 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Current Newsletter |
| Archived Newsletters |
|
 |
|||||||
|
March 2006
I understand that the February meeting was a lively one, but you can hardly go wrong with a topic like reassessments. I am sorry I was unable to attend due to a prior commitment to an island in the West Indies. One thing I hope everyone took out of that meeting is that we are a neighborhood on the rise, and I would much rather face the issue of higher assessments than the alternatives that many of our older residents can tell you about. With that in mind we still have the right to get our fair share of tax revenues returned to our neighborhood. The Southeast Congress is meeting in April. This is a body of community leaders in southeast Baltimore. Recently I had a preliminary meeting at SECO on Wolfe Street to discuss what Butchers Hill's major objectives are for the congress. One of my many objectives is to see real estate tax revenue returned to our neighborhood. I am sure we all have ideas for what we would like to see so I ask that you let me know your ideas prior to April 1st: richhackett@gmail.com. This month's meeting is also a good place to express your ideas about return on our taxes with the Mayor's office, since Emily Ellickson-Brown will be our guest along with Mr. Peter Beilenson, a candidate for US Congress in our district. --Richard Hackett. HELP US HELP YOU! E-mail the Membership Committee and let us know what we can do for you! Please send us your name, street address, and suggestions. We're proposing to send just one message each month which will include an early release copy of the BHA newsletter. We have updated the Butchers Hill New Neighbor packets, so let us know about any new neighbors who might like a copy. Note: This is not a solicitation for dues, and we won't share your information. -The Membership committee: Connie Brines, Terri Ehrenfeld, Kathy Hackett, John Marsiglia. Be sure to attend the March 1st BHA General Meeting: there will be a drawing for a Dinner for Two at the Pierpoint Restaurant in Fells Point. You must be present to win! I noticed it immediately when I got back from work today-the 100 block of S. Chester Street was spotless! A very special thanks to Theresa of Lombard Street, who on February 20th spent some three hours cleaning sidewalks and gutters and bagging debris on Lombard, Chester, Washington, Pratt, and Castle Streets. I hope that other neighbors will be inspired by Theresa's example, and will help keep their blocks clean! --Steve Young. SCREEN PAINTING - A BALTIMORE TRADITION This decorative and practical art form is unique to the Baltimore area. The screen painting tradition began in 1913 when a Czechoslovakian immigrant, William Oktavec, came to Baltimore and painted a picture on a screen of his grocery store to shade the fruit. Neighbors loved the painted screen and asked Mr. Oktavec to do screens for them. The screens provided some privacy in the summer months when windows were open. Picture ideas for screen painting came from greeting cards, calendars, and maritime images of ships and lighthouses. This folk art form is being kept alive by the Painted Screen Society, which holds workshops for aspiring artists. The Chesapeake Arts Center, located at 194 Hammonds Lane, Brooklyn Park, MD, www.chesapeakearts.org, has classes beginning March 1st. There will be a COMMUNITY DUMPSTER on Thursday, March 23rd in the 100 block of S. Chester Street. For neighborhood residents only. No building materials, refrigerators, water heaters, washers, dryers, stoves, batteries, wet paint, automotive parts (including tires and rims), or hazardous materials. The dumpster arrives around 10 AM and leaves around 2 PM. Please fill from the back. The next community dumpster will be Thursday, April 20, in the unit block of S. Chester. BHA COMMITTEES AND MONTHLY MEETINGS
Draft Master Plan for Baltimore City: The Baltimore City Department of Planning will be conducting six public hearings during March on their 190-page Draft Plan, the first comprehensive master plan in over 30 years. The Plan is available on line at www.liveearnplaylearn.com and at all city public libraries. The two hearings closest to us are Monday, March 13, 5 PM at the War Memorial Building, 101 N Gay St., and Saturday, March 25, 3 PM, at Hampstead Hill School, 500 S. Linwood Avenue. MARCH BUTCHERS HILL GENERAL MEETING
Wednesday, March 1st. Coffee & cookies, 6:45 p.m. Meeting 7:00 p.m. St.
Andrew's Church hall,
corner of Chester & Lombard Streets (entrance on Lombard).
AGENDA: Emily Ellickson-Brown, Neighborhood Liaison for Southeast Baltimore, Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods; Dr. Peter Beilenson, candidate for US Congress, Maryland's 3rd Congressional District; vote on the BHA
2006 budget. -BETSY AND BO- Betsy Patterson Bonaparte, after the birth in July 1805 of her son "Bo," decided to return to Baltimore. Her father, who considered her "disobedient" throughout his life, nevertheless provided a house and some support for her as she returned to her family. She was in Baltimore and Washington through the war of 1812, the collapse of Napoleon's empire, and the exile of the various Bonapartes. In 1815, she sailed again to Europe, leaving Bo, by then a young schoolboy, in his grandfather's care. Although she saw Bo's father, Jérôme, only once again, fleetingly, she did make friends with several other Bonapartes, including Napoleon's mother, Letizia, and Jérôme's sister, Pauline, who looked a great deal like Betsy. Always looking for a "royal" opportunity, she participated in various Bonaparte schemes, including labyrinthine plans for the children of Napoleon's brothers to intermarry to form a new generation of movers and shakers. Bo was involved in this scheming when, at 16, he was introduced to his cousin Charlotte, a daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, the former King of Spain. In the event, Bo married an American heiress, Susan May Williams, in 1829, after he had gone to Harvard and established himself as a lawyer. Betsy was so infuriated at this thwarting of her matrimonial designs that she didn't meet Susan until seven years later. Meanwhile, her first grandson, another Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte, was born. During the reign of Bo's cousin Napoleon III, Betsy's dreams of glory and her penchant for intrigue were rekindled. Her grandson, who had graduated from West Point, sought and received a position in the French army. Bo requested French citizenship for himself and his son, and requested that France officially entitle him to use the name Bonaparte. Betsy urged her son to seek a place in the imperial line of succession, which at the outset of the Second Empire was established through Bo's father, Jérôme. These requests had the effect of estranging Bo and his son from Bo's half-brother, yet another Napoleon. In the end, Bo and his son got French citizenship and were recognized as Bonapartes, while the succession question never arose. At about this time, some 21 years after Bo's first son was born, Susan May presented him with another - Charles Joseph, who would become a political reformer and Teddy Roosevelt's Attorney General. (He also was the developer of Butchers Hill's "Napoleon Corner" of Queen Anne Row houses.) Betsy never had a reliable source of income and had to manage her own affairs in an age when women didn't do that. Yet she proved her Patterson heritage by amassing a considerable fortune that toward the end of her life yielded some $100,000 annually. Bo died in 1870 of throat cancer. Betsy outlived him, dying in 1879 at age 94. "The Belle of Baltimore" is buried in Greenmount Cemetery under a marble gravestone modeled after that of Napoleon I at St. Helena. --Rick Gilmour.
WEST/EAST at GALLERY 1448 (1448 E. Baltimore St.), March 3-19; We all know that Baltimore is a small town, but folks often make it even smaller by staying in their 'hoods, frequenting the same spaces. In an effort to get people from the west side to come a little bit east and some eastsiders to head west, Gallery 1448 conceived WEST/EAST. Four visual artists were invited, Pat Dennis and Robert FX Giroux from the Sowebo area, Mark Clark and Claudia McDonough from Patterson Park. The resulting exhibit of paintings and mixed media work is testament to talent on all sides of town. Pat Dennis's 6 foot square oils depicting nearly life sized horses seem to leap off the canvas, stampeding right for you. Robert FX Giroux' s mixed media work of oil on industrial foam are modern day hieroglyphic explorations of ancient and present day modes of writing and thinking. Claudia McDonough 's drawings with lemon juice and fire leave the view with images barely there, but fully present and somehow familiar. Mark Clark's ink prints on plaster surfaces reflect a tension between human- and natural-made edifices. So whether you are coming from the west or the east, head to the intersection of East Baltimore and Caroline Streets to check out some great hometown art! --Kini Collins. COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD SPRING INTO ART - BENEFIT FOR PATTERSON PARK PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL Free Gala Reception, Friday, 3/31, from 5 to 8 PM Patterson Park artists have come together to meet their neighbors and to raise funds for the Patterson Park Public Charter School. Spring Into Art, a sale of original fine art, offers the work of nearly 25 area artists. A free gala opening on Friday, March 31 will kick off the weekend sale. Forty percent of all proceeds will benefit the school. It's no surprise that the neighborhoods around Patterson Park has many artists working in many diverse styles and materials. Last fall, Kini Collins, a Patterson Park artist and neighborhood activist, approached the school and offered to coordinate an art sale to benefit the nascent Charter School. Aside from the natural neighborhood fit, Collins chose to work with the Patterson Park Public Charter School because of its mission to "unite students, parents, educators and the Patterson Park area through an educational environment that rewards creativity and builds community ties. Strong academic standards and community/arts-related partnerships will encourage PPPCS students to become independent responsible thinkers and good citizens of their neighborhoods." Patterson Park Public Charter School is one of five wholly new Baltimore City charter schools that opened in September 2005. A charter school is a public school of choice organized by parents and community members who are free to determine the budget, staff, curriculum and teaching methods used to meet state and local academic standards. Charter schools are open to all students and do not charge tuition. Vanessa Lopez, the school's art teacher and one of the participating artists, has chosen artwork by a PPPCS student for auction at the gala. By bringing together artists, neighbors and students of the new school, Collins hopes Spring Into Art will become an annual event that will serve to strengthen the social fabric of the Patterson Park neighborhood.
To sign up for the Spring 2006 Neighborhood Tree Steward Training or if you have any questions, please contact Jahmilla Wilson, Department of Recreation & Parks at Jahmilla.Wilson@baltimorecity.gov or (410) 396-0729. Funding for this program has been provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Barbara Gilmour, CPA, Tax Specialist, now offers pick-up and drop off service in Butchers Hill, and has been approved by the IRS for e-filing. New phone number: 410-825-0157. 1081 |
BHA PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
