Today Canton is described by its residents as simple and content, but this southeastern waterfront area has played a vital role in the history of Baltimore. Acquired in 1785 by Irish sea captain John O'Donnell, "Canton" (according to legend) earned its name from the origin of the ship's cargo which paid for its purchase-- tea, silk and satin from Canton, China. By 1800, Captain O'Donnell's 1,981-acre plantation included a main house near what is now Boston Street between Clinton and Highland Avenue, and all of the waterfront property east of the northwest branch of the Patapsco River, from Fells Point to Colgate Creek.

But within a few decades, the rapid commercial and industrial development of Baltimore-- hastened by the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad-- transformed the O'Donnell plantation into a real estate company holding all the land between Fells Point and Lazaretto Point. Under the management of the Canton Company, the first charcoal iron works and a whole complex for making charcoal were built, forming a basis for Baltimore's commercial development. By 1846, a cotton mill, Cary's Chesapeake Furnace, and the Bryan and Maitland Distillery were located in Canton, as well as two new shipyards-- Foster and Broz, which specialized in the building of the beautiful American clipper ships, and A.W. Denmead and Son, builder of the Monocacy, the light draft Navy gunboat which eventually earned the record for continuous service in the U.S. Navy.

As the century reached its midpoint, the industrialization of Canton proceeded rapidly. The Baltimore Copper Smelting Company was established on South Clinton Street. It was soon joined by a series of small oil refineries that were later bought out by the Standard Oil Company. By 1880, the addition of two major cargo piers and a grain elevator had enabled the Northern Central Railroad in Canton to handle 100,000 tons of coal and 22 million bushels of grain annually, and soon after the turn of the century the Canton Company began building its own little railroad, and eventually developed its waterfront property into a modern deepwater marine terminal.

The slowdown of the economy after World War I and the crash of 1929 did not affect industrial growth of the Canton area and the well-being of its residents as seriously as it did many other communities. With four national industries--The American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation, the Gold Dust Corporation (now Lever Brothers), Western Electric, and Chevrolet--Canton continued to support the generations of Welsh, German, Polish and Irish workers who made their homes there.

While Canton has been a commercial area almost from its beginnings, it has also always been a tightly knit residential and social community.

In the early days, a popular spot was the White House, a whitewashed log tavern which overlooked Canton Hollow, the traditional anchorage of the first Baltimore clippers, later of barks and brigs of the Brazilian coffee trade, and, during the early 20th century, of Chesapeake schooners and rams. A race track was built south of the White House; here, for some years, the principal racing men and swiftest horses in the country met. A number of other recreational facilities and historical sites have been lost, but all are still remembered by a few of the oldest residents-- Riverview Amusement Park, the original Thompson’s Sea Girt House, and the tiny "I Wonder Park" at 2100 South Clinton Street, which was featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the smallest park in the world. Lazaretto Lighthouse, built at the foot of Clinton Street (where it served as an aid to navigation until torn down in 1926) was believed by many scholars to have been the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished poem, "The Lighthouse."

But much of Canton's heritage remains. A true American "melting pot," the neighborhood contributes richly variegated patterns to the total fabric of city life. Many of the rowhouses and churches built on the hills and fields of late 19th century Canton still survive, and with them, a diverse community of people who, like their immigrant ancestors, believe that the City is great enough to accommodate them all.