Baltimore's NORTH Avenue

Weeds Reclaim Land

The Narrows

Wide enough for one school bus, and a view of downtown.

Cemetery At The End Of North Avenue

Cheese Bus On Hold

The Community's Hub

Death of A Neighborhood


Curbside Choir with Trumpet Solo

Victorian Row Houses Abandoned and burnt

The Row Houses Two Weeks Later

North Avenue in the Year 9008

Old Tree on Rock

Copyright © 2008 Jonathan Aspensen All rights reserved. No part of this website, nor any of its contents, may be
reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Jonathan Aspensen.

The Baltimore Tourists Do Not See-

Sunrise On A Baltimore Street

Girl in Blue

Waiting For Something

Stormy Street

Seen Better Days

Wheeler Dealers

Strung Shoes, Turf and Trash

They Watch The Streets
(Christmas Lights Over Baltimore)

Run, Don't Walk

Row House with Sky Light

Copyright © 2008 Jonathan Aspensen All rights reserved. No part of this website, nor any of its contents, may be
reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Jonathan Aspensen.

>MORE TO COME<

The Invisible Bandage and Homeless Harold

A leading bandage manufacturer that touts their bandage as an invisible strip that, “blends in with your skin,” has made me a believer!

Homelessness here in Baltimore affects an estimated 3,000 people. One fellow whom I have dubbed, “Homeless Harold,” has his living quarters at the base of an interstate facing a very busy roadway. I have watched him over the months collect a small apartment's worth of household items. He has a broom and a dustpan, a mattress, countless blankets (the middle ground heap is him in bed) and bags of clothing neatly stored in trash bags around his “bedroom.” He also had a five gallon pail with a lid that I assumed he used as a commode or perhaps a bedside end table (It has since been removed). But what really caught my attention was the orderly display of twelve pairs of shoes. That strand of shoes speaks a volume about his character.

UPDATE:After having his belonging removed by the city, only to see him return with more "furnishings", the city has once again cleared him off the street, and thus far he has not returned. He certainly was a colorful addition to a dull intersection.

Copyright © 2007 Jonathan Aspensen All rights reserved. No part of this website, nor any of its contents, may be
reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Jonathan Aspensen.

Raven Town

No one who knows me would ever, EVER, call me a sports fan. Yes, I have gone to two professional baseball games in my life (it was with the Padres playing gawd knows who, and they won both games back in the late '70's), but football, basketball or any other sport that requires an orb to be kicked, slammed, hit or rolled bores me to tears. I would rather listen to Wagner's (pronounced Vaugner's) Ring Cycle-Five-hours-of-Melodic-Tedium, than to watch golf, tennis or BOWLING on TV.

However, not everyone shares my disinterest in sports.

Copyright © 2007 Jonathan Aspensen All rights reserved. No part of this website, nor any of its contents, may be
reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Jonathan Aspensen.

Momument to Washington

Baltimore is a city of monuments and one in particular is dedicated to George Washington. It has been the center piece of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Place since 1829*. Situated in the center of a circular, cobblestone drive that is flanked by a tree lined park, a fountain, and bronze statues depicting various aspects of our Republic’s foundation: “WAR,” “FORCE” (which includes deception and thievery), “ORDER,” and “PEACE.” The surrounding park is a place where people come to quietly gather. On the day I visited, it was mostly derelicts sleeping on park benches and washing up in the fountain. The inspiration for this pillar was undoubtedly Trajan’s Column in Rome, but it was done without the imperial pomp and flash of Trajan’s due to a lack of funds and cost overrides. Nonetheless, it is equally as impressive, and I say this as a witness of both.

Adorning the top of the column’s 178 feet, a limestone statue of George Washington—-originally he was going to be riding in a chariot—takes an upright pose. The commanding view from the top is breath-taking, as are the steps that lead you there. I counted 228 steps that corkscrew up the core of the tower, and I counted half that coming down. The tight staircase reminded me of my youthful frolic up the spiral stairs of Paris’ Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the decades since have loosened the coils of my youthful spring, such that I stood on the final stoop with rickety knees and legs that wobbled. The heat inside the monument was unforgiving and the humidity crushing.

"Great Washington stands high aloft on his towering mainmast in Baltimore , and like one of Hercules' pillars, his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals will go." - Herman Melville, from Moby Dick

Unquestionably, I have gone where “few mortals will go” (especially in mid-July), and I am here to say that I shant go there again. (By the way, that awesome gothic cathedral in the background is Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, of which we are members—I mentioned it in a previous email.)

HAIL TO THE CHIEF:

Washington’s Column at Mount Vernon Place with Washington posing at the top.

A marble bust of Washington representing him as a Roman warrior (this is inside the small museum at the base of the column). Note his Romanesque hairdo.

View from behind iron grate at the top of the column (the spire of Mount Vernon Place UMC). There are four doors at cardinal points on a compass from which to view the city.

.This is the last known photograph taken of George Washington. It captures him in a private moment whilst he contemplated his legacy, and puzzled over a troublesome hangnail.

Final stoop before iron grate at the column’s interior apex.

Separation of a marble step near the top where an alarming crack has formed in the center column that supports Washington’s statue.


*The cornerstone was laid in 1815, but plans for its construction commenced in 1809. The War of 1812 interfered with its execution.

Copyright © 2007 Jonathan Aspensen All rights reserved. No part of this website, nor any of its contents, may be
reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Jonathan Aspensen.
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