Fire did what years of neglect foreshadowed: the historic New Pickwick theater we wrote about yesterday is now rubble.

Crews are now dismantling the historic buildings on either side of the once ornate nickelodeon in what has become one of the biggest emergency demo projects in recent Baltimore history.

A September 2 fire swept through these vacant city-owned buildings – part of the long-stalled Superblock project – and safety considerations led to the decision to demolish the east side of the 100 block of North Howard Street except for the ex-Read’s Drugstore at the north end of the block.

The Department of Community and Housing Development (DHCD) determined that the New Pickwick’s side wall was bowing, and that the four-story building it adjoined, the former Howard Furniture store, was no longer structurally sound, sources tell The Brew.

DHCD spokesperson Tammy D. Hawley confirmed the demolition, releasing the following statement:

“Additional demolition work was required on Howard Street beyond the original properties impacted by the five-alarm fire. There was concern over the stability of 109, a large middle structure, and we used a contractor’s lift to get a closer look.

“We found significant damage to 109, the rear of 107 was collapsed, 105 had stress cracks, and 113’s side wall was bowing. Parts of 109 had collapsed onto 113 and it was determined that more was likely to collapse. It was too unsafe for crews to try and do hand work to demo just 109 safely.”

The Real Culprit

The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but the underlying culprit for the destruction was the city itself.

For more than 20 years, a large sliver of the Westside – bounded by Howard, Fayette, Lexington streets and Park Avenue – was vacant under municipal ownership.

Many of the buildings had been functioning businesses whose owners were forced to sell to the “Mayor and City Council,” whose plans for sleek apartment towers, a shopping mall, a hotel and entertainment venues repeatedly failed to materialize.

Empty buildings fall apart, abandonment invites crime and squalor, squatters increase the risk of fire.

The view this morning of the rubble-filled landscape at Howard and Fayette streets was bleak.

We’ve seen the negative outcomes of urban neglect too often. Now the fabric of the threadbare commercial district on the Westside has unraveled even further, adding to the grassy lots that pockmark Baltimore’s downtown.

Renewed effort must be made to preserve and redevelop the stretch of Superblock that is still more or less intact along Lexington Street.

Let’s start by getting rid of the grandiose “Superblock” label and consider renaming the site “Pickwick Place” in honor of the scrappy little theater building that survived for 117 years.