Clifton Park

I just finished reading the book “devil in the white city” which tells the historic tale of the Chicago World’s fair and related stories (the related stories are more captivating, but not pertinent to my story). The book goes into some detail about the buildings and parks that were built to host the fair and this ignited a fuse of interest in me.
I remember living in Baltimore and loving the city parks.
The whole idea of a park in a densely populated super-culture is fascinating to me.
I lived two blocks from Patterson Park at one time and visited it at least once a week (usually more, but always on Sunday).

Despite the “crack vials” and “dirty needles,” I loved the park for its juxtaposed beauty. The park reminds me of a picture I have see (and most everyone else) of a flower trying to grow out of a crack on dark mountainside. Its easy to be beautiful in Yosemite Park, but in a city with one of the biggest drug and homicide problems in the Nation is a different story.
Clifton park is another amazing feature in Baltimore. A huge pond used to entertain Baltimorians in Clifton park until it was drained to make way for urban structures. Before the pond was killed, a giant water-pump was housed in a beautiful gothic building reminiscent of the recent immigrant’s culture (gothic as apposed to the romantic buildings displayed at the Chicago world fair and subsequently everywhere else in America). I still remember the first time I saw the building rise above the surrounding hills and engulf my mind with its dark dilapidated grandeur.

As soon as I left Baltimore, the water-pump building (there is no official name that I am aware of) was threatened by a more corruptible element than time, capitalism.

Charles T. Jeffries bought the rights to put business style offices in the historic water-pump building. Wow, what a great idea. In a city that is full of office towers and inadequate parking, what could be a better idea than to convert on of the more unique building in the city into another mundane, purely functional, catastrophes?

You may be thinking, that’s a great idea, the proposal will insure the longevity of the building, create a profitable, sought-after office building with a fantastic view. Wrong.
Clifton Park is in the middle of one of the roughest areas of Baltimore (Johns Hoppkins students don’t even joke about walking one block off campus, let alone almost a full mile). The already small park will have to provide parking for the employees because no one in their right mind would leave there car in the original parking area for the park.

I don’t suggest that they just let time destroy the building, but the city is on the rebound and in a few years (maybe a decade or two) the property around the park might be able to support a proper restoration of the building (there are funds, although few, already established to save the building from decay)