Robert Baker Park
Robert Baker Park is a pocket park on the northern perimeter of Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is very near the foot of Federal Hill Park, south of the city's central business district, and close to the city's Inner Harbor. It sits within the Federal Hill Montgomery Street Historic District, which was elevated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
In contrast to its small size, the park is a reminder of the significant and successful effort in the early 1970s to mediate between Federal transportation initiatives — that had proposed fourteen lanes of traffic through historic Federal Hill and a tunnel underneath the city's prominent and historic Federal Hill Park — and concerted local advocacy and activism on behalf of the community.
The pocket park is named after Robert Lewis Baker, an early and vocal activist for Federal Hill and the neighborhoods of South Baltimore; widely recognized horticulturalist and botanist at the University of Maryland and prominent resident of the Federal Hill neighborhood.
Park
Bounded by Key Highway to the North, by Light Street to the west, and overlooked by several dozen historic residential townhouses to the east and south, the park sometimes appears on maps, colloquially as Gateway Park — because of its location near where cars enter the Federal Hill neighborhood, coming from downtown Baltimore.Access to the park is via a brick walkway off Light Street, where a plaque inside the entrance originally featured a profile of Robert Baker in black stone, with "Robert Lewis Baker, 1937-1979." The easily overlooked park is approximately 100' x 300' in size, or about two thirds of an acre, and features a walled field with perimeter planting to the south, numerous trees, a low wall to the north and west, and a brick walkway traversing its interior.
By 2007, the park had become overgrown, went unlisted with the Department of Recreation and Parks, and went unnamed on most city maps. Various congregations and citizens groups worked to clean up the park. Today it falls under the purview of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point, as well as the South Baltimore Gateway Project, the latter which was formed in 2016 to manage dedicated community resources. Community members maintain a Facebook page, Robert Baker Park Federal Hill, to enable ongoing volunteer maintenance and awareness.
A 14'x 20' sculpture — titled In the Garden, Woman and Man, by Baltimore artist Sam Christian Holmes — was placed at the northwest corner of the park in 2018, visible to those entering the neighborhood from downtown Baltimore.
The sculpture was dedicated in February 2019, by its prime fund-raiser, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, and the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association.
Origins
The history of the Robert Baker Park extends to the period of Baltimore's history when much of South Baltimore's housing stock lay in a severe state of dilapidation, and pressures mounted to cut major roadways directly through the neighborhoods. Interstate Highway plans overlaid the historic district; leading to a period of controversy and litigation between highway planners and preservationists. At the time, "14 lanes of traffic were to tunnel under Federal Hill Park." Much of the subsequent process was captured in a 1975 document, Mitigating Adverse Environmental Effects of Highway Construction by the Transportation Research Board National Research Council.As the property fell within its then new status on the National Register of Historic Places, a Section 106 Review was invoked requiring the federal agency to assess the effect of its actions on historic resources:
A compromise was suggested by the mayor; the Federal Hill community was to be actively involved in developing a highway plan that would reflect its concern for the preservation of the historic area. Community meetings were organized to help people to understand the many problems that had resulted from years of mistrust and indecision. A survey of the area was then conducted. This survey proved useful in clarifying the goals of historic preservation so that plans could be developed for an alignment that would meet those goals.
Detailed studies, drawings and models followed extensive community meetings, with the Section 106 Review defining what would become the park:
Another major problem was the minimization of the visual and acoustical impacts of the roadway on the historic district. The suggested solution involves the creation of an open-space buffer by means of brick walls and landscape earth berms along the entire edge of the boulevard adjacent to Federal Hill.
Key activists in the process were prominent Federal Hill residents Robert Lewis Baker, officer of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point, and Dr. George A. Klein — at the time, President of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association and history Professor with the University of Maryland.
Federal Hill-Montgomery Street residents made several suggestions, including developing a garden or promenade park that would replace the vandalized row houses along Hughes Street. The design and detail of a plan for the garden will accentuate the historic quality and beauty of nearby residential structures. In an earlier plan for the boulevard, an attractive neighborhood fire station was to be taken. The community insisted that the station be saved along with the historic homes to the west of it. This resulted in the decision to have all these structures remain in their present location and the homes restored.
The buffer park was thus proposed and well under development by 1974: a "Williamsburg-type" walled and elevated park. Preliminarily designed by Roger E. Holtman, a Baltimore-based landscape architect-planner, the buffer park would include a fountain and plantings — and run from Light Street to Williams Street, providing an elevated view to the Inner Harbor. A portion of Hughes Street would become a four lane section of the Key Highway, crossing in front of Federal Hill.
Opposition by the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association was ameliorated by the park. Abandoned homes and properties on what was then Hughes Street, were condemned to make room for the proposed buffer park. In 1976 the corner property at Williams Street and Hughes street was purchased out of condemnation — preventing the proposed buffer park from stretching the entire block
Important aspects of the community design process stood out, in retrospect: