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When I first started scanning Lantern slides and glass plate negatives, I played around with my new scanner software and saw that I could add color to old photos. As I’ve been going through and cleaning out some old files, I came across the above pictures. When I first colored them I thought it was pretty neat that this could be done, now I’m not too sure if it should be? I really like the old B&W movies from when I was a child. When they started to colorize them, I thought, How odd is that? What do you think? The colors that I used were based on the old lithograph colors used in reports, to match those and not so much as what the colors should really be.

            Without [asservity] possibly ‘asperity’, animosity or acrimony, or reservation, I am writing you again about the Prudence and Elmtree site of reservoir…the work of the world is governed by cold hard facts…these men worked in very bad weather…curtailment of work now…I am of the belief the work will continue, not because of the Governor or the Mayor’s efforts to keep Maryland beautiful, but in spite of this fact.

            I would be in your office now…in my 70^th year…unmarried and pensioned.

            Also I believe with Tolstoy, the Russian socialist and writer, that time rectifies evil and resistance is useless, because truth is inexorable and governed by laws of nature and conditions create problems that men must solve for his survival, not to mention, salvation. Christianity may have helped but it is not too much in evidence, as all the old evils still persist. If this work is finished, I must point out the four open holes…filled with water from the rains…children 3-16 roam this area and are endangered by this fact, be it accident or design, they are a menace…never ending brush fires. Fire apparatus are denied access…an accident could be disastrous, as all these war housing units have not the usual rubber insulation on the wiring.

            I am firmly convinced all the travail in this region stems from the same source, the attitude of the officials toward the area as being the jungles populated by backward hill people and “dumb pollocks”. They have their faults but neither makes it a practice to deny their children the right to a happy childhood, to fortified against the vicissitudes of existence when they must be self sustaining. These hill people are not particularly friendly to anyone, even their benefactors, or themselves…the parents are not at the moment, the concern, but to practically disenfranchise the youngsters to the point they will eventually become public charges or inmates of mental hospitals because of harassment, and neglect makes bad economics, if nothing else.

            Of course it is the law of the pack rat to rag the stranger. All the foreign born coming here at the turn of the century suffered this ignominy – - and one “bloody blooming Finny” son of a bitch who was with Kipling in Sudan in the 80s as linguist-interpreter, who had an American born son in 1888, who can get up on his one good leg and “give them hell” and it wasn’t Harrigan, it was me.

in the Federalsburg “Times” 1956:

 This Business of our Water surely makes me think

Of “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”

So said the Ancient Mariner; let’s do as he would do:

Let’s keep our water undefiled or what he says come true.

Our Water Works for many years provided fine, pure bubbles,

Then they put the chlorine in to give us stomach troubles.

Now Sodium Fluoride is good for teeth, they say,

They would put it in the water to stop our tooth decay,

But I have a  suggestion and my logic is correct;

Why not Citrate of Magnesia for medicinal effect?

Why Not Scotch or Bourbon  piped to every house and home

And in the heat of summer, nice cool beer with lots of foam ?

The danger, Friend, of puttin’ in is not knowing where to stop,

And I, an Ancient Mariner, would forget it, drop by drop.

For with water, water everywhere,  I  have  a  right  to think

What once was fine, pure wa­ter is no longer fit to drink.

Please Mister, make me happy; leave what I drink alone,

And when decay has got my teeth I’ll buy dentures of my own.

   Yesterday was that same sort of let down for me – so close and yet so far away. I’ve been doing history research and archiving for Baltimore City’s water supply for close to two years now. By title, I’m a maintenance supervisor, but in my spare time – early morning and lunch, I work on sorting through and documenting all the records that have been stored at both the Montebello and Ashburton Filtration Plants. There are a lot of them. I came across most of these records by chance 20 some years ago when the supervisor of that time told me to get rid of all that ‘junk’. I didn’t and I stored it all away until 2 years ago when I was looking for some electrical drawings and started to sort through it. It was such an exciting feeling to look through all of this ‘junk’. I found old glass plate negatives, lantern slides, plats, prints, personal journals and records and books dating back to the 1800′s.

   The excitement of all this discovering is still with me today. I love it. The let down though is this: Both my boss and me can retire in a couple years and when we are gone, nobody is going to give a shit about any of this stuff. So I was really excited when I read in the Baltimore Historical Society newsletter that Baltimore has an Archives. I had read about it from some old records that I found from the 1950′s but no one could tell me anything about it. It actually was part of the Finance Department. So I call the Baltimore Archives and ask if I can come down and take a look at what they have and share with them what I have. The guy tells me to come down at 10:30am. I go there and it’s on this back street and is in part of an old warehouse that smells of mold and old. The man who greeted me was like, “What do you want? What are you looking for?” (Sounding like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh) So I explained who I was and what I’ve been doing for the past two years. “Oh, really? Well here is what we have on water history.” He hands me this three page booklet with a brief water history typed onto it. I had taken with me a memory drive so I could show him  a sample of what I’ve got. Two computers but neither one hooked up?

   After about ten minutes of pouring my excitement out to him, he wants to know if I know one of the workers at Montebello? And oh yea, we can come get some of that stuff if you want. All I wanted was to just share some excitement of history with some one.

   This is the typical city mentality. People are given jobs that they really don’t care about. The city itself is messed up in how they handle the history and archives. You have the Industrial Museum, the Public Works museum, now the Baltimore Archives and god only knows how many agencies have stuff undocumented, scattered throughout the city. Some one told me that the Construction Management Division stores stuff at the Backriver Plant. Why? I don’t understand the city’s complacency on its history. If anything, all the history and archives should be at one location, like the DPW museum. But it won’t be. That is too logical.

  But you know what? All of this won’t deter my enthusiasm for what I love to do. I wish the City of Baltimore would start showing the same.

1959 thru 1962 – File Folder No. 1497: Christmas gift letters. It is unbelievable what the water engineers received as Christmas gifts during their employment. This list only covers three years. There are business cards attached along with notes and delivery receipts. Received were: chocolates (Wright Contracting Co. and Newton Co.), diary (Consolidated Engineers), pencil holder (Ruth Engineering), liquor and hot dish holder (Brooklyn Engineering), ‘wet goods’ and ham (Frank Angelozzi), gift basket (Matricciani Co.), cooler (Arundel Corp.), fluid remembrance and flowers (RK&K), whiskey (San Joe Construction Co., Spiniello Constr., Forest Co., Lock Joint Pipe Co., Masonry Resurfacing and Constr. Co., RKK, Alpine Constr., Cohen and Ass., and Square Constr. Co.), liquor and cigars (Peters Co. twice, Iacoboni and Sons 2x), lighter and cigarette box (Gill-Simpson Electric), diary and travel guide (Woody of Kahn Electric Co.), good cheer “…it will do much to add to my enjoyment during the holidays.” (Woody), delicacies (Atherholt, Brinton and Glover 2x), subscription to Coronet magazine (Wilson and Sons), ham (Wright Contracting and Matz, Childs and associates 2x), coffee maker and liquor (Gill-Simpson Electric), pears (WRA 3x), executive record and travel guide (Woody), clock (Arundel Corp.), desk diary (AP Smith Mfgr.), pitcher (Panitz), ham and champagne (Matricciani 2x), pen (Ruth Engr.), basket of whiskey (Lock Joint 2x), desk caddy (Leopold), ham and liquor (Regester consultants), turkey (Matricciani and Forest Co.), book (Arundel Corp.), desk calendar (Smith Mfgr.), Fruit cake!! (Gray Concrete Pipe 2x!!), candy (Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust 2x and RKK), subscription to the ‘Saturday Evening Post’ (Herman Born and Sons), atlas (Atherholt), carving set (Arundel Corp.), turkey and whiskey (Wright Contr.), Rancho Lynn apples (Smith-Blair Inc.), traveling clock (Arundel Corp.), ham and fluid remembrances (Wright Co.), monetary contribution to Bucknell University (Atherholt), monetary contribution to Catholic Charities, Community Chest, Red Cross and the Associated Jewish Charities (Kahn), floral centerpiece (RK&K), Franciscan dinnerware (Lock Joint Pipe), subscription to ‘Look’ magazine (Wilson and Sons), smoking set (Panitz), cocktail shaker (Foley), barometer (Arundel Corp.), Bodine book, ‘The Face of Maryland’ (Arundel), tray of hors d’vours (Panitz), cheese (Foley), Christmas decorations and spirits (Forest Co.), oranges and grapefruits (Breesee and Gray), guest for dinner and spirits (Masonry Resurfacing Const. Co.).

            December 21, 1962 letter from Schuerholz to Langenfelder and Son, Inc. returning a gift certificate in the amount of $100 to be used at Hamburger’s (Men’s clothing store). He writes, “…I do not feel justified in accepting a gift certificate of this magnitude. I am retaining the money clip in which it was delivered; this will serve as a remembrance of your thoughtfulness.” It was returned via registered mail.

            Side note: In January 2009, both Mayor Sheila Dixon and Councilwoman Holton were indicted on bribery charges stemming from them receiving gifts from a contractor.

Late last year after the Colts had completed their first season, it became evident that the club would have to be refinanced if Baltimore was to retain its franchise in the All American Conference. The situation presented a challenge to civic and sports-minded citizens and we are happy to report that the response to that challenge was satisfactory. Some thirty business men were invited to my office to discuss the situation. After long discussion there and several committee meetings this group of public spirited men obtained promises from the league for strengthening the local team. On that basis they then produced the necessary financing to put the club on stable footing and assure a successful future. Out of this crisis and its solution came something rather unique in the sports world – a professional football club owned and operated entirely by local interests. 

A gentleman by the name of Howard Crook was on the Pension board. C. Markland Kelly was the president of the City Council at that time. Paul Holland was the Director of Public Works. He oversaw the work of 11 bureaus. Book contains before and after photos of street resurfacing. Old and new type trash trucks. 

  Police did do an occasional drive through of the property or park in one of the parking lots and ‘spend the night’ sitting in their cars over at the chlorinator. Then we were told that the maintenance staff needed to act as ‘Guards’ for the plants and because of union memorandums’ of understanding, overtime had to be distributed equally among all the classes of workers – so we had janitors, lab personnel and secretaries acting as guards to a plant that supplies water to 1.8 million people. These guards just stood by the front gates to the plants, asking for IDs.

  A couple years later we did buy guard shacks and the city hired guards. There has never been any concern for the water supply since 9/11 like there was during the first world wars.

    “Fluoridation of the Baltimore water began on November 26, 1952. Fluoridation of the supply was ordered by the Mayor and confirmed by vote of the City Council. The subsequent injunction to restrain the City from applying fluoridation was dismissed, on the grounds that this action would not interfere with religious beliefs, and that it was within the jurisdiction of the Mayor and City Council to proceed.”

Upon some research I found why it was against religious beliefs. The documentation is fairly long so I placed it on my History page for anyone who would like to comment.