Harris Creek waterfronts82 (Figure 8 .) .

In only taking up a strip from the vacated patents for
Kemp's Addition and Parkers Haven, Fell engaged in a profit-
maximizing strategy known as "stringing". The land office charged
forty shillings per hundred acres and an annual quit-rent of four
shillings. Stringing allowed Fell to obtain valuable water
frontage at minimum cost. The land office had rules against the
practice, but the surveyors knew who their friends were.83

Once he perfected title to his tract, Edward Fell the
younger wasted no time in putting lots on the market. In 1763 he
laid out streets on a grid, except on the Point, where the
followed the lay of the land (Figure 10).  Among the first
purchasers in 1765 was Capt. Charles Ridgely who bought a
waterfront lot. Edward Fell the younger died in 1766 leaving an
infant son, William, as his heir. The task of marketing the
family landholding fell to his wife and executrix, Ann Fell. Ann
Fell so successfully marketed her land that Fell's Point soon
rivaled Baltimore Town as the maritime center. It had a certain
natural advantage -- deep water access attracted wharves,
warehouses, and shipyards, which extended out into the North West
Branch.84

Newcomers to the region had a hard time deciding which
settlement to live in. To attract them to the Point, Ann Fell
advertised and provided no-downpayment financing; her adver-
tisements dispelled rumors that the Fell title was unmarketable
and that the locale was unhealthy. The favorable financing took

34