A great walk in Patterson Park

[mikey jam]

Originally Posted by Zea mays

True, a lot has changed, and it was fun.

I must be much older than you —

I remember when there was a large conservatory in the area of Montford and Bank, containing all sorts of exotic plants, and none of the thousand or so glass panes were ever broken. I remember when there were large carp and goldfish in the fish pond at Patterson and Lombard throughout the summer, and none were ever killed or stolen. I remember when old men played croquet on Sundays and kept their mallets, balls, and wire loops in a metal box with a cheap lock, chained to a tree near Montford and Lombard, and the box was never broken into. I remember when the orchestra at the concert pavilion near Baltimore and Luzerne played a piece by Mozart or Mendelssohn from time to time on warm summers' nights. (Arsonists long ago burned the concert pavilion to the ground.) I remember when a large Christmas crèche was set up year after year near Eastern and Kenwood, with near life-size statues, and it was never vandalized. And I remember walking home many times, about 10 PM or so, from Eastern and Patterson Park Avenues, past the bust of the unknown Polish musician, through the park to my home near Luzerne and Baltimore, with nary a concern.

As for public schools, I remember when Poly, City, and Western had a national reputation like Stuyvesant, Bronx H.S. of Science, and Brooklyn Tech have today. Members of my family were accepted into J.H.U. and the Naval Academy simply on the basis of having graduated with good grades from the Poly "A" course. (They never took an exam of any sort to be accepted.) They had a better secondary education than they could have had from Gilman or Boys Latin, if my family had had the money to send them there. You simply can't say that about Baltimore's public schools today.

I really should not be posting here, as I have not lived in Baltimore for over 45 years. But I have fond memories and I never hide my heritage. I will always have fond memories of the old girl. I guess Thomas Wolfe was right about going home again.

The bust your speaking about is Conradin Kruetzer who won 1st place in the Sangerhagen awards. How about the canon that is upside down. Long ago there was an outdoor Mass celebrated approx 1920's comemorating the Polish victory at Grunwald against the Swedes. My Grandparent took pictures of Patterson Park to send back to the old country "Poland". Then there was Milkulski's,Harry's and Levin's Bakery. This is true about the horrible decline in the public school system and major reason why families fled. (that is a subject for itself) Getting back to the park truly a sanctuary in the urban city.

[Zea mays]

Originally Posted by mikey jam

The bust you're speaking about is Conradin Kruetzer who won 1st place in the Sangerhagen awards.

Something like that. Near the Gough St. or Bank St. entrance along Patterson Park Avenue. Too much history for a kid to remember, especially a kid who wanted to be American and who hated European history. (My ancestry is German-Polish.)

Originally Posted by mikey jam

How about the canon that is upside down?

I remember that too. A little itty-bitty piece of cannon, embedded upside down into the ground near the Pagoda. Ah, old memories.

Originally Posted by mikey jam

Long ago there was an outdoor Mass celebrated approx 1920's commemorating the Polish victory at Grunwald against the Swedes. My Grandparent took pictures of Patterson Park to send back to the old country "Poland".

I'm more Polish than German, mainly because my mother's family was more voluble than my father's taciturn German family. My father's family did talk about the battle of Königgrätz in 1866 between Prussia and Austria. At the time it was the largest battle in Europe (400,000 troops). My great grandfather was a foot-soldier for Wilhelm I, and there were a number of iron crosses (long since lost or carried off by my brothers) from the kaiser around the house to prove it.

To establish my Polish bona fides, if necessary, I spent quite a few summer evenings slinking around the Holy Rosary carnival at Bank and Chester Streets. My mom and dad were married in the old Holy Rosary at Bethel and Eastern, one block west of Broadway. The stories I could tell of immigrant life in that part of town.

Originally Posted by mikey jam

Then there was Milkulski's, Harry's and Levin's Bakery.

If you are talking about Levin's Jewish bakery on the northeast corner of Fairmont and Patterson Park Avenues, I knew it intimately. It was my job to walk 3 blocks up the hill on Fairmont Ave from Luzerne to Patterson Park Ave about 2-3 times a week to buy Jewish black bread and bagels. I was terrified of the Russian/Jewish woman DP behind the counter who seemed to scorn my virginity; I was only about 10-12 years old at the time. (I trumped her later but she was not around to tell.) The bagels were as hard as stone, but somehow at the time I thought they were delicacies. Although my family was Roman Catholic, it is amazing in retrospect how much my mom's cooking resembled Jewish cuisine.

So much for growing up poor in East Baltimore in the late 1940s.

Originally Posted by mikey jam

This is true about the horrible decline in the public school system and major reason why families fled. (that is a subject for itself)

That is true of most public school systems east of the Mississippi, Chicago included. But some cities, like Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington, have taken a harder hit than others.

Originally Posted by mikey jam

Getting back to the park, truly a sanctuary in the urban city.

Yes it was in its time. And it appears to be quite an asset to east Baltimore at the present time as well.

It was a pleasure to converse with you, mikey jam, though I fear we are boring most of the posters on this forum.
Send me a PM if you wish to reminisce further.

[Zea mays]

Lest anyone think the conservatory in Patterson Park were a figment of my imagination (I was beginning to wonder about that myself):

http∶//www.pattersonpark.com/Park%20Information/otherbldstrct.html (http://www.pattersonpark.com/Park%20Information/otherbldstrct.html - broken link)

It was razed in 1948.

[Be More]

Zea Mays...I really enjoy hearing absolutely anything you can share about the park and its history and what you used to enjoy here. Please share more.

I fully understand the frustration of seeing a beautiful neighborhood become run down in many ways since your childhood. We can debate "why" it happened...but thats not the point. I would just like to say that many neighborhoods..including those surround the park..are making a great rebound. Are they like they used to be 50 years ago? Not yet...but I am really enjoying this area.

We can talk about schools more later...as I teach right on the park....but I would like to hear anything else you can share about the park.

[mikey jam]

One major event that took place every 2nd Sunday in September was the "I am an American Day Parade". This was a big shindig! Starting at BroadwayIt proceeded eastbound along Bank St. It headed north on Patterson-Park Ave making a right turn and going down Baltimore St. South on Linwood Ave to the main grandstand. This parade lasted about 3 hours. The best memory was just how crowded the park was with onlookers. Going to Holy Rosary school we often went to the park for physical education. One thing the Felician Sisters emphasized was education. Because the area was a blue collar industrialized neighborhood, when children got educated and married they all moved. Lot of the old ethnic establishments have vanished. But one transformation is that the children from Patterson Park Charter school now use the park the way we did. Another vivid memory is that during the 1960's the "hippies' congregated at the corner of Eastern and Ellwood Ave.

[Zea mays]

Originally Posted by Be More

Zea Mays...I really enjoy hearing absolutely anything you can share about the park and its history and what you used to enjoy here. Please share more.

I went back and re-read my original post. I was surprised how negative it appeared. I'm really not that way. I accept the world has changed and I move on.

I'll pop up from time to time with a few words. You might also want to follow mikey jam's posts. He has PM'd me, and I found he is a native Baltimore artist who has sketched all of the landmarks in Patterson Park (including the bust of the "unknown Polish musician" near Patterson Park Avenue) as well as many buildings in East Baltimore. Feel free to PM me yourself as well.

I wrote mikey jam that on one of my visits back to Baltimore many years ago, I brought a blank window screen and left it with a window screen painter. I returned a few months later and picked up a large 5' x 5' screen painting of a light house on a lake with oodles of dark and light green foliage, broken by the dab of white and red of the light-keeper's cottage. The scene had noting to do with Baltimore, or Maryland either for that matter. At that time none of the Baltimore window screens had pictures of recognizable Baltimore venues. One might as well be viewing a bucolic pastoral by Boucher. But the screen painting was impressive, at least for its very large size. I put it in my front window in Chicago, and a number of passers-by rang my doorbell and inquired about it. I ended up selling it for twice what I paid for it. I wish I had it back now. I would frame it and hang it in my family room as a piece of Baltimorama.

I've always thought that screen paintings, along with marble steps, was unique to Baltimore. About half the homes in my neighborhood had paintings, sometimes on the second story windows as well.

Speaking of my neighborhood, here is a pic of my home at 11 N. Luzerne, with marble steps but no window screen, courtesy of Google:
http∶//maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=11+North+Luze rne+Avenue,+Baltimore&sll=39.292677,-76.580243&sspn=0.009167,0.017295&ie=UTF8&ll=39.293 358,-76.580029&spn=0.009167,0.017295&z=16&iwloc=A&layer =c&cbll=39.292622,-76.580469&panoid=Zpx8s4diwmzsVD8C9Oz_FQ&cbp=12,85. 8,,0,5
(Emptying the cache will make the photo load faster, if need be.)

It's the home with the pumpkin in the window. There was no tree and no one grew plants on their pavement when I lived there or when I last visited.

My mom lived alone to a ripe old age and died in the house in 1986. I returned from Chicago to sell it in '86 for $35,000 to a girl I grew up with who still lived across the street. How times have changed!

[barante]

We returned to Patterson Park last night for a WYPR concert. Quite wonderful, although bluegrass is not really our thing. Hundreds of people of all ages. The place has come a long way since I first came to Baltimore in 1968.