Requiem for the Harborplace
The Harborplace was once the crown jewel of Baltimore. Designed by architect Benjamin C. Thompson (who also created Faneuil Hall in Boston), this was the brainchild of visionary urban planner James Rouse, who dared imagine the inner city as “a warm and human place, with a diversity of choice, full of festival and delight.” And for a while it was.
Originally, the planners banned chain restaurants in favor of locally-owned businesses — Phillips All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Buffet, Lee Ice Cream, and The Fudgery, with its retinue of singing confectionary-makers. The Baltimore Aquarium, the Museum of Industry, and the World Trade Center at Baltimore all were just a short stroll away. All this gave the place a quirky, one-of-a-kind feel available nowhere else.
I remember taking my dates here back in the nineties, way back when I was still almost-young. This was a place for couples to go strolling hand-in-hand along the water’s edge, couples not just of every color but of every permutation of colors – white and black, black and brown, brown and yellow, yellow and white. This was also a place for teenagers to hang out, for busy professionals to hammer out important deals over craft beers, for grandparents to take their grandkids for ice cream.
The Harborplace is scheduled to be torn down by the end of the year.
Covid hysteria killed it. Just as it killed so much else that was good and right about our society.
My book The Day the Science Died: Covid Vaccines and the Politics of Fear, is available on amazon.
All photos by author
It's been sad watching Harborplace's sad decline. I loved taking my kids there when they were younger--one of my favorite memories is my daughter and I doing the dragon boats. We celebrated the first time my writing won a money prize at The Cheesecake Factory. Later, when I moved to the top of Federal Hill in 2019, the twinkle of lights, the laughter and happy sounds floating across the water. Then, pandemic left it in darkness. Of course, it was all on purpose. I hope whatever takes its place becomes a solid gathering ground of local business and art and community. But somehow, I doubt it will happen. Peace...