Behind bars: Inside Baltimore’s jail through the years

Apr 27, 2013

Behind bars: Inside Baltimore’s jail through the years

Tim Swift 0 Comment Archives, From the Vault, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun Baltimore City Detention Center, Baltimore City Jail, Corrections Officers

35 photos

Holding about 2,500, the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC) can accommodate offenders of all security levels. As Baltimore City’s jail, it houses detainees awaiting trial and also offenders serving short sentences. Over the years, the correctional facility has seen its share of structural additions and problems.

Making national headlines, a Black Guerilla Family gang indictment unsealed this week named 25 people — including 13 women working as corrections officers at BCDC — who face racketeering and drug charges. Click to read the indictment to see how a gang took over the Baltimore jail.

Ahoy! Fells Point celebrates Privateer Day

Apr 21, 2013

Ahoy! Fells Point celebrates Privateer Day

Tim Swift 0 Comment Entertainment, Maryland fells point, pirates, privateer day

14 photos

Fells Points — one of Baltimore’s oldest neighborhoods embraces its privateering past — with a three-day celebration of all things pirate (peg legs and shoulder parrots optional).

Inside Fort Carroll, an abandoned citadel on the Patapsco

Apr 13, 2013

Inside Fort Carroll, an abandoned citadel on the Patapsco

Tim Swift 6 Comments From the Vault, Maryland, Retrospective, The Baltimore Sun Fort Carroll

28 photos

Fort Carroll is an abandoned 19th-century military installation in the Patapsco River. Development proposals, both public and private, have fallen through over the years, and the island has been overrun by thousands of birds. But members of the family that owns Fort Carroll, a 3.45-acre island that lies southeast of the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge, still have hopes for it.

Spring blooms at Sherwood Gardens through the years

Apr 13, 2013

Spring blooms at Sherwood Gardens through the years

Tim Swift 2 Comments From the Vault, Maryland, Retrospective, The Baltimore Sun Guilford, sherwood gardens, tulips

35 photos

Sherwood Gardens dates to the mid-1920s, when John W. Sherwood and his wife, Mary Franklin, began planting flower beds with cuttings of boxwoods and other specimens they had collected from the neglected gardens of Colonial estates in Southern Maryland, to fill in bare spots they could see from the house. On a May day in 1930, Sherwood stepped off his back porch and found himself surrounded by hundreds of people. “They were all strangers and they were wandering all over his Guilford estate looking at his flowers,” said a 1957 article in The Sunday Sun Magazine. Since then, blooms at Sherwood Gardens have been a Baltimore tradition.

Today, the Guilford Association, which plants approximately 80,000 bulbs, still maintains Sherwood’s tradition of digging up this season’s bulbs and replacing them. Typically peak bloom occurs the last week of April through the first week in May depending on weather conditions, according the Guilford Association.

Retro Easter photos taken in Maryland through the years

Mar 30, 2013

Retro Easter photos taken in Maryland through the years

Tim Swift 0 Comment Archives, From the Vault, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun Easter, Easter Bunny, Easter Egg Hunts, Easter Sunday, retro, vintage

20 photos

From Easter bunnies to elegant dresses and over-the-top hats, here’s a look at Easter in Maryland from yesteryear.

Mar 23, 2013

The Mascots of March Madness 2013

Tim Swift 0 Comment March Madness, Sports, The Baltimore Sun basketball, March Madness, Mascots, NCAA

34 photos

March Madness is in full swing, with basketball fans everywhere keeping one eye on the tube and another on their already busted brackets. We’ve already had some impressive upsets (thanks, Harvard) and solid play from higher education’s best hoopsters. But if sports aren’t your thing, keep watching, if only for the mascots.

We’ve rounded up some photos of the NCAA tournament’s costume-clad cheerleaders just to give you a better idea of what you can expect to see courtside this week. (And if anyone has a solid picture of Zippy, Akron’s kangaroo mascot, let us know.)

Penn State’s Thon draws thousands of dancers for charity

Feb 16, 2013

Penn State’s Thon draws thousands of dancers for charity

Tim Swift 0 Comment Nation, The Baltimore Sun Penn State, Thon, THON13

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Having trained for months to keep moving for 46 consecutive hours, hundreds of Penn State University dancers will rekindle a proud philanthropic tradition this weekend with the 41st annual Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, or “Thon.” The weekend event began Friday in the Bryce Jordan Center on Penn State’s main University Park campus and is expected to draw more than 15,000 spectators, said Cat Powers, a spokeswoman for the event.

Feb 2, 2013

Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney

Tim Swift 0 Comment The Baltimore Sun Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil

29 photos

Punxsutawney Phil, America’s most famous groundhog, made his prediction this morning for how long winter will last. The verdict? He reportedly did not see his shadow, meaning an early spring is in store.

Fury, Fails, and Fun: Olympians on Twitter

Jul 31, 2012

Fury, Fails, and Fun: Olympians on Twitter

Tim Swift 0 Comment Olympics, Sports fail, London, NBC, Olympics, Twitter

10 photos

Tweeting isn’t officially a sport at this year’s Olympic Games in London, but the social media site is certainly having a bigger impact than any one event. Just in the games’ first week, Twitter has been responsible for a police investigation, two athletes being sent home, corporate protests and, of course, some wacky off-the-cuff comments. Here are some of the highlights:

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