Baltimore’s Inner Harbor hasn’t always been the public space we recognize today, but the city and its residents have always been connected to the water. Here’s how the harbor transformed from an industrial hub a century ago to the beloved attraction developers want to revitalize.

Before 1900: An industrial boomtown

Early on, Baltimore was a major port city, railroad boomtown and coastal slave trade hub. Factories and warehouses crowded the wharves and lined the streets around the Inner Harbor. But as early as 1773 — before the founding of the United States — there are reports of a theater opening at the Inner Harbor, showing its potential as a public space. The geography of the Inner Harbor has changed a lot since then — the water line used to start at Water Street, two blocks north of its current location, and nearly as far west as Hanover Street. The harbor was also dredged many times, with shipping channels widened and deepened to allow for bigger ships.

1904: Rebuilding after the Great Baltimore Fire

Baltimore’s Great Fire destroyed the city’s downtown, resulting in a new look for the Inner Harbor. The wharves that jutted out into the water were rebuilt, and because of the fire, they fell into public ownership. But even as some of the land around the harbor was public, it was still mostly controlled by corporations.

1940s to 1950s: World War II population boom

Baltimore’s population boomed during World War II, as it turned its industrial might toward the war effort. It was a bright spot following the hard times of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Early 1960s: Urban flight

As suburbs sprouted in other counties, Baltimore’s population saw a slow and steady decline. Many retail and industrial businesses soon left downtown. The Inner Harbor looked like “a wide open pool of black water surrounded by a prairie crisscrossed with streets,” according to a history of the city provided by the Baltimore City Department of Planning. The area narrowly avoided a highway plan that would have made it unrecognizable and inaccessible to the city’s citizens. It took a strong, yearslong effort from Baltimore residents to save the Inner Harbor.

1964: The Inner Harbor Master Plan

The city and consultants unveiled an ambitious project that envisioned a harbor surrounded by interconnected public spaces along with a waterfront promenade. “They envisioned museums, office buildings, hotels, amphitheaters, marinas and piers for visiting ships, parks and playgrounds, and a new kind of shopping center, the festival marketplace,” according to the Department of Planning’s history of Baltimore. They were, of course, talking about Harborplace. That plan was estimated to cost $280 million, or about $2.8 billion in today’s money.

1970s: Transformation to a public space

Federal Urban Renewal funds paid for the demolition of nearly all the buildings around the harbor, and for the construction of piers, bulkheads, roads, utilities and parks. The promenade was constructed around the harbor’s edge, and more and more public events and attractions filled in the spaces around the water, including the Maryland Science Center and the City Fair. Office buildings, including the World Trade Center, were built, bringing business back downtown.

1980: Harborplace opens

Baltimore voters approved a referendum allowing 3.2 acres to be developed by the Rouse Co., and leaving the majority of the land around the Inner Harbor as public park land. The National Aquarium opened in 1981 and remains one of the city’s biggest attractions.

2004: General Growth Properties buys Harborplace

James Rouse, the man behind Harborplace, died in 1996, and a few years later General Growth Properties bought Rouse Co., which owned the pavilions. The following years were tumultuous for General Growth, which filed for and emerged from bankruptcy a few years after acquiring the property. In 2010, when the pavilions turned 30 years old, General Growth announced plans to reshape Harborplace by bringing in new tenants to appeal to local residents and downtown office workers rather than tourists. It didn’t work. In 2011, Harborplace’s last original tenant, Phillips Seafood, left.

2012: Harborplace sold again

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., a New York real estate investment firm, bought Harborplace from General Growth for nearly $100 million. The firm was collecting unique commercial properties like Harborplace at the time, but Ashkenazy’s time on Baltimore’s waterfront would be short-lived. By 2019, it had defaulted on the $98.5 million loan and Harborplace was placed in receivership, a court-ordered process that required a judge to approval a sale to a new owner.

2022: MCB Real Estate makes a deal for Harborplace

A deal for MCB Real Estate to buy Harborplace was approved in late 2022, and the sale was finalized in 2023. Headed by local developer P. David Bramble, the group had big plans for what they called “the crown jewel” of Baltimore. Bramble said years of nonlocal ownership helped turn Harborplace into what it is today, and he wants to reverse course.

October 2023: New plans are unveiled

MCB’s plans to redevelop Harborplace include a large square building with a sloping rooftop park, two new residential towers and more changes to the familiar waterfront. The infrastructure around the harbor, including both Light and Pratt streets, could also get a facelift under MCB’s plan.

An earlier version of this story included a photo that was dated incorrectly.