Five Minute Histories: Fells Point Corner Theatre

[00:00:13]Hello everybody. This is Johns Hopkins with Baltimore Heritage. We're back with another of our 5-minute history videos and today I'm on Ann Street in Upper Fells Point and behind me is a 175-year-old firehouse. It's not a firehouse anymore.

[00:00:25]It's a little theater. It shows old favorites. Think August Wilson. It thinks new playwrights. Think Claire Barron, the New York Times critically acclaimed new playwright. It shows Baltimore's own. Think the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. It's been here since 1987. Want to start with a quick thanks to a woman Doris Sweet who was here in 1987 to make this happen and who also suggested this video. Before we jump into the theater, let me say a word about the firehouse behind me. It was built in 1850 for Columbian Firehouse number nine. This was a 10 years before we got a municipal fire department and the Columbian Firehouse number nine was one of many volunteer fire departments.

[00:01:06]They fought fires, but they also had what Mayor Thomas Swann at the time called irregularities. Some of those irregularities might have been how they fought fires, but I think the irregularity he was referring to is the fact that they were more or less street gangs with names like the Plug Uglies and the Rip Raps. They would wander the streets especially on election days with threats of violence and actual violence to make sure their candidates won. In 1859, Mayor Swann had had enough and abolished the volunteer fire companies and established Baltimore's municipal fire department with 153 paid employees who were not part of street gangs. At that time, the building became a municipal fire department building. Over the years, it housed things like Engine Company number five, Ladder Company number three, and Ambulance Company number 10. But in 1964, those all got a new facility out on Eastern Avenue, and the fire department used this more or less just for storage for a couple years. By the early 1970s, the city's Department of Recreation and Parks had taken over, and it became a a city rec center.

[00:02:10]Um and then in 1987, they started leasing out the second floor to the Fells Point Corner Theatre. So, let's turn the chapter here at How Did We Get a Fells Point Corner Theatre to take over the second floor? Well, it's really a merger of two local theaters, the Fells Point Theatre and the Corner Theatre. Let's start with the Fells Point Theatre. It got its start in 1973 with a 50-seat theater on Broadway. It was Fells Point's first little theater.

[00:02:38]Uh little refers not only to its small size, 50 seats, but really to its artistic direction. Beginning in Chicago in the late 1800s, um and then in the 1910s across the country, uh community theaters were popping up in response to, sort of in rebellion of, big corporate theaters like on Broadway that were playing sort of standardized shows again and again. Um we got our first little theater in the precur precursor, excuse me, to the Vagabond Players. We did a film on that, a video on that, if you want to check that out a little more. We didn't get our first little theater in Fells Point until 1973, and that's maybe not a surprise.

[00:03:15]For most of those years, Fells Point was an active port. They probably had more sailors and bars uh than arts patrons.

[00:03:22]Then in the 19 uh '60s and '70s, we were fighting against a proposed highway that would have paved over Fells Point. Not a good time for a new theater to start up.

[00:03:31]Um by 1973, we were still in the highway fight, but the Fells Point Theatre located here anyway. I think that was a pretty bold move. Uh kudos to them for that. Um by the 1980s, however, Fells Point was beginning to be a little more prosperous, and with that, the rent started increasing. And by 1985, the Fells Point Theatre uh was either going to fold or move. It just so happened there was another theatre at that same time, the Corner Theatre, that'd been putting on shows out of St. John's Church in Charles Village, that also was hitting a little bit of a dip. And in 1986, the two of them decided to do an experiment and they put on a play together. It was called Killing Sister George, and apparently the play went well and the partnership went well. And in 1987, they officially merged the Fells Point Theatre and the Corner Theatre into, of course, the Fells Point Corner Theatre.

[00:04:22]They rented the second floor here and then over the years took over the first and the third floors, turned the third floor into practice space. The first floor they were eventually able to convert into a lobby and a second theatre.

[00:04:35]And in 1987, they were able to purchase the building outright. So, it's now the the theatre's own building.

[00:04:40]It its first play here, what they put on, probably very fittingly, was a show called Bob by a local playwright named Lee Moller. So, that's what got them kicked off.

[00:04:52]One interesting thing is that this is not a busy commercial strip, it's a residential neighborhood, which has made for a strong partnership between the theatre and the neighbors. Each have a big stake in the other. Neighbors come out and volunteer to do things like hang drywall and paint and and make sets and the theatre puts on great community shows. I'm going to wrap up by saying that in addition to putting on plays, the Fells Point Corner Theatre has playwright workshops, improv storytelling seminars, and workshops to improve your monologues and your drama dialogues. Who would have thought all of that going on in a 175-year-old firehouse on this quiet street in Upper Fells Point? Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.

[00:05:52]>> Mhm.