Fell's Point Out of Time: About the Story Tellers

Fell's Point's story is told entirely by the people interviewed for this documentary. There is no outside narrator adding a layer of interpretation. Below are photos and a little about each person, as well as a link to a PDF with the full text of their interview.

These were essentially oral history interviews. As such, they should be considered to be that person's interpretation of reality. Although we are unaware of any incorrect facts cited in the documentary, it is possible that there are misstatements or omissions of important details. Additionally, it is possible that there are still typos in the interviews, although every effort has been made to avoid them.

James Piper Bond is the CEO and President of the Living Classrooms Foundation. The Foundation began in 1985 and operates from what once was known as the City Dock. Living Classrooms programs revolve around the concept of han ds-on education and job-training and bringing maritime history alive such as the Frederick Douglass - Isaac Myers Maritime Park. James is a descendant of the original Bonds that married into the founding Fell family.

Sharon Bondroff is a freelance writer whose grandparents were Russian immigrants who came over around the turn of the century.  As the family prospered, they moved further up the hill, away from the water.  Sharon, the independent thinker, moved back to Fell’s Point in the late 70’s and helped Steve Bunker establish the China Sea Marine Trading Co., a “marine-salvage and antique shop” complete with live parrots.

Steve Bunker’s background and a major love is the sea.  Also a history buff, he originally came to Baltimore to help build a Baltimore Clipper in Baltimore Harbor, stayed on for a few years as Baltimore’s maritime historian and eventually opened his shop in Fell’s Point, The China Sea, a “marine-salvage and antique shop” complete with live parrots.  A community leader for many years, Steve is remembered for representing the working waterfront community and helping to moderate development.  He and Sharon moved their shop to Maine in 1999 after they decided they could no longer afford the rents in Fell’s Point.

Peter Cavaluzzi is a design principal with Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects in New York, who specialize in bring growth and development projects into existing communities in ways that are sensitive to the existing neighborhoods and fit in but which also meet current market needs and are practical to build and finance.  As part of the Harbor Point project, they analyzed Fell’s Point and Thames Street in particular and would like to reapply their learnings and fit the new developments into the existing neighborhood.

Frederick Douglass IV is the great, great grandson of Frederick Douglass the famous slave turned statesman who spent time as slave in Fell’s Point before he escaped and went on to lead the abolutionist movement that helped end slavery in the US.  Frederick Douglass IV is a well-known speaker who often works with African-American children to help them appreciate and take advantage of educational opportunities.  He and his wife also do reenactments and conduct diversity dialogs.

Robert L. "Bob" Eney is a Baltimore-born an architectural historian who moved to Fell’s Point after working in New York.  Bob’s surveys of Fell’s Point’s buildings helped get the community on the National Register of Historic Places, which was pivotal in preventing demolition for a series of freeways in the 1970’s.  The Rehabilitation Sourcebook and other documents he authored laid the groundwork for much of the preservation done since then, and he personally helped restore the Robert Long House, Baltimore’s oldest residential building.

Mrs. A. Murray (Lucretia or Lu) Fisher is credited with having set off the “road battle” after she bought 1732 Thames St.  She was a founding member and the first President of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point and one of the initiators of the Fell’s Point Fun Festival.  She recently donated 1732 Thames St. to the Preservation Society and has sold them several other buildings in the Visitor Center/Maritime Museum complex.

Geoffrey M. Footner is a Fell’s Point resident and historian who has authored a number of books and articles about Chesapeake Bay shipbuilding, maritime and naval history, including USS Constellation: From Frigate to Sloop of War, The Last Generation: A History of a Chesapeake Bay Shipbuilding Family and Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner.

Lori Guess is a government contracts attorney and Fell’s Point resident who thinks of herself as a musician (classical oboist) first.  She got involved with Recreation Pier aka Rec Pier aka City Pier when the South East Community Organization held a community meeting to decide what should happen to it after Homicide left.  For a number of years she headed the Fells Point community task force for the Recreation Pier. Lori played oboe for the opening theme of this documentary.

After moving to Baltimore from D.C. with her husband, Sandy Hillman went to work for the City, eventually to become the Director of Promotion and Tourism for the City of Baltimore under William Donald Schaefer from 1971 to 1984.  Sandy is now CEO of Trahan Burden & Charles, an advertising and PR firm that recently relocated to Fell’s Point and has a long history of watching and being involved with Fell’s Point from a number of vantage points.

Diana Hyde has been involved with the Maryland Historical Society for some time and was Chairman of the Committee that rerouted the freeways originally planned to go through Fell’s Point. Her husband was a moving force and founder of Historic American Buildings Survey and a very accomplished leader in historic preservation/architecture.

Ed Kane, a Baltimore native, was the founder and, along with his wife Cammie, owner of Ed Kane’s Water Taxi.  Ed was originally a community affairs representative for Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. when he got involved in planning the first Baltimore City Fair in 1970, an effort to restore optimism and unity in the wake of the 1968 riots, a project that he eventually Chaired.  Known as a “loving curmudgeon” Ed died of lung cancer on May 10, 2003, the day after the second interview for this documentary.

Robert C. "Bob" Keith, a Fell’s Point resident since the mid 1980’s, is the author of several books, including Baltimore Harbor: A Picture History, was the founding editor of the Africa Report and Ocean World magazines, and editor and director of the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service.  He is involved in a number of Fell’s Point community activities, especially those relating to parking issues.

During most of his career, Richard Kirstel was an accomplished and somewhat controversial photographer who taught for a number of years at the Maryland Institute College of Art.  Later in life, he became an actor and conducted a number of Immigration and Ghost tours for the Preservation Society.  Richard’s sister is Cammie Kane, Ed Kane’s wife, and he was the interviewer for Ed’s interviews included in this documentary.

Richard "Rich" E. Milovicz spent his career working as an engineer for the Procter & Gamble Co. He transferred to Baltimore in 1978 and worked at P&G’s Locust Point soap plant across the Harbor from Fell’s Point until 1994 when the plant closed and he transferred to their cosmetics facility in Hunt Valley.  His last assignment in Locust Point was as the plant Environmental Manager and Risk Department Manager.

Vincent Peranio had just graduated from the Maryland Institute when he moved to Fell’s Point in 1968 with a group of ~8 other graduate students, artists, sculptors and painters, and it was here that he met John Waters.  Since then, he has been Art Director and/or Production Designer for a long list of films and television shows shot in Baltimore, including Homicide: Lif e on the Street, The Wire, The Corner, Cecil B. Demented, Liberty Heights, Pecker, Serial Mom, Hairspray, Polyester, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Multiple Maniacs.  Vince and Delores Delux own one of Fell’s Point’s most interesting residences, the Dallas Palace, which they created by combining five tiny alley houses.

Dan Rodricks has been a newspaper columnist with The Baltimore Sun for 25 years and also hosted the Rodricks for Breakfast television show on WMAR for a time.  As an author and journalist, Dan frequently visited Fell’s Point for source material for his column.  “when you’re looking for instant color, you want to absorb atmosphere, you want to come back to the office with good story for The Baltimore Sun, you just walk down to Fell’s Point.”

Francis “Captain Butch” Romig grew up in Southeast Baltimore and spent most of his career in the military and working as a mechanic for various Baltimore area car dealerships.  Semi-retired without much of a pension, Butch bought a small sailboat from Living Classrooms and lived on it for several years, tying it up along the piers in Fell’s Point, working part time for local businesses and helping out at the Preservation Society.

Romaine Somerville officially became involved with Fell’s Point in 1993 when she became the interim Executive Director for the Preservation Society, where she helped obtain funding and developed the Maritime Museum. Romaine was the Executive Director of the Baltimore City’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation during the road battle.  According to Bob Eney, after Fell’s Point was put on the National Register, the Mayor temporarily fired Romaine, thinking she was responsible.

Ron Starr has been a police officer for 29 years.  As the senior-most foot officer in the Baltimore City Police Department, he has walked foot in Fell’s Point for ~17 years and has seen the community change substantially during that time.

Carl W. “Bill” Struever, founder and CEO of Struever Brothers, Eccles and Rouse, came to Baltimore 30 years ago after graduating from college, helping his mother, a new teacher at Johns Hopkin, fix up her new house in return for room and board.  He is credited with helping to revitalize Baltimore, redeveloping much of the city’s aging industrial waterfront industrial spaces and Brownfields into high-tech offices and residences, in the process, earning the respect of many traditionally anti-development Fell’s Pointers.

Lisa Chaplin Suit, owner of the Fell’s Point Flower Shoppe, is a tireless advocate for Fell’s Point.   Not long after she bought the business, she lost her lease and spent a year as the “floating florist” until she found her current location on Fleet Street.  During the same period, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She credits the support she received from her Fell’s Point friends and neighbors with helping pull her through that rough period.

Paul Swenson is the Vice President and General Manager for Moran Towing of Maryland, which bought Curtis Bay Towing and been based in Fell’s Point since about 1967.  Paul started with the company in 1976 and became manager of its Maryland operations in 1993.  Their 20-year lease of part of Recreation Pier has been a major consideration in future plans for the building.

Pastor Jack “PJ” Trautwein has owned his Fell’s Point shop, PJ’s Place, since the early ‘70’s after he quit pastoring a Northwest Baltimore church.  He gradually got back into the ministry again, conducting wakes for Fell’s Point characters, then later holding services on Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Currently, PJ is the town crier and conducts tours for the Preservation Society, in addition to pastoring a small Ellicott City church.

Additional Contributors

Neighborhood discussion features: Katy Greene Davis, Paris Niesterwicz & Lisa Foard

Shooting locations provided by: The Black Olive, The Daily Grind, The Fell's Point Maritime Museum, The Wharf Rat, The Whistling Oyster

Photos and other visual materials provided by: The Preservation Society, Herbert Harwood, Montgomery College, Mark Kozlowski & Angela Garcia Kozlowski, Billie Colucci, Jack & Claudie Etheridge, Jennifer Etheridge

Interview transcriptions by: Sean Hoffman, Wallie Meeks, Mike Pierce, Kim Shapiro, Gina Steele, Stephanie Story

Feedback on draft version of documentary by: Jeannette Belliveau, Maria Cavacos, Lew Diuguid, Marty King, Charles Ritter, Lisa Shelton, Mark Walker, Paul Weldon

Helicopter by Steve Bussmann, Bussmann Aviation