This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

'To Gather and Preserve': Ralph Welsh's Historical Mission

A Lutherville historian educates his neighbors on the value of our local history. Join his "Walking Tour of Historic Lutherville" on Saturday, April 9 at 1 p.m.

Ralph Welsh started researching the history of Lutherville before he even lived here. 

More than 30 years ago, he parked his car in an undeveloped lot he’d just bought, on Kurtz Avenue, and joined a walking tour. It was one of the Lutherville historic house tours, when neighbors get the chance to check out the old interior Victorian architecture, see the insides of the parlors and the bedrooms, and learn the stories of the first residents.

He’s kept his interest in Lutherville history ever since. And he built his house right on that lot on Kurtz Avenue.

Find out what's happening in Lutherville-Timoniumwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ask him why he moved here in the first place, and he’ll tell you, “location.”  That’s the same reason he’ll tell you that Lutherville’s founder, Dr. John Morris, came here in the early 1850s.

“In real estate, it’s location, location, location,” said Welsh. “It was an ideal location.” Welsh explained how by 1852, the Susquehanna railroad had just come through, and nearby York Turnpike was a good, paved road. Plus, Joppa Road wasn’t that far, and neither was Towson, the county seat.  The location was ideal for Dr. Morris to plan a community.

Find out what's happening in Lutherville-Timoniumwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Lutherville is one of the earliest fully planned communities,” said Welsh. “Dr. John Morris, who was the pastor of the first Lutheran church in Baltimore, had the idea to start a seminary for the education of young ladies. He and his colleague Benjamin Kurtz worked on it, and Morris’ brother Charles, who I think probably was the businessman.”

The seminary they were building was today’s College Manor, . It was quite a project to fund. But Welsh knows how they did it.

“It was a genius plot,” he said. “They bought this property out here, divided it up into building lots, and sold the building lots. And from the money they made off of that, they built the seminary. And so they laid out the whole community in one piece, and it’s very intentional. The church [St. Paul’s Lutheran] sits in the village square, and the arteries connect up to the seminary. So it was a planned community.”

Welsh became hooked on Lutherville’s history.

“I’ve had three terms as village historian,” he said of his role, an elected office serving the Lutherville Community Association. “Our concern is to gather and preserve records of the history of Lutherville, and promote and educate interest in the history. Various people have held that office and brought their own talents and interests to it, and have interpreted it different ways, and it’s been richer for that.”

Welsh is hosting the first “Walking Tour of Historic Lutherville,” this Saturday April 9, at 1 p.m. Welsh has gone on many of the Baltimore Heritage walking tours throughout city neighborhoods, and was charmed at the idea of leading his own here in Lutherville.

He’s planned his course, but isn’t sure if it’s quite a mile. “I was planning to measure it, but it was snowing,” he said sheepishly. The walking tour is different from the house tours—this one is all external, and it does not involve the current residents of the historical homes.

But still, Welsh's tour will be very visible on each house’s front lawn. “I have been trying to stop by and notify the people,” said Welsh. “I’m having trouble catching people at home.”

The tour will start at , since that was the Village Square of Dr. Morris’ day. Then Welsh will touch on the history of quite a few houses as he winds his way through the side streets toward College Manor.

“I will be carrying with me many of the old photographs,” said Welsh. “I think it will be an added thing to stand in front of a house today, and see a photograph of 1900. And also some of the photographs of the people that lived in the houses. Some of them are precious.—really great photographs.”

After a rest stop, a history lesson and refreshments inside , the tour will wind down through Francke Avenue and end up at St. Paul’s again.

“I’ll tell you an interesting tidbit about life in the county,” said Welsh. His mind is often in the 1800s as he prepares for this tour, and when he says “in the country,” he’s envisioning the original Lutherville. “There’s an account where the houses would have a cistern, where they would capture rainwater. And once a week the boys of the village would pump the water up to an attic storage tank for 25 cents. Then that would be the water flow for the house.”

Welsh will tell you plenty more tidbits.

“I’ve always loved local history,” he confessed. “Local history interests me most. I’ve always been interested in where I live.”

Welsh will point out the first house in Lutherville, built by Dr. Morris, and eventually inhabited by a young John Waters and his family.  He will tell you the coincidence of a family named Carruthers who lived there as well, who had a son who became a movie critic for The New York Times, before John Waters’ time.

Welsh will tell you about another house on the railroad tracks, and the retired chaplain who lives there now, and how he refurbished the oak cabinetry and restored the original gingerbread lattice-work to keep up the Victorian appearance of the house.

Welsh will point out a porte-cochere on another house, and tell you what it means as part of the house’s original architecture.

He will tell you that the first residents of Lutherville were not year-round residents—they built their houses to be merely summer cottages. Welsh will tell you that Lutherville was a vacation spot, like the Ocean City, or Bethany Beach, of its day. 

And he’ll make an astounding connection.

“I find it fascinating to myself that if you go see the beach houses today in Bethany, they’re building them now in a Victorian mode, so similar to the old houses in Lutherville.”

If you go on the walking tour, you'll learn plenty about Dr. Morris, whom he considers to be a truly amazing man.

“He came from York, Pennsylvania,” said Welsh. “He was brought down to found the first English Lutheran church. He was here when Baltimore was changing from Baltimore Town to Baltimore City. He had his hands in everything—all these institutions that developed in Baltimore City.”

Welsh will list many of Morris’ accomplishments, ticking them off from memory, not even glancing at notes.

“He was president of the Maryland Historical Society.  He was the first librarian and developer of the Peabody Library. He was involved in the formation of what is now the Science Center. He was an internationally known scientist—his specialty was moths and butterflies," Welsh said. "He had an exhibit at the Mansion House at Druid Hill Park. He was one of the leading people in the formation of the church. He and Benjamin Kurtz founded a theological journal, the Lutheran Quarterly, that is still in existence. He was involved with a home for boys.”

Welsh concluded, “And you’d think, he’s doing all this stuff, and then he’s got the wherewithal to found a village out here.”

Welsh will not tell you so much about himself. 

He probably won’t mention that like Dr. Morris, he too was a Lutheran minister. He won’t tell you that he started his own church from scratch in Bowie, MD, and held services in his own home. He won’t mention how his lovely wife, Emilie, named after her grandmother, taught Sunday school. Or how as children, he and Emilie grew up together in their own Sunday school classes at Christ Lutheran Church, downtown by the Science Center.

He won’t mention that Emilie just recently passed away, and that they would have been married 50 years this June.

But Welsh will happily talk about Lutherville, which he and Emilie called home for the last few decades. “One of the reasons I like Lutherville is I sort of have the best of all worlds,” said Welsh. “I live in a little country village, and I can walk to a supermarket. You know what I mean?”

Yes, we sure do.  We like that about Lutherville too.  And we’ll happily see you on the tour.

To register for the April 9 tour:

Call Ralph Welsh at 410-252-7239

Or e-mail him at rrwelsh@comcast.net

$10 registration fee, LCA members,$5

Space is limited.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Lutherville-Timonium