Goliath


Book Description

In 1904 the city of Baltimore was almost destroyed by fire. Hundreds of firemen, policemen, soldiers, and citizens battled the blaze for three days. The disaster brings out the best in man and the bravest of deeds, but one hero stands head and shoulders above all...literally. Goliath is a fire horse assigned to Engine Company 15. He is massive in size and mighty in heart and steadfastness. To the men of Engine Company 15, Goliath is the ultimate fire horse. He is the lead horse for the team assigned to pulling the mammoth Hale Water Tower No. 1. When the fire alarm sounds, calling them to action, Goliath leads his team into the blaze. Soon his lifesaving actions will lead him into the pages of history. Masterful artwork from acclaimed illustrator Troy Howell brings this true story to pulse-pounding life. Educator Claudia Friddell says of her work researching Goliath, "It was a privilege to meet and interview firefighters and fire historians about the Baltimore Fire of 1904." Goliath is her first children's book. Claudia lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Artist Troy Howell has had a prolific career as a children's book illustrator with countless books to his credit, including The Secret Garden, The Ugly Duckling, and Favorite Greek Myths. He received his formal art education from the Art Center in Los Angeles and the Illustrators' Workshops in New York. Troy lives in Falmouth, Virginia.




The Great Baltimore Fire


Book Description

Early on the bitter cold morning of Sunday, February 7, 1904, a passerby on the nearly deserted streets of Baltimore's business district noticed smoke coming from the fourth floor windows of the John E. Hurst & Co. building. Within hours steady, frigid winds had created a blaze that overwhelmed Baltimore's firefighters and threatened the entire city. Although few died as a result of the flames, the heart of the city, its waterfront and business district -- lay in ashes. The story of Baltimore's trial by fire and ultimate resurgence is now freshly told for the first time in fifty years by Johns Hopkins scholar Peter B. Petersen.




The Great Baltimore Fire


Book Description

The story of Baltimore’s great conflagration of 1904 is told with meticulous and thrilling detail.




The Great Fire of Rome


Book Description

Readers interested in ancient (and modern) Rome, urban life, and civic disasters, among other things, will be fascinated by this book.




Into the Heat


Book Description

A gripping and intriguing glimpse into the life of a career firefighter. Pull on your turn-out boots and join 29-year veteran, Ray Lockett, as he recalls the most memorable experiences working in some of the busiest firehouses in Baltimore spanning the last three decades of the 20th century. Have you ever wondered what firefighters think and experience as they crawl down a smoke filled hallway or scale a 100-foot ladder to the roof of a burning building? In this memoir you will experience the heartbreak of unsuccessful rescues along with the elation of bringing a civilian back from the brink of death. Vividly written, this book brings to life the sights, sounds and smells of working in the most turbulent neighborhoods in West Baltimore and will help the reader appreciate the challenges that confront firefighters every day at work. And you will feel the pride as the book progresses and Ray's two sons become third generation firefighters.Into The Heat features not only the dramatic moments of fighting fires and saving lives, but also gives the reader a glimpse into the firehouse antics and range of personalities that coexist there. The pride and bravery of these heroes will inspire, inform, and awe both enthusiasts and readers who thought they knew what a firefighter's job is.Ray Lockett was born and raised in Baltimore City. He joined the Fire Department in 1972 and was assigned to one of the busiest companies in the city. He spent 29 years fighting fires in some of the worst neighborhoods in Baltimore. This book looks back on his career from a Firefighter's perspective.







Saving Animals from Fires


Book Description

Describes the rescue efforts involved in saving the lives of animals affected by fires, including pets, farm animals, and wild creatures.




The Maryland Colony: Lord Baltimore


Book Description

English nobleman George Calvert wanted to establish a colony in the New World—not one like his first colony, Newfoundland, which he found to be too cold. Instead he wanted land in the temperate Chesapeake Bay area, where his colonists could grow tobacco. King Charles I granted his wish. Named for Henrietta Mary, Charles’s wife, the new colony of Maryland was established in 1634. Also known as Lord Baltimore, Calvert was a Catholic at a time when Protestants controlled the English government. He wanted Maryland to be a place where Catholics—and anyone else—could worship in freedom. As the British crown was passed through its heirs, favoring Protestants, then Catholics, then Protestants again, Maryland felt the ripples of unrest on its side of the Atlantic. Follow the story of how Maryland came to be a colony and how it fought for its borders with Virginia and Pennsylvania. Find out how in the end, it pulled together with those and the other colonies first to repel the encroaching French, and then to shrug off the tyranny of England.




The Baltimore Rowhouse


Book Description

Perhaps no other American city is so defined by an indigenous architectural style as Baltimore is by the rowhouse, whose brick facades march up and down the gentle hills of the city. Why did the rowhouse thrive in Baltimore? How did it escape destruction here, unlike in many other historic American cities? What were the forces that led to the citywide renovation of Baltimore's rowhouses? The Baltimore Rowhouse tells the fascinating 200-year story of this building type. It chronicles the evolution of the rowhouse from its origins as speculative housing for immigrants, through its reclamation and renovation by young urban pioneers thanks to local government sponsorship, to its current occupation by a new cadre of wealthy professionals.




The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins


Book Description

Johns Hopkins destroyed his private papers so thoroughly that no credible biography exists of the Baltimore Quaker titan. One of America’s richest men and the largest single shareholder of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Hopkins was also one of the city’s defining developers. In The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins, Antero Pietila weaves together a biography of the man with a portrait of how the institutions he founded have shaped the racial legacy of an industrial city from its heyday to its decline and revitalization. From the destruction of neighborhoods to make way for the mercantile buildings that dominated Baltimore’s downtown through much of the 19th century to the role that the president of Johns Hopkins University played in government sponsored “Negro Removal” that unleashed the migration patterns that created Baltimore’s existing racial patchwork, Pietila tells the story of how one man’s wealth shaped and reshaped the life of a city long after his lifetime.