The U.S. Government hires a Baltimore company created by Robert Poole (1818–1903) and German H. Hunt (1828-1907) to provide materials for an improved U.S. Capitol.
The company makes possible the construction of essential structural elements of the dome and the House and Senate wings. It also provides the derricks, steam engines and lifting equipment for the project.
Poole and Hunt becomes a sprawling cluster of buildings in the Jones Falls Valley after the Civil War. This industrial hub produces turbines and boilers for mills and important components for lighthouses, railroads and cable cars. At its height, it has over 700 employees and Poole becomes known as a “Captain of Industry.” The surviving buildings have been adapted as Clipper Mill Park.
Rembrandt Peale builds the first museum
Rembrandt Peale opens the first purpose-built museum in the US in August, 1814. As a fine arts gallery, it is short-lived, becoming city hall, a school for “colored” children, city water offices and now Baltimore’s Community Museum.
