a small and not very flourishing concern, I fear."
The "old White Rock man" may well have been one of his former employees back in Wales. Hussey had established a works at White Rock in 1871, opposite Hafod on the River Tawe, Swansea.
As the Canton plant expanded it became necessary to employ other nationalities for the hard manual labour, while the Welshmen still dominated the skilled jobs.
However, their days were numbered. In the late 1880s management decided to Americanise the works, which later closed down. The Welsh monopoly of Canton, named after the Chinese port, was over.
Today the only reminders of the Swansea invasion are Copper Row, a terrace of two-storey brick houses which were built for the original settlers, and the Welsh Church on Toone Street.
This article originally appeared in Planet Swansea which was published by the South Wales Evening Post.
