When Americas Cities were Great
Thinking of my American hometown of Baltimore, the mid-fifties was when Baltimore had 950,000 residents, Bethlehem Steel had over 30,000 employees, General Motors had a plant here and Domino Sugar was still owned by Domino. McCormick spices were ground and packed right at the Inner Harbor, with active commercial shipping piers on Pratt and Lombard streets among others. Every rowhouse in town was packed to the rafters and women scrubbed the marble steps on Fridays. There were four department stores on Howard Street, where the ritziest shopping in the region was found. Children pressed their noses on the plate glass storefronts to see the holiday decorations, and the suburban malls, derivative of the urban commercial street, were mostly in the future.
Streetcars rumbled through almost every street and house-wives had a home-cooked dinner on the table at six. Gasoline cost 29 cents a gallon. Would there be anything not to like?
When America was great
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| When America was great |
| There is a strong suggestion in this campaign season that the country has seen much better times. When steelworkers, autoworkers, and miner... |
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Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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