Misplaced Pages

#927072

91-722: Chalker was born and raised in Baltimore , Maryland . Some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk , Virginia although he later claimed that was a mistake; he attended high school at the Baltimore City College . Chalker earned a BA degree in English from Towson University in Towson, Maryland , where he was a theater critic for the school newspaper, The Towerlight . During 2003, Towson University named Chalker their Liberal Arts Alumnus of

182-588: A persistent vegetative state , with several transfers to different hospitals, Chalker died on February 11, 2005, of kidney failure and sepsis at Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore , Maryland . Some of Chalker's remains are interred in the family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore. The remainder were distributed off the ferry between Hainan Island and the Chinese mainland, a ferry in Vietnam , White's Ferry on

273-704: A service-oriented economy . Johns Hopkins Hospital and University are the top employers. Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball , and the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League . Many Baltimore neighborhoods have rich histories. The city is home to some of the earliest National Register Historic Districts in the nation, including Fell's Point , Federal Hill , and Mount Vernon . Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in

364-484: A Northern hex, and allow almost all races to communicate, at least within the limits of common ground. A very few instances of travel from North to South (or vice versa) have occurred, but these were exceptional. The Equatorial Barrier contains six "Avenues" on either side of the barrier; each avenue leads up to the naked barrier. These are the only authorized entry points to the Well of Souls computer which controls and regulates

455-513: A Town on the North side of the Patapsco River." Surveyors began laying out the town on January 12, 1730. By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns. Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east. The three settlements, covering 60 acres (24 ha), became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat. The first printing press was introduced to

546-431: A Zone Gate, and exiting through any Zone Gate always takes one to their home hex, it is generally impossible for Southern and Northern races to travel into the other hemisphere. An InterZone Gate allows Northern and Southern ambassadors to travel between opposite Zones, and most materials can be transported via Zone gates, so there is some limited trade between North and South; for example, "universal translators" are grown in

637-533: A bibliographic guide to genre small press publishers which was a Hugo Award nominee during 1992. The Maryland Young Writers Contest, sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society , was renamed "'The Jack L. Chalker Young Writers Contest" effective April 8, 2006. Chalker is best known for his Well World series of novels, but he also wrote many other novels (most, but not all, part of a series, or large novels which were split into 'series' by

728-589: A clash between local youth and police that resulted in a state of emergency declaration and a curfew. Baltimore has seen the reopening of the Hippodrome Theatre in 2004, the opening of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in 2005, and the establishment of the National Slavic Museum in 2012. On April 12, 2012, Johns Hopkins held a dedication ceremony to mark

819-414: A different, fixed, level of allowable technology—from non-tech and semi-tech hexes through to highly advanced technology that closely resembles outright magic (plus actual Well magic)—and since there are 1,560 of them, the author never need repeat situations and locations through the entire series of books. The Well World also introduces extra plot elements. Since every person apart from Nathan Brazil,

910-636: A game designer, and Samantha, a computer security consultant. Chalker's hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees. He also had a great interest in ferryboats ; at his fiancée's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull boat, part of the Millersburg Ferry , in the middle of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania . Chalker joined

1001-459: A major protagonist of several of the stories, is transformed into one of the Well World's own 1,560 species by the act of passing through the gateway on a Markovian world to the Well World, they have to cope with travelling companions who used to be human but no longer are, and all of the ensuing problems. The Well World forces the introduction of two additional plot elements into every story. Since

SECTION 10

#1732851246928

1092-607: A minority. The Baltimore Council passed the ordinance, and it became law on December 20, 1910, with Democratic Mayor J. Barry Mahool 's signature. The Baltimore segregation ordinance was the first of its kind in the United States. Many other southern cities followed with their own segregation ordinances, though the US Supreme Court ruled against them in Buchanan v. Warley (1917). The city grew in area by annexing new suburbs from

1183-562: A part in the American Revolution . City leaders such as Jonathan Plowman Jr. led many residents to resist British taxes , and merchants signed agreements refusing to trade with Britain. The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777, effectively making the city the capital of the United States during this period. Baltimore, Jonestown , and Fells Point were incorporated as

1274-722: A period of dormancy in Baltimore City archaeological findings which had persisted since the 1980s. During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture known as the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore south to the Rappahannock River in present-day Virginia . The city is named after Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , an English peer, member of the Irish House of Lords and founding proprietor of

1365-500: A period of hundreds (and millions) of years. The series is largely set on a fictional planet named Well World. The Well World was constructed by an ancient alien species , known as the Markovians, who felt they had reached a dead end in their evolution. The Well World houses a planet-sized, reality-shaping computer that creates an artificial universe layered on top of the much smaller, original Markovian one. The Well World exists within

1456-425: A science fiction environment. Samantha Chalker announced that Wonderland Gambit might be made into a movie, but supposedly its close resemblance to The Matrix resulted in the project being canceled. At the time of his death, Chalker left one unfinished novel, Chameleon . He was planning to write another novel, Ripsaw , after Chameleon . On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel , Chalker passed out and

1547-474: A unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed. Baltimore acquired its moniker "The Monumental City" after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by President John Quincy Adams . At an evening function, Adams gave the following toast: "Baltimore: the Monumental City—May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant." Baltimore pioneered

1638-483: Is Baltimore's nonprofit historic and architectural preservation organization, which works to preserve and promote Baltimore's historic buildings and neighborhoods. Baltimore is officially divided into nine geographical regions: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest, and Central, with each district patrolled by a respective Baltimore Police Department . Interstate 83 and Charles Street down to Hanover Street and Ritchie Highway serve as

1729-583: Is a neoclassical design by Benjamin Latrobe, and one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in the United States. In 1813, Robert Cary Long Sr. built for Rembrandt Peale the first substantial structure in the United States designed expressly as a museum. Restored, it is now the Municipal Museum of Baltimore, or popularly the Peale Museum . The McKim Free School was founded and endowed by John McKim. The building

1820-400: Is bordered by Anne Arundel County to the south. Baltimore exhibits examples from each period of architecture over more than two centuries, and work from architects such as Benjamin Latrobe , George A. Frederick , John Russell Pope , Mies van der Rohe , and I. M. Pei . Baltimore is rich in architecturally significant buildings in a variety of styles. The Baltimore Basilica (1806–1821)

1911-470: Is most commonly in low- and semi-tech hexes, but high-tech magic hexes have been mentioned). Vehicles that travel from hex to hex need to be equipped with multiple forms of power. In addition to the hexes, the two polar regions, or "zones" contain maintenance areas, including a series of ambassadorial offices. These can be reached via gateways near the centers of each of the hexes, allowing easy transit from hex to pole for meetings and other duties. Newcomers to

SECTION 20

#1732851246928

2002-443: Is one of few remaining structures of its kind. It was constructed without the use of exterior scaffolding. The Sun Iron Building, designed by R.C. Hatfield in 1851, was the city's first iron-front building and was a model for a whole generation of downtown buildings. Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church , built in 1870 in memory of financier George Brown , has stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and has been called "one of

2093-488: Is the most populous independent city in the nation. As of 2020 , the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was 2,838,327, the 20th-largest metropolitan area in the country. When combined the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA) had a 2020 population of 9,973,383, the third-largest in the country. Though the city is not located within or under the administrative jurisdiction of any county in

2184-444: Is the tallest equilateral pentagonal building in the world at 405 feet (123 m) tall. The Harbor East area has seen the addition of two new towers which have completed construction: a 24-floor tower that is the new world headquarters of Legg Mason , and a 21-floor Four Seasons Hotel complex. The streets of Baltimore are organized in a grid and spoke pattern, lined with tens of thousands of rowhouses . The mix of materials on

2275-546: The 10th millennium BC , when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region. One Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period . In December 2021, several Woodland period Native American artifacts were found in Herring Run Park in northeast Baltimore, dating 5,000 to 9,000 years ago. The finding followed

2366-715: The Baltimore Convention Center (1979). Harborplace , an urban retail and restaurant complex, opened on the waterfront in 1980, followed by the National Aquarium , Maryland's largest tourist destination, and the Baltimore Museum of Industry in 1981. In 1995, the city opened the American Visionary Art Museum on Federal Hill. During the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the United States , Baltimore City Health Department official Robert Mehl persuaded

2457-461: The Baltimore Ravens football team moved into M&T Bank Stadium next to Camden Yards. Baltimore has had a high homicide rate for several decades, peaking in 1993, and again in 2015. These deaths have taken an especially severe toll within the black community. Following the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, the city experienced major protests and international media attention, as well as

2548-477: The Midwest . By 1820 its population had reached 60,000, and its economy had shifted from its base in tobacco plantations to sawmilling , shipbuilding , and textile production. These industries benefited from war but successfully shifted into infrastructure development during peacetime. Baltimore had one of the worst riots of the antebellum South in 1835, when bad investments led to the Baltimore bank riot . It

2639-405: The National Aquarium , Maryland Science Center , Pier Six Pavilion , and Power Plant Live . Well World Well World is a series of science fiction novels by Jack L. Chalker . It involves a planet-sized supercomputer known as the Well of Souls that builds reality on top of an underlying one of greater complexity but smaller size. The computer was built by a now-extinct race ,

2730-688: The National Guard , leaving 10 dead and 25 wounded. The beginnings of settlement movement work in Baltimore were made early in 1893, when Rev. Edward A. Lawrence took up lodgings with his friend Frank Thompson, in one of the Winans tenements, the Lawrence House being established shortly thereafter at 814-816 West Lombard Street. On February 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours, leaving more than 70 blocks of

2821-649: The Potomac River in Virginia on Father's Day 2007, and on author H. P. Lovecraft 's grave in Providence, Rhode Island on December 17, 2005. Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland . With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census , it is the 30th-most populous US city . Baltimore was designated as an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and

Jack L. Chalker - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-592: The Province of Maryland . The Calverts took the title Barons Baltimore from Baltimore Manor , an English Plantation estate they were granted in County Longford , Ireland . Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir , meaning "town of the big house". In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans. The Baltimore County area northward

3003-713: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. , the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland , and numerous universities. Chalker was a member of the Maryland Air National Guard 's 135th Special Operations Group, where he was a member of the group information office. He was deployed into Baltimore during the Baltimore riot of 1968 . Chalker was married in 1978 and had two children, David,

3094-687: The Union during the American Civil War , following the 55–12 vote by the Maryland General Assembly against secession. Later, the Union's strategic occupation of the city in 1861 ensured Maryland would not further consider secession. The Union's capital of Washington, D.C. was well-situated to impede Baltimore and Maryland's communication or commerce with the Confederacy . Baltimore experienced some of

3185-660: The United Arab Emirates , and Michael Bloomberg . In September 2016, the Baltimore City Council approved a $ 660 million bond deal for the $ 5.5 billion Port Covington redevelopment project championed by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and his real estate company Sagamore Development. Port Covington surpassed the Harbor Point development as the largest tax-increment financing deal in Baltimore's history and among

3276-498: The Washington Science Fiction Association during 1958, and during 1963 he and two friends founded the Baltimore Science Fiction Society . Chalker attended every World Science Fiction Convention , except one, from 1965 until 2004. He published an amateur SF journal, Mirage , from 1960 to 1971 (a finalist nominee for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine ), producing ten issues. Another journal, Interjection ,

3367-479: The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Public order was not restored until April 12, 1968. The Baltimore uprising cost the city an estimated $ 10 million (US$ 88 million in 2024). A total of 12,000 Maryland National Guard and federal troops were ordered into the city. The city experienced challenges again in 1974 when teachers, municipal workers , and police officers conducted strikes. By

3458-402: The deep South and by white suburbanization , the relative size of the city's black population grew from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970. Encouraged by real estate blockbusting techniques, recently settled white areas rapidly became all-black neighborhoods, in a rapid process which was nearly total by 1970. The Baltimore riot of 1968 , coinciding with uprisings in other cities , followed

3549-470: The "real" universe, allowing any device to work. Semi-tech hexes allow simple machines to work, up to about the level of the steam engine, and any device using electricity will not work. Low-tech hexes allow no machines to work, and all effort has to be created by muscles. Even then, there are exceptions; Gedamondas is low-tech, but the Gedamondans can use naturally occurring steam from their volcanic vents, and

3640-412: The "real" world. During the time period of the novels, the Well World has been abandoned and left on its own for an unknown length of time. The books mainly follow a mysterious character known as Nathan Brazil, who has an (initially) unknown connection to the Well World. The books are adventures that follow Brazil and a changing cast of secondary characters through a series of visits to the Well World over

3731-463: The Agitar can electrocute people in any hex, regardless of tech level. Also, while chemical firearms do not, as a general rule, work in nontech hexes, matches and certain kinds of chemical explosives will, although the explosives can be dangerously unstable in nontech hexes. In some of the hexes, however, the Well World computer allows the inhabitants access to limited manipulation of reality, or "magic" (this

Jack L. Chalker - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-473: The Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what are now Charles and southern Prince George's counties in the coastal areas south of the Fall Line . European colonization of Maryland began in earnest with the arrival of the merchant ship The Ark carrying 140 colonists at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River on March 25, 1634. Europeans then began to settle

3913-621: The City of Baltimore in 1796–1797. The city remained a part of surrounding Baltimore County and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851, after which it became an independent city . The Battle of Baltimore against the British in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, " The Star-Spangled Banner ", and the construction of the Battle Monument , which became the city's official emblem. A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and

4004-698: The Europeans. In 1661 David Jones claimed the area known today as Jonestown on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. The colonial General Assembly of Maryland created the Port of Baltimore at old Whetstone Point, now Locust Point , in 1706 for the tobacco trade . The Town of Baltimore, on the west side of the Jones Falls, was founded on August 8, 1729, when the Governor of Maryland signed an act allowing "the building of

4095-468: The Markovians, who developed the Well of Souls with the goal of creating a new species that would transcend their own. The Well World is the planet that houses the Well of Souls, and it exists within the original Markovian reality. Its surface was used as an experimental site where the Markovians tested their species designs before sending the successful ones into the new universe to populate planets. Humans are one of many such designed species who now live in

4186-631: The National Aquarium, Camden Yards have helped revive the Inner Harbor area from what once was an exclusively industrial district full of dilapidated warehouses into a bustling commercial district full of bars, restaurants, and retail establishments. After an international competition, the University of Baltimore School of Law awarded the German firm Behnisch Architekten 1st prize for its design, which

4277-418: The North. The two hemispheres are separated by an impermeable wall that extends "several kilometers upward". In the hexes that are bisected by the wall there is a separate gateway (the "avenue") to the Well of Souls, the control center for the computer. The Well World computer also maintains a "tech level" for each of the hexes, making equipment of a higher level simply fail to work. High-tech hexes work as in

4368-652: The Town of Baltimore in 1729. During the American Revolutionary War , the Second Continental Congress , fleeing Philadelphia prior to its fall to British troops , moved their deliberations to Henry Fite House on West Baltimore Street from December 1776, to February 1777, permitting Baltimore to serve briefly as the nation's capital , before it returned to Philadelphia in March 1777. The Battle of Baltimore

4459-538: The United States today. Lexington Market was also a center of slave trading. Enslaved Black people were sold at numerous sites through the downtown area, with sales advertised in The Baltimore Sun . Both tobacco and sugar cane were labor-intensive crops. In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States, and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation, Baltimore Water Company, 1792. Baltimore played

4550-602: The Watchers at the Well trilogy, the action starts on contemporary Earth long after the reset of the Well Computer. Writer Max P. Belin observes that as a plot device, the Well World has its advantages and disadvantages. It enables the protagonists of the stories to travel "across mountains, grasslands, oceans, deserts, and forests" without the use of any magical means for moving from world to world (such as those in C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew (1955), which would be outside

4641-402: The Well World find themselves in the zones, where they are greeted by one of the ambassadors and then sent through a gateway. During this initial transit, the Well World computer transforms the traveler into a member of one of the many races, and sends them on to the associated hexes. From that point, the traveler is treated as a native of that hex. Since the only way to enter/leave Zone is through

SECTION 50

#1732851246928

4732-506: The Well World, some of the action in the stories, typically the introductions, takes place in the multi-stellar human empire. In the early books this largely controlled by the Community of Worlds (the "Com"), where genetically engineered clones are widely used to form peaceful communist societies. In later books the Community has been replaced by the Realm, a confederation of over forty races. In

4823-625: The Year. He received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Chalker intended to become a lawyer, but financial problems caused him to become a teacher instead. He taught history and geography in the Baltimore City Public Schools from 1966 to 1978, most notably at Baltimore City College and the now defunct Southwestern Senior High School . Chalker lectured on science fiction and technology at

4914-513: The area further north, in what is now Baltimore County . Since Maryland was a colony, Baltimore's streets were named to show loyalty to the mother country, e.g. King, Queen, King George and Caroline streets. The original county seat , known today as Old Baltimore, was located on Bush River within the present-day Aberdeen Proving Ground . The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehannock, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such as smallpox , endemic among

5005-431: The beginning of the 1970s, Baltimore's downtown area, known as the Inner Harbor, had been neglected and was occupied by a collection of abandoned warehouses. The nickname "Charm City" came from a 1975 meeting of advertisers seeking to improve the city's reputation. Efforts to redevelop the area started with the construction of the Maryland Science Center , which opened in 1976, the Baltimore World Trade Center (1977), and

5096-405: The capacity, knowledge, and capabilities necessary to interface with the main Brain. Also, any such personnel are recognized during Well processing, and treated as individuals of the race from which they originated. For this reason, Nathan Brazil (and, later, Mavra Chang) is translated to Glathrial, the home of type 41 (humans), without even being normalized to the Well-specific form. In addition to

5187-400: The city in 1765 by Nicholas Hasselbach , whose equipment was later used in the printing of Baltimore's first newspapers, The Maryland Journal and The Baltimore Advertiser , first published by William Goddard in 1773. Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean . The profit from sugar encouraged

5278-426: The city's 1.6-mile-long (2.6 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge , which constituted a southeast portion of the Baltimore Beltway , was struck by a container ship and completely collapsed . A major rescue operation was launched with US authorities attempting to rescue people in the water. Eight construction workers, who were working on the bridge at the time, fell into the Patapsco River . Two people were rescued from

5369-433: The city's mayor to form a committee to address food problems. The Baltimore-based charity Moveable Feast grew out of this initiative in 1990. In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards , located downtown near the harbor. Pope John Paul II held an open-air mass at Camden Yards during his papal visit to the United States in October 1995. Three years later

5460-411: The completion of one of the United States' largest medical complexes – the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore – which features the Sheikh Zayed Cardiovascular and Critical Care Tower and The Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center. The event, held at the entrance to the $ 1.1 billion 1.6 million-square-foot-facility, honored the many donors including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan , first president of

5551-412: The country. Nearly one third of the buildings (over 65,000) are designated as historic in the National Register , more than any other US city. Baltimore has 66 National Register Historic Districts and 33 local historic districts. The historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives . The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least

SECTION 60

#1732851246928

5642-414: The cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there. Since Baltimore was the county seat, a courthouse was built in 1768 to serve both the city and county. Its square was a center of community meetings and discussions. Baltimore established its public market system in 1763. Lexington Market , founded in 1782, is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in

5733-512: The domain of a science fiction story) or inexplicable "hypertechnology". Rather, they travel under their own power from hex to hex. (With many hexes, it is possible to travel from one border to another in a matter of days, or sometimes weeks.) Since each hex not only has different environments and species—ranging from conventional classical mythological species such as yeti , centaurs , and satyrs to more esoteric science fiction species such as giant carnivorous insects and mobile plants—but as well

5824-569: The downtown area burned to the ground. Damages were estimated at $ 150 million in 1904 dollars. As the city rebuilt during the next two years, lessons learned from the fire led to improvements in firefighting equipment standards. Baltimore lawyer Milton Dashiell advocated for an ordinance to bar African-Americans from moving into the Eutaw Place neighborhood in northwest Baltimore. He proposed to recognize majority white residential blocks and majority black residential blocks and to prevent people from moving into housing on such blocks where they would be

5915-402: The downtown population grew 130 percent as old commercial properties have been replaced by residential property. Still the city's main commercial area and business district, it includes Baltimore's sports complexes: Oriole Park at Camden Yards , M&T Bank Stadium , and the Royal Farms Arena ; and the shops and attractions in the Inner Harbor: Harborplace , the Baltimore Convention Center ,

6006-453: The east–west dividing line and Eastern Avenue to Route 40 as the north–south dividing line; however, Baltimore Street is north–south dividing line for the U.S. Postal Service . Central Baltimore, originally called the Middle District, stretches north of the Inner Harbor up to the edge of Druid Hill Park . Downtown Baltimore has mainly served as a commercial district with limited residential opportunities; however, between 2000 and 2010,

6097-474: The entire universe. The main control room contains what appears to be a crystal model of the Well World, but is, in fact, a separate control computer which regulates and stabilizes the Well World itself. This allows the main computer to be shut down and restarted without destroying the Well World. Any person who carries the "Original" pattern is converted into "Markovian" (also "Ancient", "Creator", or "Maker") form to solve design problems, as only this form possesses

6188-407: The face of these rowhouses also give Baltimore its distinct look. The rowhouses are a mix of brick and formstone facings, the latter a technology patented in 1937 by Albert Knight. John Waters characterized formstone as "the polyester of brick" in a 30-minute documentary film, Little Castles: A Formstone Phenomenon . In The Baltimore Rowhouse , Mary Ellen Hayward and Charles Belfoure considered

6279-433: The first casualties of Civil War on April 19, 1861, when Union Army soldiers en route from President Street Station to Camden Yards clashed with a secessionist mob in the Pratt Street riot . In the midst of the Long Depression that followed the Panic of 1873 , the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company attempted to lower its workers' wages, leading to strikes and riots in the city and beyond . Strikers clashed with

6370-400: The harbor to 480 feet (150 m) in the northwest corner near Pimlico . In the 2010 census, Baltimore has a total area of 92.1 square miles (239 km ), of which 80.9 sq mi (210 km ) is land and 11.1 sq mi (29 km ) is water. The total area is 12.1 percent water. Baltimore is almost surrounded by Baltimore County, but is politically independent of it. It

6461-399: The largest urban redevelopment projects in the country. The waterfront development that includes the new headquarters for Under Armour, as well as shops, housing, offices, and manufacturing spaces is projected to create 26,500 permanent jobs with a $ 4.3 billion annual economic impact. Goldman Sachs invested $ 233 million into the redevelopment project. In the early hours of March 26, 2024,

6552-430: The most significant buildings in this city, a treasure of art and architecture" by Baltimore magazine. The 1845 Greek Revival -style Lloyd Street Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in the United States . The Johns Hopkins Hospital , designed by Lt. Col. John S. Billings in 1876, was a considerable achievement for its day in functional arrangement and fireproofing. I.M. Pei's World Trade Center (1977)

6643-475: The nation's oldest, was built in 1830 and cemented Baltimore's status as a transportation hub, giving producers in the Midwest and Appalachia access to the city's port . Baltimore's Inner Harbor was the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the US and a major manufacturing center. After a decline in major manufacturing, heavy industry , and restructuring of the rail industry , Baltimore has shifted to

6734-446: The new universe. The Well World's surface is composed primarily of 1560 large hexagonal regions—called "hexes"—each with an independent and often dramatically different climate and ecosystem, that David Langford compares to the hexagonally tiled boards used in "hex-and-counter" forms of tabletop wargaming . Each of these hexes is a prototype environment for a planet that exists in the external universe, half of which, comprising

6825-427: The only routes to the Well World from the outside are the gateways on the now-deserted and forgotten Markovian planets, every story has to incorporate their rediscovery in some fashion. Similarly, since there is no normal way off the Well World's surface from the hexes to either the original Markovian or the new artificial universe, every story has to incorporate an "escape from an escape-proof laboratory" of some kind for

6916-432: The original Markovian universe, and can only be accessed through gateways on a number of Markovian planets scattered through the artificial universe. The Markovians experimented in species design on the Well World, sending the more successful ones into the new universe to populate one of these planets. By the time of the stories in the series, the Markovians have vanished, leaving behind the Well World, continually maintaining

7007-526: The planet's southern hemisphere, contain carbon -based (or similar) oxygen -breathing life. The North is made up of exotic species which are often so alien that no common ground exists between them and the Southern races, and, often, their Northern neighbors as well. Since the Northern hemisphere contains, for example, seas of oxygen, chlorine , methane , and ammonia, Southern races need some kind of life support in

7098-596: The publishers), and at least nine short stories. Many of Chalker's works involve some physical transformation of the main characters. For instance, in the Well World novels, immigrants to the Well World are transformed from their original form to become a member of one of the 1,560 sentient species that inhabit that artificial planet. Another example would be that the Wonderland Gambit series resembles traditional Buddhist jataka -type reincarnation stories set in

7189-472: The rowhouse as the architectural form defining Baltimore as "perhaps no other American city". In the mid-1790s, developers began building entire neighborhoods of the British-style rowhouses, which became the dominant house type of the city early in the 19th century. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a Major League Baseball park, which opened in 1992 and was built as a retro style baseball park. Along with

7280-521: The state, it is part of the Central Maryland region, together with the surrounding county that shares its name . The land that is present-day Baltimore was used as hunting ground by Paleo-Indians . In the early 1600s, the Susquehannock began to hunt there. People from the Province of Maryland established the Port of Baltimore in 1706 to support the tobacco trade with Europe, and established

7371-492: The surrounding counties through 1918, when the city acquired portions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County . A state constitutional amendment, approved in 1948, required a special vote of the citizens in any proposed annexation area, effectively preventing any future expansion of the city's boundaries. Streetcars enabled the development of distant neighborhoods areas such as Edmonson Village whose residents could easily commute to work downtown. Driven by migration from

7462-415: The use of gas lighting in 1816, and its population grew rapidly in the following decades, with concomitant development of culture and infrastructure. The construction of the federally funded National Road , which later became part of U.S. Route 40 , and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in

7553-786: The water, and the bodies of the remaining six were all found by May 7. Replacement of the bridge was estimated in May 2024 at a cost approaching $ 2 billion for a fall 2028 completion. Baltimore is in north-central Maryland on the Patapsco River , close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay . Baltimore is located on the fall line between the Piedmont Plateau and the Atlantic coastal plain , which divides Baltimore into "lower city" and "upper city". Baltimore's elevation ranges from sea level at

7644-516: Was erected by his son Isaac in 1822 after a design by William Howard and William Small. It reflects the popular interest in Greece when the nation was securing its independence and a scholarly interest in recently published drawings of Athenian antiquities. The Phoenix Shot Tower (1828), at 234.25 feet (71.40 m) tall, was the tallest building in the United States until the time of the Civil War, and

7735-520: Was pivotal during the War of 1812 , culminating in the failed British bombardment of Fort McHenry , during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that would become " The Star-Spangled Banner ", designated as the national anthem in 1931. During the Pratt Street Riot of 1861 , the city was the site of some of the earliest violence associated with the American Civil War . The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ,

7826-692: Was published 1968–1987 in association with the Fantasy Amateur Press Association . Chalker also initiated a publishing house, Mirage Press, Ltd., for releasing nonfiction and bibliographic works concerning science fiction and fantasy. Chalker's awards included the Daedalus Award (1983), The Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books (1984), Skylark Award (1980), and the Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award (1979). He

7917-589: Was selected for the school's new home. After the building's opening in 2013, the design won additional honors including an ENR National "Best of the Best" Award. Baltimore's newly rehabilitated Everyman Theatre was honored by the Baltimore Heritage at the 2013 Preservation Awards Celebration in 2013. Everyman Theatre will receive an Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Award as part of Baltimore Heritage's 2013 historic preservation awards ceremony. Baltimore Heritage

8008-510: Was taken to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a coronary occlusion . He was later released, but was severely weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again taken to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a pneumothorax . Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition, then upgraded to stable condition on December 9, although he did not regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in

8099-486: Was these riots that led to the city being nicknamed "Mobtown". Soon after the city created the world's first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery , in 1840, and shared in the world's first telegraph line , between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. , in 1844. Maryland, a slave state with limited popular support for secession , especially in the three counties of Southern Maryland, remained part of

8190-756: Was twice a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and for the Hugo Award twice. Chalker was posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005. Chalker was a three-term treasurer of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America . Chalker was also the co-author (with Mark Owings) of The Science Fantasy Publishers (third edition during 1991, updated annually), published by Mirage Press, Ltd,

8281-611: Was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley. This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region " and south into Virginia. Pressured by the Susquehannock, the Piscataway tribe , an Algonquian-speaking people , stayed well south of

#927072