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RICHMOND
BALTIMORE 287
settlement occurred here first before much development had taken place
at the earlier site of Baltimore Town. A bridge connecting the two settle-
ments was soon constructed, and in 1745 the assembly consolidated the two
towns into one, retaining the older name of Baltimore for the enlarged
community. That law also established the basis for future growth of the
town into the shallow harbor, as one of its provisions specified that
all improvements, of what kind soever, either wharf, houses, or other
buildings, that have or shall be made out of the water, or where it
usually flows, shall (as an encouragement to such improvers) be
forever deemed the right, title and inheritance of such improvers, their
heirs and assigns forever.32
While the plan in figure 200 shows the extent of the enlarged town
just before 1750, it must not be imagined that all of its lots were occupied
by dwellings and other structures. Many, perhaps a majority, of the
building sites lay vacant, some of them forfeited by their original purchasers
because of their failure to construct a house of the required size within
the specified eighteen months.33 Nor did the entire urban population of
the area reside within even these extended boundaries. About 1738,
William Fell began the development of his holdings at the point of land
previously identified as Fell's Point, and soon this district began to compete
with Baltimore. A shipyard, in operation by 1765, furnished the principal
economic justification for this third community, but it must also have
contained the usual complement of smaller shops, taverns, and dwellings
to serve the growing population.
The older settlement, however, continued to attract settlers, and soon
the boundaries of the town had to be expanded. The plan in figure 201
shows additions to the Jones Town area in 1750 and the larger areas
incorporated to the west and south of old Baltimore Town in 1753 and
1765. While each increment showed some kind of internal order and design,
it is plain that no overall plan existed to guide the rapid expansion of the
entire city. Public improvements, however, were carried out from time
to time to provide needed facilities for the growing community.
In 1748 a number of Baltimore's citizens subscribed to a fund to be
used in "keeping up, repairing, and making good the fence of the said
town, and supporting a person to keep it in good order."34 When the
assembly designated Baltimore as the county seat of Baltimore County
in 1768, commissioners appointed for that purpose began the construction
of a suitable building on a bluff overlooking Jones Falls. This site at what
was then the northern end of Calvert Street blocked the extension of that
important street. In 1784 a public subscription provided money to over-
come this inconvenience in a novel manner. The project involved nothing
less than the "underpinning and arching the said courthouse in Calvert
street... so as large and convenient passages may be had underneath .. .
to the end that new communications may be opened with the country." 35
As the steep hillside was cut away, brick piers and arches were constructed
underneath the building, and soon it was suspended nineteen feet above
the grade of the street. This curious structure served until 1805 when a
new courthouse was constructed on the west side of Calvert Street. Then
it was pulled down, its site became a kind of public square, and finally
the location was chosen after the War of 1812 as the spot for Maximilian
Godefroy's Battle Monument.
Earlier than the courthouse was the market building, on the northwest
corner of Gay and Baltimore streets. This, too, was financed by a public
subscription in 1751 and carried to completion with funds raised at a
lottery in I763.36 The latter year also saw the construction of a new
tobacco inspection house and a powder magazine. There were other im-
provements as well. The old bridge connecting Baltimore Town and Jones
Town was rebuilt, and the streets were graded and improved. Construction
of a new public wharf was aided by a public lottery in 1754, and in 1768
the assembly directed that certain fines and forfeitures were to be used by
the town commissioners "in mending the Public Wharfs and Streets in the
said Town." "
Port facilities were becoming of vital importance to the city. Although
the shipment of tobacco to English markets continued to be important to
Baltimore, it was the wheat trade that came to dominate the mercantile life
of the port. Wheat came not only from the farms of Maryland but from
Pennsylvania as well. A number of flour mills lined Jones Falls and other
streams in the vicinity, and by 1800 there were no less than fifty mills
within a twenty-mile radius of Baltimore.38 To accommodate shipping
many private wharves were built into the harbor, some of them a thousand
feet long. In 1783 the Board of Port Wardens was created to supervise and
regulate harbor improvements. The extension of private docks into the
harbor toward deeper water threatened to choke the basin area so vital
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