XXI. On the Waterfront

The commercial zone of expansion was on the waterfront.
Cole's Harbour was not deep. If the shipping merchants were to do
business they had a choice of either dredging a channel in, or
building a wharf out. Otherwise, all of the merchantmen would
dock at Fells Point.119

Consideration was given to deepening the basin. The Assembly
pondered construction of two enormous ox-driven dredges on the
Dutch plan which could cut a channel. But all things considered
wharfing out seemed a more practical solution than such a "mud
machine". 12°

The first projects were modest in size. A county wharf had
existed at the foot of Calvert Street since before mid-century.
Thereafter a bulkhead was constructed along the waterfront, and
behind it was dedicated a Water Street which followed the meander
of the shoreline between Calvert and Gay streets. East of
Calvert, Jonathan Lindson had added a short pier121  (see Figure
14) .

In 1771, brewer James Sterett, a newcomer from Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, who owned a waterfront lot at the corner of Water
Street and Gay Street looked to take advantage of the Act of 1745
on a larger scale. He deposited five hundred scow loads of sand
in the navigable water and marsh which abutted his property while
wharfing out into the basin. Sterett considered his project
authorized by the Act of 1745, but the Maryland Court of Appeals
disagreed. The Court affirmed recovery by Thomas Harrison in a

46	-       .   .