Picture This: A Glimpse Into Catonsville’s Storied Past

The grand estate, known as “Arden,” was built c.1893 at 110 Forest Avenue, as the home of Victor G. Bloede and family. A closer look at the photo reveals that one of the Bloede children can be seen peeking through a window.

Bloede’s father-in-law, Carl Schon, Sr., was an architect who designed the community Eden Terrace, but it was Bloede’s Eden Construction Company that developed it. Designed to accommodate a mix of grand and more modest homes, it was among the first to transform Catonsville from largely a summer retreat to a year-round community.

Bloede’s talents were wide-ranging.

A chemist who emigrated from Germany with his family to New York, c.1861, and then to Baltimore in 1877, made a name for himself in Catonsville, securing several patents in chemistry and chemical engineering.

He also financed one of the country’s first hydroelectric dams, which furnished power from the Patapsco River to the Catonsville area beginning in the early 20th century. His patents included one for developing the glue used in postal stamps and a process of tinting fabrics to make them colorfast.

Bloede organized the First National Bank of Catonsville, serving as vice-president and later president, and was a philanthropist who gave generously to the community. On a more artful note, he was a playwright, writing a farce in two acts, “The Parrot,” which he had copyrighted on Feb. 2, 1900.

In 1995, a grandson, Victor C. Bloede, wrote a voluminous tome, The Journey: Victor G. Bloede, His Forebears & Successors. In the preface, the author describes his grandfather as having “gained national and international distinction as a scientist, manufacturing chemist, inventor, innovator, and philanthropist.”

As successful as Bloede had been, the family experienced a double tragedy in December 1922: the death of their youngest son and a devastating fire the next day.

Victor G. Bloede, Jr. died of pneumonia that he likely contracted during work with his father’s chemical company. He was considered to be the heir to his father’s successful business. He left a wife and two children.

In the grandson’s family biography, he wrote: “The fire occurred around 6 p.m. and although some of the contents were saved, the intensity of the blaze caused the loss of many valuable and priceless antiques. The exact cause of the fire was unknown, but it was conjectured that it could have been a short-circuit—a grotesquely incongruous travesty when considering that Victor G.’s inventiveness and entrepreneurship had brought electricity, a few years earlier, to West Baltimore, and the communities of Irvington, Ten Hills, Catonsville, and Howard County.”

On the same location, Bloede rebuilt a home dubbed “Arden II,” which was designed to be fireproof. However, it appears that it was not development-proof. The home—unoccupied and in sad disrepair—was razed  this year to make way for a townhome development. Marsha Wight Wise, a Catonsville writer involved in an effort to save Arden, wrote in a blog posting earlier this year: “Nothing is left. Arden is gone. With it went another piece of Catonsville’s rich past. Twenty-three homes will take its place.”  

This image has now been uploaded to the Baltimore County Public Library’s Legacy site, where all of the digitized images will soon be available.

Thanks go to Bryce Rumbles, librarian at the Catonsville Branch, and Lisa Vicari, Catonsville Room volunteer and board member, Friends of the Catonsville Library, for their research assistance.