The Industrial Years

1916 – 1940

This circa 1900 photograph shows the original configuration of the factory building which now houses the D. S. Brown Company

1916

The D. S. Brown Company opens in an existing factory building on East Cherry Street to manufacture horse collars. The building had previously housed, in chronological order, the Bartell Furniture Factory, North Baltimore Novelty Works, and Buckeye Match Company. Over the years, the D. S. Brown Company has expanded the original factory building and changed its product lines. In 2010, the firm is a major manufacturer of highway bridge components.

1917 – 1918

North Baltimore patriotically supports the American war effort and five local residents die in military service. Many local citizens become ill and several die during the Spanish Flu pandemic.

1918

North Baltimore saloons are forced to close with the imposition of prohibition. However, some citizens take advantage of the situation by supplying local residents and Toledo and Detroit gangsters with illegal liquor throughout the 1920s.

1919

A tornado strikes on April 13, damaging homes and businesses on West Broadway Street and North Main Street.

1923

North Baltimore citizens and the B&O Railroad celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the coming of the railroad to North Baltimore.

The Rockwell Flour Mill

1926

North Baltimore’s Old South High School building is destroyed by fire on January 26. High school classes are held in makeshift classrooms through the town until the new school building is opened in 1927.

1930

The Rockwell Mill, located at East Street and East Railroad Street (now State Street), burns on July 19, destroying a local North Baltimore landmark.

1933

  • Prohibition ends and local citizens can now legally purchase beer from North Baltimore’s local beer distributor, Sam Feese, at 115 West State Street, the former location of North Baltimore’s first electric plant. The building burns in 1968.

  • The North Baltimore News is founded by H. Emerson Boltz and is located at 118 South Main Street. In 2008, the News celebrates its 75th year of operation, and it continues to be one of North Baltimore’s oldest businesses.

1938

Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative is founded to provide rural Wood and Hancock counties with electricity. The new $8 million dollar headquarters at 1399 Business Park Drive South is dedicated 08/08/08.