I still have a lot of time to fill in for my place, the Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower located at 21 S. Eutaw Street, but here’s the timeline I have so far. Also, for now I'm adding hyperlinks so I can later go back and add citations when I figure that out on here.
1911- Tower constructed, designed by Joseph Evans Sperry and built by Captain Isaac Emerson, a pharmacist and owner of Bromo Seltzer, a popular headache and handover remedy. The tower would act as a large advertisement for Emerson’s company located adjacent to the tower. At the time of construction, the tower was the tallest building in Baltimore at 289ft. In 1923, it lost this designation as tallest building (I’m not sure to what building yet, but I should figure this out!)
Captain Emerson was a real captain! He received this naval ranking for his actions during the Spanish-American War. Upon returning, he had the idea for the tower to be modeled after the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.
On the top of the tower, Emerson had a 51ft illuminated, revolving replica of his famous blue bottled drug. The replica itself weighed 20 tons.
Also some things to know, there is no 13th floor (however there are 15 total) and because the floors are so small there is only a bathroom on every third floor. Also the minute hand on the clock itself is a little more than 12 feet long.
The architect's original drawing of the tower, found on the Baltimore Sun website.
1936- Due to structural concerns, the bottle was removed from the top of the tower.
1969- Bromo Seltzer Factory attached to the tower is torn down51973- John F. Steadman Fire Station opens (I’m not sure if this was attached or in…still need to finalize where but I’ve read about the fire station on multiple sources). The tower is added to National Register of Historic Places.
2007- Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts began renovations to create 33 artist studios.
The tower itself originally operated as an office building and held businesses such as Cone Export and Commission Co. (I plan to look up more about the business to find out the next steps to the story!). I’m still looking into what businesses operated out of the tower, as well as why they closed. The tower now operates as artist studios and on Saturdays the tower is open to the public with artist studio tours and clock room tours.
I am still very much trying to put together the basis of my place research. I’m still pretty google-deep in researching, but have been referred to a lot of Baltimore Sun articles which I plan to follow up on and continue to look through. My biggest struggle right now is that details are vague. While the tower has a lot of information available, it’s all the same information. I need to find out more about the businesses in the tower, what artists have studio space in the tower, and more of the real story.
Honestly, I’m still very unsure of where we are going with the radio series. I feel as though we might need to dive into the details a little more on the last semester Bromo project to help figure out what our next step is. Ideally, I’d love to continue capturing the energy and feelings of the district. It would be amazing to have people answer the question “describe where you currently are and why” and hear their thoughts on the places and spaces we are meeting them at.
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