Continue to the end of Shakespeare St. to where it intersects with S. Broadway. Here you’ll emerge onto a plaza lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. To the left, at 806 S. Broadway, is the Vagabond Theatre, home of the Vagabond Players. This theater is the country’s oldest continuously operated “little theater,” begun in 1916. Its first production was H. L. Mencken’s The Artist. When F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were living in Baltimore, the Vagabond Players produced her play, Scandalabra. Unfortunately, it was a flop. Next door, at #802, is the site of Seaman’s Hall, the first local longshoreman’s union (1912). The union was later instrumental in the creation of the National Maritime Union, dramatically improving the working conditions and lives of seamen.
Head south on S. Broadway, toward the water. On the corner of S. Broadway and Thames is the Admiral Fell Inn. The space the inn now occupies at 888 S. Broadway has been hosting visitors, initially seamen on shore leave, for almost 250 years. The inn today consists of seven adjoining buildings, the oldest of which date to the 1770s and 1780s. In 1889, the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Port Mission created the Anchorage here, a place where seamen could retire for the night with their Christian consciences intact. The Anchorage’s cellars were eventually turned into a vinegar bottling plant, which closed in 1976. The Admiral Fell Inn took over in 1985 and has become one of the finest and most interesting hotels around, garnering charter membership in the National Trust for Historic Hotels of America.
Continue heading west on Thames St. to check out this largely intact 18th-century row. At 1626 Thames is The Horse You Came In On Saloon, established in 1775. Sometimes visited by Edgar Allan Poe, The Horse is the country’s only saloon to have operated before, during, and after Prohibition, making it America’s oldest continuously operating saloon. William Fell’s mansion stood at #1621, when this street was named Fell’s Street. Unfortunately, it was demolished many years ago.
Across the street is Brown’s Wharf, which today houses shops and offices, including Jhpiego, a nonprofit international health organization affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University. But when it was built in 1820, it served as a warehouse for flour and coffee.
Turn around and head back toward S. Broadway, crossing the plaza. On the water to your right is Broadway Pier. Regular ferry service between here and Locust Point ended in 1937. In the decades prior to that, this same ferry offloaded thousands of newly arrived immigrants just processed at a nearby immigration station. Still an entry point for new immigrants today, Baltimore has a long history of immigration and absorption, evidenced in the eclectic place names and ethnic enclaves scattered throughout the city. For many years in the late 19th and early 20th century, only Ellis Island saw more new arrivals than Baltimore, as many as 40,000 a year. By the close of the 19th century, the vast majority of these immigrants were Polish and Italian.Next to Broadway is City Recreation Pier, in the 1700 block of Thames St. You might recognize City Recreation Pier as the home of NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999), a creation of Barry Levinson and David Simon, both Baltimoreans. Levinson used Fells Point for filming locations in his films Avalon, Diner, Liberty Heights, and Tin Men as well. Fans of Homicide will recognize the bar across the street from City Recreation Pier as the one owned by three homicide cops in the show. In real life, it’s the Waterfront Hotel (a bar, not a hotel), housed in a 1771 building, the city’s second-oldest brick building. During the Civil War, the Waterfront housed soldiers.
Continue along Thames St., taking in the colonial character, until you reach the amazing house at #1732. It was built in 1800 and remains in pristine and original condition. This merchant’s house is three and a half stories, typical of wealthy merchants’ houses. Close by, 1738 Thames St. was originally a tavern, built in the 18th century. It became a clothing sweatshop in the early 20th century.
When you reach the next block, S. Ann St., take a left for a quick detour to the Robert Long House at 812 S. Ann. This street was named for Ann Fell, Edward Fell’s wife. When Edward died, Ann continued selling plots of land; her financial acumen made her one of colonial America’s most successful businesswomen. The Robert Long House is the city’s oldest existing residence, dating to 1765. Long served as a quartermaster for the Continental Navy. The house is open to visitors, who can see rooms furnished with Revolutionary War period pieces. Today, the house serves as the headquarters of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point. The preservation society was an outgrowth of the “Stop the Road” citizen uprising formed to halt the construction of a freeway that would have cut off Fells Point from the water. That’s unthinkable today, but in the 1960s, Fells Point had deteriorated into a seedy backwater. In fact, the neighborhood had, almost from the beginning, maintained a reputation as a carnivalesque place. One visitor in 1798 remarked, “Here ships land their cargoes and here the crews wait not even for twilight to fly to the polluted arms of the white, black, and yellow harlot.” But in a city that tolerates, even welcomes, the real and shuns artifice, Fells Point had always been a somewhat celebrated seedy backwater. Even in the late 20th century, locals were still celebrating its uniqueness. Indeed, Fells Point serves as the inspiration for several of John Waters’s early films, such as Pink Flamingos, Multiple Maniacs, and Polyester. Fortunately, in the 1960s, a sufficient number of locals were horrified by the prospect of a freeway destroying their neighborhood’s character. Led by a then-unknown social worker named Barbara Mikulski, they fought to save the neighborhood. Thank goodness they did. That fight led to the revitalization of the neighborhood and, of course, kickstarted Mikulski’s political career. In 2012, she became the longest-serving woman in the history of the United States Congress.
Turn around and return to Thames St., taking a diagonal left down Fell St. At 910 Fell St., on the right, you will see the William Price house. Price made a fantastic living building Baltimore schooners in the late 1700s. His shipyard was behind the house. Across the street, at #909, is where Price’s son, John, also a shipbuilder, lived. Frederick Douglass worked at the Prices’ shipyard just before he made his break to freedom. Just up the block from the younger Price’s house, at #931, was the home of shipbuilder John Steele. The house was constructed in 1786. Across the street, at #936, is Belt’s Wharf, built in 1877 to serve as the port for the fleet of the C. Morton Stewart coffee distributors. Today, it houses condos.
At the end of the street are two more wharves, Swann’s and Henderson’s. Swann’s Wharf, at 1001 Fell St., is one of the older warehouses in Fells Point, dating to the 1820s. Swann is a locally prominent name; Thomas Swann served as mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, as well as the president of the B&O Railroad. Henderson’s Wharf, at Fell and Wolfe Sts., was a disembarkation site for European immigrants before 1850. The warehouse there, built in 1897, stored tobacco for European export. Today, there is an inn and private residences. Take a moment to enjoy the terrific water views before turning around and heading north on S. Wolfe St.
Up the block to the right at Wolfe and Thames Sts., across from Thames Street Park, is the National Can Company building, which employed immigrants canning the Chesapeake’s bounty for 100 years, between 1880 and 1980. The sheer volume helped to propel Baltimore to its status as the world’s largest canning center. The building was converted to apartments in 1983.
Cross the park and take a left onto Lancaster St. The third house on the left was the home of William Tinker, a local grocer. In the 1700s, this was a two-and-a-half-story dormered house,