Garnet Douglass Baltimore

When a child is named after two abolitionist giants of the 19th century, it is no wonder that Garnet Douglass Baltimore was destined for greatness.

Garnet Douglass Baltimore (1859-1946), studied at the William Rich School and then Troy Academy where he and his brother were accepted as the first Black students. The combination of his excellent grades and his father’s connections to some of Troy’s most prominent citizens, including Attorney Martin Townsend, led to his acceptance in the 1877 freshman class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1881, he became RPI’s first Black graduate and then began a long career as a civil engineer and landscape architect.

Following his graduation, Baltimore immediately began to work on the Albany and Greenbush Bridge across the Hudson River. In 1887 he was appointed assistant engineer to the State Canal System. In 1903, Garnet Baltimore was hired as a landscape engineer to create the 84-acre park formerly known as Warren Park but was soon to be named Prospect Park. He journeyed to many parks in New York City, including Central Park and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. After his return to Troy, Baltimore created the Report of the Municipal Improvements Commission, where he reported: “the primary object of the park is a place where natural beauty can be enjoyed free from the turmoil of the city.” He also noted: “It is the calling and duty of the landscape engineer to devise ways of arranging land and its accompanying landscape so that whatever the particular purpose in view may be, the result shall be as thoroughly beautiful as possible.”

Named in honor of Rev. Henry Highland Garnet and Frederick Douglas, he lived up to those names in his efforts to improve his home city of Troy and make life better for its citizens. To that end he served on the Troy Civic Arts Committee of the Troy Chamber of Commerce, designed landscapes at Oakwood Cemetery, Forest Park Cemetery, Graceland Cemetery in Albany and cemeteries in Hoosick Falls, Glens Falls and Amsterdam. He even organized “Troy Night,” a public hearing held at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall where he asked the citizens of Troy to give their ideas about civic improvement for the city. Improvements in street lighting and improved sidewalks was one outcome documented as result of this.

Baltimore resided in Troy on 8th Street, the house in which he was born, with his wife Mary E. Lane.

Troy Civic Art Committee, Proposal Map, 1913.

This map, work of Garnet D. Baltimore as a member of the Committee, was a proposal for a possible “civic center” which would have been made between First and Fifth Streets, and Congress and Ferry Streets. City Hall, designed by Marcus Cummings and built in 1875, was located at the corner of State and 3rd Streets. The building was showing signs of aging as well as being outdated stylistically and at the time, the Troy Female Seminary (renamed the Emma Willard School in the mid 1890s) had moved to its new Pawling Avenue campus and Russell Sage College had not yet been established. County government was growing even beyond the expansion of the court house in 1911 to include the former Second Street Presbyterian Church.

Baltimore envisioned a new city hall that would be part of a government mall that spanned from Seminary Park at Congress and First Streets on the west end to the Rensselaer County Jail located at 5th Avenue between Congress and Ferry Streets. The plaza would encompass several buildings that are still extant in Troy including the County Courthouse, the courthouse annex and the Troy Public Library.  

He also included the buildings that are now part of the Russell Sage College campus: The First Presbyterian Church, (now Bush Memorial Hall) Sage and Gurley Halls.  Of note was the fact that in 1913 the campus was vacant as the Emma Willard School had moved to their new campus on Pawling Avenue and Russell Sage College had not yet been formed. Baltimore proposed the new city hall to be located between 3rd and 4th Streets and public utilities, police and fire headquarters were to be located between 4thStreet and 5th Avenue. The plaza would be decorated with fountains and walkways.

To accomplish this, approximately 75 buildings (located between Congress and Ferry Streets and 3rd Street to 5th Avenue) would have been demolished. The plan stalled for a few years and once the United States entered into World War I, the idea was dismissed entirely.