The task was big, but so was the federal grant being awarded to a Northwest Baltimore community association that was taking it on.

The group planned to restore a striking but dilapidated water tower that was built in 1899 but decommissioned in the 1930s, and make use of it to uplift the neighborhood.

The plan was to stabilize the 120-foot-high, terracotta-roofed structure and transform it into a planetarium and star-gazing observation post, equipped with a youth center at its base.

“Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Baltimore presented the West Arlington Improvement Association of Baltimore City Inc. with a $436,950 grant – money that is meant to jump-start the reconstruction effort,” said a Baltimore Sun story from 2003.

As part of the ceremony held at the Forest Park Senior Center, local students and elected officials (including then-Mayor Martin O’Malley) posed for pictures with a poster board-sized check.

Association President Charles W. Griffin said the group hoped, with federal funds in hand, to begin the $4 million restoration the following summer.

“That tower is an eyesore. It has always been an incredible eyesore for this community,” Griffin says in the article, noting that the community viewed the federal grant as “a milestone” after being “repeatedly rebuffed by local and state officials.”

Fast Forward Two Decades

Today the octagonal brick tower is even more dilapidated.

Located at 4025 Ridgewood Avenue, near the Granada Avenue intersection, the building is stuck behind a chain-link fence, its entryways blocked and graffiti-tagged.

Half of the roof is gone, leaving the landmark open to the elements.

Residents say pieces of tile fall down whenever there’s a heavy wind. Vines are creeping up the bricks on the west-facing side.

“The only thing up there is vultures,” a neighbor said to a couple of visitors on a recent afternoon. “I saw one of them fly down and grab a raccoon.”

What Happened?

What became of the community’s ambitious plans? And what happened to the money?

Sean Stinnett, current president of the improvement association (Griffin died last year), updated The Brew via email.

He said the federal grant awarded when Griffin headed the group “was never administered to the community because there was a matching funds clause in the terms.”

“The only thing up there is vultures. I saw one of them fly down and grab a raccoon”  – Local resident.

“Dr. Griffin was only able to complete a feasibility study” for which he raised funds separately, Stinnett said. “There was no other progress with the project.”

He said the study was done by Morgan State University’s Architecture and Planning Department.

Since then, the area’s 41st District representatives in Annapolis have gotten state bond bills passed for the project – $250,000 in 2018 and another $250,000 in 2020.

Once again, however, the money was on paper only.

“These funds have yet to be used. They are currently sitting in Baltimore City’s Department of Public Works account,” said Stinnett, an MBE supervisor for the Maryland Department of General Services.

Does the community plan to use the funds and begin a tower rescue project? Yes, someday, Stinnett says.

Two park makeover projects – West Arlington (completed) and Penhurst (next up) – are at the top of the group’s priority list.

Whenever the association is ready to take on the tower restoration, the $500,000 from the state is waiting for them, he says.

“I received an email from DPW’s Budget Analyst Garret Halbach on August 14, 2024 to confirm the community will still be utilizing these funds,” he noted.

In the meantime, DPW keeps the grass mowed at the city-owned property and “neighbors living around the tower assist with keeping the outside area clean from trash, debris and dog feces.”

The association’s website includes this excerpt from a 1916 feature story about West Arlington and its tower in better days.

“It is one of the most beautiful [landmarks] in Maryland and commands a fine view for miles over the country. From its top, one can look for miles down the bay and see white-winged vessels drifting in the harbor.”

The Other Water Tower

About 3½ miles away is a twin structure, the Roland Water Tower, that offers West Arlington a glimpse of what could be.

Slightly different in appearance, the 148-foot-tall structure at 4210 Roland Avenue was completed in 1905, a few years after its westside counterpart.

The purpose of both was the same – to pump water to homes in nearby neighborhoods. By 1930, though, Baltimore switched to a reservoir storage system, and the towers were decommissioned.

Plans to raze the structures were never carried out because of the cost of demolition, news stories said. Subsequent proposals to tear them down for safety reasons drew objections from preservationists, architects and community members who argued the Beaux Arts structures ought to be saved.

Eventually, the Roland Water Tower was saved – primarily by the affluent neighborhood where it was located.

After a fundraising campaign steered by Roland Park community leaders that drew both public and private dollars, the tower was stabilized and restored at a cost of $1.5 million.

A plan to convert the green space around the tower into a community pocket park, however, never came to fruition.

• Old wounds of a segregated city resurface in protest of Roland Water Tower plan (8/17/22)

The idea of eliminating two small roads on either side of the tower for the park stirred up objections from Hoes Heights residents, some whom traced their roots to Grandison Hoe, a formerly enslaved man who purchased the land in the historic Black settlement.

In the face of resistance, Mayor Brandon Scott ordered the removal of barriers that had cut off one of the roads.

The idea of closing either street now appears to be off the table.