New Immigrants at Locust Point

Maryland Historical Society

Polish immigration and settlement into Baltimore is somewhat obscure, but local legend holds that it began around 1868, and by 1870 there were approximately ten families who had settled in Fells Point. Unlike the majority of Polish immigrants who arrived at Locus Point and then boarded trains to the Midwest or hard coal regions of Pennsylvania, those who settled in Baltimore were financially unable to travel further than the port of entry.

These first immigrants found not only affordable housing but also opportunities for work. There was a need for unskilled workers in port-related activities, such as stevedores and carters as well as for new industries in canning, slaughterhouses, and fertilizer plants. Once established, these immigrants wrote those they left behind to immigrate to this “land of opportunity.”

Regardless of where they settled, Polish immigrants, like other transplanted Europeans, sought to establish their cultural identity in America. They worked to establish small businesses, voluntary associations, and churches to achieve this goal. These structures sustained a sense of community into which even transient Poles could fit themselves. The growth and development of this infrastructure was in direct correlation with the size and resources of the immigrant group. As a result of the small number of Polish immigrants who initially settled in Baltimore, the Polish community or Polonia developed slower than other Polish colonies. Twin factors contributed to this sluggish development: the first, an economic depression in 1873 continuing until 1877; the second, a lack of heavy industries which could employ and sustain large numbers of unskilled workers.

The Polish Community in Baltimore
The St. Stanislaus Kostka Benevolent Association was organized by Polish immigrants in 1875. This mutual-aid society provided sick and death benefits for its members, in part as a response to the economic depression of the 1870s. Once the economic crisis subsided, the number of Poles who settled in Baltimore doubled. In 1877, there were approximately 50 families and by 1880 this number increased to approximately 110. Although this was modest when compared with other cities, by 1880 it was evident that geographically there was an emergent Polish Colony center on nine streets in Fells Point.

By the turn of the nineteenth century, there were approximately 30,000 Poles dispersed throughout Fells Point, Canton, and Highlandtown as well as across the harbor in Curtis Bay and Wagner's Point. There would be a continual increase in the number of Polish immigrants until the outbreak of war in Europe during the summer of 1914, when Baltimore’s role as the second largest Port of Entry effectively ceased.

Thereafter, the Polish population’s increase largely resulted from births among those who had settled in Baltimore. Along with this growth would be the proliferation of Polish churches, businesses, and organizations.

As the decade of the 1920s ended, one of Baltimore’s leaders, Frank Markiewicz, would describe Baltimore’s Polonia as possessing “…everything that constitutes a civilization apart from the rest of Baltimore…” In support of his statement he cited how the community that numbered around 50,000 sustained eight churches; a host of religious, social and charitable organizations; a Polish Library; 15 Building and Loan Institutions; meeting halls and athletic associations; and a Polish Language newspaper.

The former Polish Colony in Fells Point has experienced gentrification in the last couple of decades, but it is still rich in monuments to the first wave of Polish settlement. The churches, buildings and loans, and community halls are silent, but steadfast reminders of Baltimore’s Polonia.

Hollowak, Thomas L. Baltimore's Polonia: A Brief History. Baltimore: Historyk Press, 2002.

Baltimore History Class. Polonia in the Press: Articles from the Baltimore American & Commercial Daily Advertiser, 1870-1899. Baltimore: Historyk Press, 2004.

Fee, Elizabeth, Linda Shopes and Linda Zeidman, eds. The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.