"Vanished Streets"
(as seen on vanished Road Map Designs)

In the period following the War, the love affair with the Automobile brought Millions upon Millions to the Oil Companies in profits.  These was paid back to their customers in part through the use of complementary street maps that attempted to encourage driving, and of course, gasoline usage!  These maps varied greatly from company to company, showing varying degrees of detail.  They also tell signs of streets that are no longer there, ghosts whose pavement has been buried by redevelopment or even abandonment.

How about taking a Sunday Drive with us through the roads and road maps of the past, in the days before the ubiquitous standard of the ADC Book Maps that are common today!


American (or AMOCO) used a design from Rand McNally, which did not show any railroad tracks.  In this view of the vicinity of Washington Blvd. & Monroe Street, note (a) PUTNAM STREET at the point where the B&O Crossed Washington Blvd. West of Monroe, (b) Manokin Avenue West of there, and (c) Monroe Street, which DID NOT pass Washington Blvd enroute to Russell Street and Annapolis Road. Map dates from the late 1950's.


Shell Oil used a design from the H.M.Goshua Company in 1958.  Among the major treats on this map is a detailed map of Druid Hill Park, showing all of the little side streets, many of which have since been closed to traffic. Note also the lack of a 28th Street Bridge on the lower Right, as well as a faint proposed line showing the path of the Jones Falls Expressway.


My own personal favorites among the vintage maps are the General Drafting Company maps, like this one produced for Esso in 1959.  Among the streets which have vanished are (a) most of York Street, particularly East of Light Street, (b) Calvert Street as a separate thorofare below Pratt Street, (c) Perry Street entirely, (d) Cornell Street entirely, (e) Balderston Street entirely, (f) most of Frederick Street, (g) West Falls and East Falls Avenue entirely, and (h) Harrison Street entirely.  There are other vanishings, but I don't want to spoil it entirely! 


Not put out by the Gas Stations was the predecessor of today's Streetmap books, namely the "Geographia" maps.  These maps were entirely hand drawn, and were admittedly, the most detailed and easy to see/read maps of their time.  From the 1967 edition comes this snippet, showing thru passage of Linden Avenue, of which only one block remains in Bolton Hill today.  Also gone is little Hampson Street parralleling North Avenue in this area.


While this 1931 Gazeteer Atlas map reveals streets that are no longer there, it also details streets that were not yet in place, such as the Orleans Street viaduct, suggested by the enhanced purple area on the map.


This American Map from the 1950's shows a starkly different Sharp Leadenhall community from what exists today.  To give reference, I've electronically highlighted the streets that have since vanished.  The red line approximates that path of today's I-395 and the Light Rail line, while the purple areas show the plots taken up by the new stadiums.


Mapco map from about 1960 gives a hint as to just what Fairfield once consisted of, particularly the now demolished Fairfield Homes project just below and to the left of the center.  Nice railroad detail for a street map.


Frightening possibilities are raised by this map from American showing the proposed Interstates for the area, many of which never made it past planning, thanks to community opposition.  Note the highway trouncing through Federal Hill and the Harbor, while I-95 was to cut an inland path through East Baltimore.  Well known is the failure of I-70 to destroy Leakin Park.


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