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Figure 14: Jones Falls Expressway looking south near North Avenue (SHA Photo Archive)
The interstate extended from Baltimore County and the Baltimore Beltway (I-695) to
Lombard Street in the CBD (Figure 14). The elevated highway was constructed on structure
through much of the City over the Jones Falls. Since it appeared that the City’s residents would
be able to get downtown more easily with the new highway, local business groups applauded the
advent of the Expressway, as did Mayor J. Harold Grady:
Even before its completion, this expressway had a favorable economic
impact on Baltimore. The possibility of easy and rapid access has
opened the eyes of planners and investors to the great potentials of
heretofore ‘bypassed’ areas. It has inspired plans for new industrial,
commercial and residential development – particularly in the category
of high-rise middle and upper-income apartments. 61
Mayor Grady’s comment is a reference to the urban renewal project at Charles Center, 100 North
Charles Street in Baltimore, the high rise office building that had been designed by the architect
Mies van der Rohe, and his Chicago development partners in 1962. This was Baltimore’s
premier urban renewal project in the CBD. Grady’s comment also references the upper income
high-rise apartments located on North Charles Street, north of Johns Hopkins University, but
these were located well outside the CBD. The ten apartment buildings that were constructed in
the 1950s and 1960s in the area do not include any public housing units and the area was not a
blighted area near the CBD. One of the high rise buildings on North Charles Street is the
Highfield House which also was designed by Mies. The Charles Center development did not
include public housing in the CBD. 62
61 George White, “Baltimore’s Freeways Bring Many Advantages,” Highway User (December 1962) p. 36-37
downloaded from http://archives.ubalt.edu/GBC/3-44.pdf October 7, 2009
62 By the early 1960s, Baltimore City had developed several plans for urban interstate roads, but none received
universal approval from the City Mayor and Council, business community or affected residents. Most of the roads
that were constructed, including I-70, I-395, the Fort McHenry Tunnel and I-95 all date to the 1970s and 1980s.