For those who have only known Baltimore’s Westside as a dilapidated ghost town, here’s a video snapshot of what it was like 25 years ago, when shocked merchants and business owners learned the city was condemning their buildings in the name of economic development.

Drycleaners, hair salons, the third generation owners of a men’s hat store, many of them immigrants and people of color, all appear in this short film made by Baltimore Heritage and Preservation Maryland.

“Councilwoman says we can start all over – with what? I mean, with what? Where?” Beauty Plus owner Young Kim says, her voice cracking with emotion.

“We’re far from blighted – we’re thriving niche businesses,” declares Lou Boulemetis, of Hippodrome Hatters.

Former Mayor and Governor William Donald Schaefer is shown standing in front of a shop brimming with dry goods for sale, calling for city leaders to spare the buildings and save the merchants.

“When I was a mayor and I guess as governor also, I was of the theory that if you tear all the buildings down and put something new up, that was the right thing to do,” Schaefer says. “What a mistake that was.”

“Once a building is torn down – once a good building is torn down – it’s never replaced,” Schaefer continues. “Other buildings are there, but it isn’t the same.”

Displacement, then Dilapidation

But that’s pretty much what happened to those now city-owned properties across the last six mayoral administrations, starting with Martin O’Malley.

“In the name of progress and redevelopment, the city of Baltimore condemned over 100 historic buildings, many of which were about to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places,” the narrator of the video explains.

Private developers floated one idea after the other for what was now called the Superblock: high-rise apartments, a shopping mall anchored by a Bed, Bath and Beyond, an upscale hotel, a grocery store, late-night entertainment venues. All ultimately fizzled.

“Don’t join the gang that believes in one thing – bulldozers! That’s wrong!”  – William Donald Schaefer.

Meanwhile, the vacant buildings deteriorated, the odor of mold and mildew wafting out to Howard and Fayette and Lexington streets from their boarded-up doors and windows.

Then came the five-alarm fire earlier this month, of unknown origin, that finished off what years of neglect and failed development policy started.

• Will fire be the final blow for Baltimore’s Superblock? (9/16/25)

• They’re Down: New Pickwick razed, other Superblock buildings under demolition (9/17/25)

Heavy equipment operators are now clawing down much of the district this week. The merchants are long gone, and now most of the buildings will exist only in photographs. It’s what architects, preservationists and even Baltimore’s former four-term mayor warned against.

“I suggest that people use their head and I say to the new mayor, ‘New mayor, you got to learn what preservation is all about, and don’t join that gang that believes in one thing, bulldozers – that’s wrong!’” Schaefer lectured.

“Certain buildings in this area, if they’re torn down, small merchants will be gone, the history of Baltimore will be gone, the fabric of Baltimore will be gone,” he continued. “So I just hope that as they move forward with this, that they think about preservation.”