The Engineer’s Office (1877-1907)
Early NAB projects around Baltimore were piecemeal undertakings that required only ad hoc operations or construction facilities, though the district’s expanding list of dredging responsibilities called for a more permanent space as early as the mid-nineteenth century. The first recorded Baltimore District office, located in the National Union Bank Building at N. Charles and Fayette Streets, was leased in 1877. A series of similar and small office spaces, later demolished, were leased in locations around Baltimore’s city center, close to the harbor, throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century.
Early district offices were usually referred to as the “District Engineer’s Office.” This title, along with the offices’ small footprints, reflected both the limited civilian workforce employed by NAB, as well as the paramount importance of the district engineer in decision-making and project oversight during this period. One common feature of the engineer’s office at every location was the desk of Robert E. Lee, used during his tenure as head of the Baltimore office from 1848-1852 and retained as the work desk of successive District Engineers from that period into the twentieth century.
NAB’s presence in Baltimore expanded significantly in the first half of the twentieth century as the district took on expanded roles in navigation and flood control across its area of responsibility (AOR). From 1907-1932, when the district operated from the U.S. Customs House, the approaches to Baltimore Harbor were deepened, inland flood surveys were first commissioned, and a new laboratory space was opened near Fort McHenry. During the Great Depression, district offices were moved to the city’s Post Office Building, completed in 1930, and later to the Standard Oil Building, further north on Saint Paul Street.
The successive moves to larger facilities in the first half of the twentieth century correspond to the ever-increasing number of employees that joined NAB throughout that period. The passage of various Flood Control Acts from 1917 onward authorized USACE to initiate flood control projects in regions across the nation, and the agency’s workforce increased several times over in response to such authorizations.
In 1946, the district left downtown Baltimore and opened offices at a campus further north, at 2300 Maryland Avenue, in buildings previously constructed as dormitories by Goucher College. The move came at a time of increasing migration from Baltimore City to its satellite communities and may have formed part of the district’s strategy to respond to a suburbanizing workforce. The mid-twentieth century also marked a challenging period for downtown Baltimore and the health of its central business district, which suffered the downstream economic effects of its businesses and residents moving to the suburbs.
A Downtown Workforce (1967-Present)
NAB returned to downtown Baltimore in 1967 and consolidated its office space with other federal agencies in the newly opened Fallon Federal Office Building. The high-rise, constructed by the General Services Administration (GSA) following President Kennedy’s directive to modernize federal workplaces, was planned to follow the success of the 33-acre Charles Center redevelopment project, which brought renewed economic activity and award-winning architecture to downtown Baltimore. The district remained in the Federal Building for twenty-seven years, during which time its core missions continued to expand and its workforce began executing ecosystem restoration projects.
The aftermath of Hurricane Agnes, the 1973 hurricane which devasted local communities and regional infrastructure, led to a rapid increase in the district’s workforce as USACE initiated its disaster response and reconstruction efforts. Some offices were moved to the W. R. Grace Building two blocks northeast of the Fallon Federal Building, and later, entire divisions were relocated to the Candler Building near the Inner Harbor. The district’s divisions were reunited in one location when the workforce moved to the downtown City Crescent Building in 1993. Most recently, NAB relocated to the Mercantile Deposit and Trust Building at 2 Hopkins Plaza in 2018.
NAB’s downtown offices now serve over 1,000 employees from across the Baltimore area and beyond, who work in multiple disciplines and mission areas and are supported by field offices throughout the district’s AOR. Today, as in the early years of the district’s work, NAB is headquartered near the city’s harbor, where it continues to connect Baltimore and the Chesapeake region to the economic opportunities which have helped them flourish for more than two centuries.