This past Saturday I attended Mission: Mobtown, a little trip that is run by Loyola. Each month the Mission: Mobtown group brings about 25 students into a different section of Baltimore hoping that each student will be able to learn more about it. This past Saturday we traveled to Federal Hill.
Students are broken up into small groups and given a question to answer. The question should be answered by walking around and asking locals what they believe to be the answer. Our question was “How have waves influenced Federal Hill?” Immediately my group and I were very confused. Waves? What type of waves are they talking about? We decided to just start walking to see what we could find.
The first place that struck our eyes was a church that was founded in the 1800s by the first settlers of Federal Hill. The settlers sailed over on a “floating church” and when they landed they made a stationary church in Federal Hill. My group mates and I decided the Church most likely had significance with waves because of the physical waves of the ocean and bay. We still wondered if there was more of an underlying meaning of the word “waves.”
We went to several other places throughout our hour and a half time slot. We went into Porter’s Pub where we learned even more of the significance of waves regarding the water. Federal Hill was very reliant of the water when people first settled there and even to this day there is a lot of communication with the water.
It wasn’t until we got further into the actual little town of Federal Hill did we find out the other meaning of “waves.” We found out this information from residents who have been living here almost all their lives. Owners of the tobacco store and pharmacy as well as venders in the market all had the same story about how Federal Hill has changed throughout the years.
When Federal Hill was first settled to about thirty years ago it was solely a family town. Many had the typical family situation, with the father going to work and the mother staying home to cook dinner and look after the children. It was not very expensive to live in Federal Hill, many middle and lower class families could afford to reside there.
However, over the years the trend of residents has greatly changed. Instead of families, Federal Hill has mostly “yuppies” or “dinks” (double income, no kids.) There are many newly wed couples without kids because they enjoy the nightlife that Federal Hill has to offer. But when it is time to start a family they move out because they would like a town with bigger backyards and more children friendly. The prices of the homes have increased greatly as well, with most in the high six figures.
This change or “wave” in residents has many of the older generations greatly distressed. The lack of stay at home mothers and non-working adults has changed quite dramatically and the vendors of the markets lost much of their business. The amount of couples staying home and cooking a meal has greatly decreased, so the need for fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, etc. is no longer. This causes the venders’ business to greatly decline, one man told us the number of stands for each type of food has greatly changed, instead of 6 fruit stands there are two, and they don’t even need to have that many.
By going on Mission: Mobtown I was able to educate myself within the community, and learn about a place I did not know anything about. The Jesuit way of life involves educating the whole person, in every aspect. I participated in this way of life by going on Mission: Mobtown and educating my whole person. My soul and mind were educated by talking to each of the residents of Federal Hill, and learning about the town; how it is now and how it was before the great “wave” of change occurred. It was a great experience that I hope to have again so I can further my education of Baltimore.