The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-04-07
5l3iscril aucou1


To Tie EditOr Of Tie -EpiS::
How many there are who daily wend their
way along the busy thOrouEhfareso of our Mary
land metropolis, and pass and re-pass the beau
tlfGl modern buildings erected there: and YET,
how few can recall the early environments
which married the Baltimore of long ago.
The most noticeable locality in the city is that
adjacent to Battle Monument. rere we flnd tue
Ultv Hall, POstotlice and Equitable Building
and the Court House, perhaps the most lmp0s-
ing of them al, now hearing completion.
y reminiscent sentiment seems to have
sprung up, and very properly so. among those
who have an authoritative interest IN our
Temples OF Justice. and their walls are BENZ
adorned by the portraits OF distinguished
judges and lawyers who nave PASSED away.
In this connection il may not beunintCre ting
to your readers 10 give the recUlections OF one
of Marylapd'S mGSt sifted SOGS, the late John
p. Kennedy. MS he penned them, IN reference
TO the early Court House in Baltimore, VI hich
stood upon the spot low marEed by the Battle
Monument. Hesays: u mark several epochs
i'll my onward, or rather should say my back
ward, course of my recollections. One of my
earliest landmarks is the epoch of tue old CourC
House.
That was Il famous building, which, TO my
first cognizance, suggested the idea OF u house
perched upon great stool.
1T was large, dinRy. square structure OF
brick, elevated upon Il mss-ive basement of
stOue, which was perforated by q broad arch.
The buttresSeS on either 81 q Of the arch sup
piled S:'ac1 for II stairway ~ at led to the Hall
OF Justice above, ana stradd ed ever p pillory.
whipping post and stocks which were sheltered
ui der the arch, as symbols of the power that
was at work up st siTs.
This ma gisterial edifice stood precisely where
the Battle Monument now stands, on CaIverr
street. 1t has Il notable history. that old Court
House When it was first built it overlooked
the town from the summit of the hill some ffCy
feet or more above the level of the present
street, and cd upon a G. iM which, northW ard,
was washed bv jones' Falls;in that primitive
day pretty rural stream that meandered
through meadows garniShed with shrubbery.
filled with browsing cattle. making Il pleasant
landscape from the Court House window.
1.-THE old Calvert street came handsomely up
the hill. XII the way from the wharves to the
Court House. and the way firer, when he
arrived n this paint. found himself on the cliff
looking northward over II beautiful valley
watered by the roviEg stream which gldea
smoothly against the grLnitf' rNcEs that formed
a selvage tn the park belonging TO that good
and gallant old cavalier. Culouel Howard, and
diverging from the loot of the park came, by 4
weeping cIrcu {, through rhe meadow under
the steep and sandy bills that overhung on the
west.
line city fathers had grow II tired of gazing
over this scene OF rural beauty. and had already
begun to accuse the stream of an unbtcoming
departure from the true inc of its duty. The
circuit WIS all imprrtinenCe which called for @
correction. Tine surveyors chain was already
marking ou' possible extension of Calvert
| street over the water course. The work was as
| good rs done. Jones Falls wss whipped
out of the meadow as an intruder, and con
signed to a rev channel cut along the circular
| segment which it had pursued before Columbu:
| broke his egg, and the decree was sent forth
for taking down twenty feet of the hill on whict
\ the Court House was Cercheu.
! "And now the great question arose touchins
/ the fate OF this majestical temple of the law
! Was the street TO give WY to the Court Hous.
| or the CourI Hou C to tn" street? For Il tim,
! th"t question CONFUSED the Councils and thu
| public.
| "A might man in masonry in that dav
| Leonard H rbaugh by name, stepped forward
| Il man born to still great commotions o
state. He maturely prepended the problem
and amazed the whole generation OF puZZe,
| mia nlncs, including N yor and City Council
| Judges, Sheritfs AMI CLERKS, with the brave pro
posal, at his own risk and responsibility, to pre-
| serve the Court House, safe and sound, afte
twenty feet were dugas ~ ber cath lis founda
tons. The town could nat have been more in
| creduious il mud UCpn proposed to suspend tn
hoBored building by magnet in the air. Blu
he was IL man OF will and confidence in hi
| genius and 50 went courageouly to work.
| "All the o d men, and ail the boys, and all tn
idle negroes visited the work daily. Man
shook their heads and watched to see the Cour
| House tumble i'll ruins, and carefully 'stoo
| from under But, day by day Leonard adroi
| ly knitted the masonry into Duttress and arcl
ard in good time energed that figure hav
| quantity seated upon its pOnderouS and soil
| bench of stone. Why Is there no full engt
| portrait OF the doughty Leonard Harbaug
! hanging in the City Hall? Alas, our true me
| of M ht find no place i'll the galleries conse
| Grated to the encouragement OF the growth {
| shams! Both Leonard and his work: the oil
| Court House. have gone into dead oblivion.
| THE Street Commissioners came along ono
| more and decreed another reduction of hill
| Anoi her twenty feet or more were required
| The Court House had grown moulGY and supe
| animated; stock, piiiory ana whipping POSI- ha
| zone out of fashion: Baltimore had becOm
| more ambitious Stately buildings began I
| engrnss the square. The new Court Hous
| arose, model of architectural EagDiticence
| the eve of that aImiring generation, Onl
| second 10 tine National Capitol, and the old or
| was carried away as the rubbish of past ag
1 Calvert street struggled onward TO tle grant
hills People wonder to hear that Jones Fal
| eve rippled over u bed now ladt Il with rows
| CON Portable dwellings, and COWS once brow,
upou meadow that now produces stea
| engines soap and candies and lager beer.
| still dear to me is the memory of the o
| Court House. | have sober faith that Il
| people of the days of the old Court House, ar
| the old Court House days themselves, had mo
| spice in them. were more genial to the kindli
| elements that make life worthy to be love
| than any days we have had SINCE"