Small forts in Baltimore?

[Bruce Vail]

I was surprised recently when reading Maryland Voices of the Civil War (Edited by Charles W. Mitchell. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) to see mention of Camp Small, a federal encampment in the Mt. Washington district of Baltimore. I've lived in the neighborhood about 20 years and had never heard of it!

Googling around doesn't seem to produce any information on the Camp. Anybody out there know where full information can be obtained?

 

[Jimklag]

I was surprised recently when reading Maryland Voices of the Civil War (Edited by Charles W. Mitchell. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) to see mention of Camp Small, a federal encampment in the Mt. Washington district of Baltimore. I've lived in the neighborhood about 20 years and had never heard of it!

Googling around doesn't seem to produce any information on the Camp. Anybody out there know where full information can be obtained?

I just did an internet seach and this is all I came up with.

http://parkrxamerica.org/m/1564/camp-small-park

 

[ErnieMac]

Apparently it was also known as Camp Melvale.
http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/mdbalt.html

 

[Jimklag]

Apparently it was also known as Camp Melvale.
http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/mdbalt.html

Good catch.

 

[Bruce Vail]

I just did an internet seach and this is all I came up with.

http://parkrxamerica.org/m/1564/camp-small-park

Huh, I'm going to go over there later this week and check that out. That wouldn't actually be considered the Mt. Washington neighborhood as currently understood, but back in the 1860s all of northwest Baltimore was rural farmland. The annexation of the area to the City of Baltimore wouldn't come till some 50 years after the Civil War and the current boundaries of the modern residential neighborhoods there are all fairly new.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Apparently it was also known as Camp Melvale.
http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/mdbalt.html

Hmmm, the site describes it as being in the Cross Keys section of the city. That's consistent with the book description of the Camp as near the tracks of the Northern Central Railroad.

 

[KLSDAD]

This is an excellent fort reference when it is working properly....

http://www.fortwiki.com/Category:Maryland_All

 

[USS ALASKA]

This article states that...

It was an ammunition storage facility.
https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/wheres-marty-camp-small/

...and here is what it is now...how cool is this?!? Who knew?

ENVIRONMENT
Once a dump, Baltimore's 'magical' Camp Small transforms street trees into lumber
EMILY OPILO
Baltimore Sun
January 13, 2022

Blink and you might miss it. The sign for Baltimore's Camp Small is, well, small. But what lies beyond the understated gates on Old Cold Spring Lane is a woodworker's wonderland. Hundreds upon hundreds of felled logs line a winding road that lands you at a nondescript workshop. For decades, Camp Small has been a destination for Baltimore's tree waste. In a city with roughly 4,000 acres of woodland and many miles of streets lined with trees, about 9,000 tons of waste are cleared annually. The bulk of that ends up at Camp Small. It cost the city to dispose of that scrap wood and brush. Periodically, it hired a contractor to chip the wood and clear the lot for an average of $75,000 annually. But for the past six years, Camp Small has begun making money and plans to soon operate on a cost-neutral basis. Unlike trees in a forest that grow straight up, toward the light, street trees spread out. "Funky, twisty," is how Camp Small Yardmaster Shaun Preston describes them. Also, "they deal with a lot of root strain," which can affect a tree's grain. And they're more likely to have metal in them — nails, wires and the like — from years of coexisting with people. That makes them a nightmare for large sawmills with expensive blades. But on a recent weekday morning, a portable sawmill operated by Camp Small's tiny staff made quick work of a former Baltimore street tree. A robotic piece of the machine rolled a hefty log into position, and in a matter of minutes, almost a dozen lengthy boards emerged. Street trees aren't grown to be harvested, so Camp Small works with whatever size logs the operation can get its hands on. "It limits us in some ways and makes us have to be more dynamic and diverse with the products that we're making," Preston said. Camp Small's transformation from woodsy dump to economic driver began with a $99,000 award from the city's Innovation Fund in 2016. The fund makes loans to city agencies with business plans that increase revenue or decrease costs. Its loan provided enough money to hire Preston and rent some equipment. That loan wasn't due to be repaid for five years, but in its first year, Camp Small made enough money to pay back the Innovation Fund. Preston stumbled upon the first of several key opportunities that would shape Camp Small's expansion. At the time, Baltimore Gas & Electric was installing a substation between Camp Small and the nearby Cylburn Arboretum. The project required the company to clear half an acre of trees — a third of which were valuable walnut. Camp Small struck a deal with the utility company to reuse the logs and contracted with a local sawmill to cut them into flooring, boards and paneling. That salvaged wood eventually became part of the city's first showpiece for Camp Small's output: the Cahill Recreation Center. The results at Cahill were so lauded that Camp Small was tapped to provide wood for another Baltimore recreation center. Middle Branch Recreation Center, under construction in South Baltimore, will feature a ceiling clad with 10,000 board feet of lumber, all from city trees. Wood can be purchased by the public — a service many don't realize is available, but local woodworkers and artisans take advantage of. Sandtown Millworks, a Baltimore-based company that specializes in reclaimed wood furniture, is a regular customer. Will Phillips, a partner in the company, said Sandtown got its start 12 years ago making furniture from wood, primarily old pine, reclaimed from Baltimore buildings set for demolition. The company stumbled on Camp Small while in search of other varieties of wood. "We didn't want to just go to the lumber store. Our whole company is centered around salvaging old things and making them beautiful," Phillips said. "I did a road trip in our van to Kentucky and Ohio, looking for wood all over the place." "Lo and behold, we find the holy grail we were looking for, and it's 100 yards off 83," Phillips added. "Every day on my way to work, I drive right past it." Sandtown Millworks buys primarily oak, ash and walnut from Camp Small, taking whole logs back to its facility and milling and drying them. The wood becomes dining room tables, residential furniture and conference room tables for corporate spaces. When it can, the company includes a metal emblem with the table saying where it came from. Urban wood has a lot of character: streaks of color known as ambrosia; burl, which is essentially tree scar tissue; and birdseye, a distinctive pattern that looks like tiny, swirling eyes. For that reason, Baltimore's trees may not be right for cabinet makers or other mass producers who are looking for large quantities of one type of wood or for wood with less distinctive features. But Baltimore's trees have value. Ash, a prevalent tree in Baltimore that has died at an increasing rate due to the emerald ash borer, is a strong wood used for woodworking and furniture, Preston said. White oak trees, which have also been coming into Camp Small at an increasing rate, are rot-resistant and good for outdoor applications. Trees that can't be made into more finished products are available at Camp Small as firewood. Camp Small has enormous potential. It's a matter of people finding it. "This place is so magical and so strange of a facility," Preston said. "It blows people's minds that there's something like this right here in their backyard that they didn't even know about."

Full long article here - https://www.capitalgazette.com/2022...mp-small-transforms-street-trees-into-lumber/

Cheers,
USS ALASKA