Blog 11

On April 11 I attended the Charm City Cinema program which was scheduled to show the films The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and Little Castles. The first film, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, however, was unable to be played. The second file, Little Castles, is a 1998 film that is one of the “first in-depth, historical examinations of the concrete creation.” The film was edited and directed by Skizz Cyzyk. Researcher and producer Lillian Bowers describes the use of Formstone in Baltimore.

The movie is a documentary that is mostly conversation with people who have worked with Formstone in some way. Men and women who made formstone, sold formstone, bought formstone, installed formstone, as well as historians worked together to help contribute to the study of this material for the film. It is a material that was first made and is found widely scattered throughout Baltimore. Formstone is a cement-based fake stone. It has been used for over 60 years as a substitute for the locally made bricks that were brittle. Formstone is found mostly in working class neighborhoods of Baltimore. It was cheaper than the solid bricks used in neighborhoods such as Mount Vernon, Charles Village, and Bolton Hill.

Formstone was developed by Albert Knight in the 1930s and it was designed to be put on single-family, suburban houses and also houses with additions where you wanted to unify the look. He was very surprised that the material became so popular in city housing in Baltimore in the 1940s. Cyzyk commented that the film really brought the crew into the city. After beginning the film in 1995, Cyzyk and the crew drove around the different areas of Baltimore that were built with formstone knocking door to door interviewing residents about the formstone that their homes were built.

Formstone has become part of Baltimore’s identity. For the past 60 years it has been a source of inexpensive alternative to bricks and painting exterior of homes. In areas like Federal Hill and Canton residents have done their best in recent years to purge formstone from their buildings. Despite this, formstone has remained an important part of Baltimore’s history. It will always be associated with Baltimore.