mdhsphotographs:

Shot Tower (Phoenix Shot, Merchants’ Shot Tower, Baltimore Shot Tower)
Southeast corner of Fayette Street and Front Street, Baltimore, Maryland
1924
Unidentified photographer
4x5 inch glass negative
Baltimore City Life Museum Collection
Maryland Historical Society
MC8232A, MC8232B

The Shot Tower was a lead shot manufacturing facility that operated from 1828 to 1892. From the National Park Service site: “Molten lead was dropped from a platform at the top of the tower through a sieve-like device and into a vat of cold water.” Once operated under the Baltimore City Life Museums, the Shot Tower is now administered by Carroll Museums, Inc. Read more about it on their site.

Location on Google Maps Street View: 

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I drove down this part of Fayette past the shot tower as part of my commute from 2005-2008 from Canton. Almost 150 years earlier, In 1858, a great-great-great-grandfather (Dominic Oriani (1822-1873) -> Louis Oriani (1858-1936) -> Frank Oriani (1899-?) -> My grandfather ? -> my mother (not sayin’)) of mine, Dominic Oriani, lived at 26 East Street, there in Baltimore, about half a block from where this photo was taken, somewhere in between.

January 22nd, 2014 9:35pm