Before 1785 For several hundred years before 1608, the land including Canton is likely in the geographic sphere of influence of the ancestors of the contemporary
Piscataway Peoples. The area that is now Canton, east and south of the
Fall Line, would be used for fishing and cultivation. In 1608,
John Smith reported the area to be uninhabited, but this is thought to be due to recent conflict with the
Massawomeck people from the north.
1785-1828 In 1785, Irish merchant and slave owner
John O'Donnell settled in Baltimore after arriving on the ship "Pallas" from Calcutta and the
Chinese port of
Guangzhou, then called Canton by English speakers. When O'Donnell purchased land, he named his plantation Canton. When O'Donnell died in 1805, the probate inventory of his estate includes 48 enslaved persons, including several infants, with their name, race, age, sex, dollar valuation, and other notes. On April 5, 2021, after a successful campaign by neighborhood groups, O'Donnell's statue was removed. A major feature of early Canton was Major David Stodder's shipyard, located at Harris Creek, with the most famous vessel built being the
USS Constellation in 1797. During the early 19th century, European immigrants settled in the area.
Welsh immigrants, primarily workers from
South Wales, began settling in Baltimore in large numbers beginning in the 1820s.
Welsh and
Irish migrant workers composed a large portion of Baltimore's
working class during the early and mid-1800s. In 1850, a large community of copper workers from
Wales settled in the neighborhood. These workers established a Presbyterian church in 1865, located on Toone Street in Canton. Subsequent groups of immigrants have included
Germans,
Poles and
Ukrainians. On a Residential Security Map in 1937, most of the Canton neighborhood is classified as D/Fourth Grade (
redlined), or classified industrial, along with the majority of central Baltimore. In 1957, Baltimore's Harbor Tunnel opens, connecting East Baltimore to South Baltimore and eliminating the "Baltimore Bottleneck" from Philadelphia and The South. At 1.4 miles long, 17.6 miles including approaches, it costs $144 million to build and is the longest twin-tube trench tunnel in the world when it opens. In July 19, 1960, The Canton Company becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of International Mining Co.
1966-present As a part of the
urban renewal highway plan for Baltimore City, in January 1966 the Baltimore City Council passed a condemnation bill for the construction of
I-83 along the Boston Street, which would have cut the neighborhood off from the waterfront. By 1960, in hopes of making irreversible progress toward that goal, Baltimore City demolishes 215 houses between Boston and Elliott Streets and Linwood and Lakewood Avenues. Gloria Aull and
Barbara Mikulski starts the Southeast Council Against the Road (SCAR) to protest construction of the East-West Expressway through Canton, Fells Point, Federal Hill, and other communities. Mikulski is elected to the City Council in 1971, and this effort to stop the highway is ultimately successful. In 1980, the Canton Historic District is added to the National Register of Historic Places. And later that year, the statue of
John O'Donnell that was later removed was installed, after Baltimore City paid local artist Tilden Streett $20,000 for the commission. Starting with the Anchorage Townhouses in 1984 and continuing through the 2000s, as industry moved out, new housing and marinas have been developed along the waterfront and
gentrification of the existing housing has occurred further inland. In 1990, Canton Waterfront Park and the
Korean War Memorial are dedicated, replacing a railroad yard and cargo pier, closed many years prior, of which a
car float is the only remaining structure. The Korean War Memorial incorrectly shows the border of North and South Korea at the 38th parallel instead of the DMZ, but the designer of the map, Dr. Randall Beirne of UMB, declines to correct the error. Canton's role in resisting integration and public housing in the 20th century was well-documented, up to a 1992 public meeting that shut down plans to add an affordable housing project after over 700 residents "shout down City officials" presenting the proposal. A highly circulated flier before the event claimed untruthfully that the city was building a "high rise housing project" that would "destroy your property value and fill Highlandtown with the drugs, crime, and violence." Urban renewal continued in the 21st century, with the demolition of a former oil refinery operated by
ExxonMobil. The site of the oil refinery has been home to The Shops at Canton Crossing since October 2013, anchored by
Target,
Harris Teeter, Kneads, and Wonder Food Hall. Canton is home to a section of the planned
Red Line along Boston Street to when it would turn North toward
Hopkins Bayview. Development along the path of the proposed line, after it is shut down by
Governor Larry Hogan in 2015, has left the future path of the Red Line unclear (as of July 2024) after its revival in 2023. ==Boundaries==