Guano Industry Documentation Conclusions and Committees

After hours of exhausting google, proquest, and UMBC library searches for a history of the Guano Industry in the Baybrook area, I was able to find a specific location in Curtis Bay (5501 Pennington Ave) where several Industries had produced and sold guano or other fertilizer nutrients (sulfur). The Standard Guano Co. built a industry on this location in 1914 generated large sums of revenue from the sale of fertilizers. However, Standard Guano sold the land to Standard Wholesale Phosphate and Acid Works in 1925, which would be followed by several more ownership exchanges. Yet Standard Wholesale Phosphate and Acids Works was considered to be the top sulphuric acid producing plant in the world in 1950 and created a new system for producing 500 tons of quality sulphuric acid a day. Then Standard sold the company to Mathieson Chemical in 1949, Mathieson Chemical to Essex Chemical, Esses to Dow Chemical in 1988, Dow to Peridot Chemicals in 1989, and finally Peridot to General Chemical in 1997, where then plant closed in January of 2003. Furthermore, in 2007 an ethanol company titled Atlantic Ethanol proposed a plan to build a $100 million to $150 million ethanol plant on this property. The ethanol plant is said to benefit the local Baltimore economy by creating jobs and is actually claimed to reduce air pollution. The Atlantic Ethanol plant would be the largest plant on the East Coast. 

I did find many documents displaying these industries stock prices and dividends, but not much regarding the impact they contributed to the local economy, community, environment, or workers. Yet I did enjoy finding out the history of exporting guano from the Navassa Island (between Peru and Haiti) to Baltimore's ports. Baltimore during the 19th Century was the largest importer of guano in the world. The majority of the miners on the Navassa island were permanent residents of Baltimore.

I've heard the 2640 space is a great location for our community fundraiser and I am excited to see the end result in May. I chose join the outreach and promotion committee for the fundraiser because i believe a successful fundraiser stems from a strong promotional base. In order to generate the revenue you need to be considered successful you need to make sure that community members and other attendees are notified in advanced. The date must be saved in their calendars and they must be reminded of it through flyers, radio announcements, social media pages, and word of mouth.