Bare Hills Historic District facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Bare Hills Historic District
|
|
Bare Hills School
|
|
 Location in Maryland
Location in the United States
|
|
| Location | Falls Rd. between Light Rail and north of Coppermine Terrace, Towson, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Area | 275 acres (111 ha) |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival; Mid-Century Modern |
| NRHP reference No. | 11000852 |
| Added to NRHP | November 22, 2011 |
The Bare Hills Historic District is a special neighborhood north of Baltimore, Maryland. It's located in Baltimore County, Maryland. This area started as a place for factories and mines. Later, it became a quiet suburb where people lived and traveled to the city. The district includes parts of Lake Roland Park. It also has many old houses built in the 1800s.
What is the Bare Hills Historic District?
The Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) describes the Bare Hills Historic District. It covers about 275 acres. The name "Bare Hills" comes from a rocky area of serpentine stone. The Jones Falls river flows around this rocky hill on its way to Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay.
The Bare Hills Historic District shows how a community can change. It went from a place of mills and mines to a busy transportation route. Finally, it became a residential area. This happened after train services made it easy to travel to Baltimore. The district has 90 important properties, including:
- The Scott Settlement, an African American community from the 1800s and 1900s. It was one of the first free Black communities in Baltimore County.
- Homes built in the late 1800s and 1900s near the railroad and Lake Roland.
- Part of Lake Roland Park. This park used to be called Robert E. Lee Park until 2015.
The MHT also notes that the Bare Hills Historic District looks very mixed. It has buildings of different sizes, types, and styles. These buildings were built over almost 150 years. Most houses are made of wood and have wood-shingled walls. Many have porches and foundations made from local serpentine stone. Most homes and their smaller buildings date from 1890 to 1920. However, there are older and newer examples too. These include the Bare Hills House from 1857, which is in the Gothic Revival style. There's also the Bare Hills School from 1881, made of serpentine stone. A more modern home is the Hooper House II, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1959-60.
Bare Hills Geology: The Story of Rocks
The Bare Hills area sits on a special type of land called a serpentine barrens. The soil here is thin and not very fertile. This is because of the serpentine rock.
A scientist named H. H. Hayden wrote about how people discovered valuable minerals here:
- Before 1808 or 1810, people didn't know much about the minerals in these hills. They just looked like rough, uninviting land. Around that time, a mineral called chromate of iron was found. It was discovered in small pieces in one of the deep valleys. This discovery was made by Mr. Henfrey. He is believed to have found chrome and other interesting minerals in this area. After this, especially when people started mining for chromate of iron, this area became very interesting. It was one of the most exciting places for mineralogists in the United States.
This important discovery happened on Jesse Tyson's farm. Jesse's son, Isaac Tyson, Jr., successfully mined chromite from the Bare Hills. He also found other serpentine areas in Maryland that had chromite. One such place was the Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area. Isaac Tyson, Jr.'s smart mining made Maryland the world's top producer of chromium. This lasted until the mid-1800s. All mining at Bare Hills stopped by 1833.
The Bare Hills rock formation also makes the Jones Falls river take a long detour. The river flows in a half-circle to the East for about 2.5 miles. Then it goes back to flowing south.
Bare Hills History: A Community's Journey
Bare Hills is also famous for being one of the first free African-American communities in Baltimore County. This community was started around 1830 by Aquila Scott. The official document for Bare Hills in the National Register of Historic Places explains:
- Aquila (Aquilla) Scott was a blacksmith and a Methodist preacher. He came to the Bare Hills area by 1830. Aquila Scott was a descendant of Tobias Scott, a freed slave from St. Mary's County, Maryland. Aquila was part of a growing number of free Black people in Maryland. In 1833, Scott was named one of five leaders for a small church group. This group was the Bethel Episcopal Methodist Religious Society. They received land to build a church, which was later called St. John's Church.
The church was on the east side of the Jones Falls river and the B&S (Baltimore and Susquehanna) Rail Road. In 1839, Aquila Scott bought two acres of land on top of the Bare Hills. This land was from Johnzee Hook. Scott built his blacksmith shop and home there. As Scott's children grew up and started their own families, they built their homes on this two-acre plot. This community became known as "Scott's Settlement." Aquila Scott passed away in 1858 while preaching in the church he helped create. He was buried on his Bare Hills property.
Scott's first log church burned down in 1876. A new church was built in 1886 and is still standing today. This church is on the other side of Lake Roland, outside of this historic district.
The Bare Hills Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. It includes the Bare Hills House, which was already listed before.
