Pigtown Mural - Baltimore MD - Murals on Waymarking.com

The TEXT from the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

"The Pigtown Historic District is significant for its association with the industrial development of Baltimore in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The development of the district is intimately linked with hallmark events of the Industrial Revolution in Baltimore, particularly the growth and development of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the nation's first railroad.

Location of the B&O Railroad on West Pratt Street in 1830 and the rapid growth of related industries around it, like locomotive works and car-building shops, directly resulted in the growth of a nearby working-class community. After 1870 the area became the home of the city's major gas works a technological innovation that provided a new form of street lighting and then indoor lighting.

The area also gains significance from the fact that it was one of Baltimore's major German settlements, particularly after the 1868 partnership between the B&O Railroad and the North-German Lloyd Steamship Company.

The Pigs in Pigtown

Pigtown earned its name because, during the second half of the nineteenth century, pigs offloaded from B&O Railroad cars coming in from the Middle West were herded across Ostend and Cross Streets to slaughterhouses in South Baltimore. Since the area was a German neighborhood and most of the city's butchers were German, many pigs were also butchered locally, for sale in area shops.


In the early days of B&O service, pigs, cattle, and sheep were unloaded into pens that were part of the Mount Clare yards. After the Civil War, however, the trade in live animals was such a regular part of the Baltimore business scene that individual stockyards began to be established in various locations near, and north of, Pratt Street.

In a history of the city published in 1873, George W. Howard's The Monumental City, the author brags that "the Cattle Market of Baltimore has long been famous." He notes that cattle, hogs, and sheep come to the city by rail and water, from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas. Good facilities offered to drovers by the competing railroad lines in the city made Baltimore a popular market destination. According to Howard, 363,138 hogs arrived in Baltimore in 1872 alone.

Old-time residents of Pigtown recall the pigs being herded through the streets "to the slaughterhouses in South Baltimore." One such slaughterhouse was Heinz's Riverside Abattoir, established in 1885 in the 1900 block of Light Street. The operation covered half a block.

837 Washington Blvd with the Pigtown Mural-Photo 8

The Pigtown Mural is painted on the side of the building located at 837 Washington Blvd. on Archer Street."

City: Baltimore MD Location Name: 837 Washington Blvd. Media: Painted on a concrete wall Relevant Web Site: [Web Link] Artist: Not listed Date: Not listed

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Please give the date and description of your visit. One original photo of the mural must also be submitted. GPSr photo NOT required.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/02/2021 Don.Morfe visited it