About Ghost Rivers

A multi-site public art installation and walking tour in Baltimore, rediscovering hidden streams and histories that run beneath our feet

 

Below the streets of Baltimore flow dozens of lost streams. These ghost rivers still cascade from their sources, the many natural springs around the city. As the street grid sprawled outward from the harbor, these verdant waterways were buried in concrete tunnels. They now run deep beneath our rowhomes, channeled into the city’s storm sewers, hidden and mostly forgotten. You can sometimes hear their rushing waters echoing up from storm drains.


 
Vintage black and white photo of a large circular concrete sewer pipe being constructed through a hillside, next to a small creek winding through a ravine

This photo depicts a now-buried stream in the Hampden neighborhood, next to the concrete tunnel through which it now flows. By the end of the 19th century, townhouses, factories, and other urban development had replaced the woods and farmland through which these creeks once ran. (Photo courtesy Baltimore DPW Archives and Ronald Parks)

Contemporary photo of a circular concrete culvert, partially lined with bricks. A small waterway runs down the center. Mineral deposits hang from the ceiling and a stream of water splashes down from a hole at the top of the tunnel.

The buried stream Sumwalt Run today.

Contemporary photo of an arched culvert with a buried creek flowing through it. A figure holding a flashlight walks ahead down the dark tunnel.
This 1935 map shows Baltimore’s original, lost streams and wetlands (in green) overlaid on the city grid.

This 1935 map shows Baltimore’s original, lost streams and wetlands (in green) overlaid on the city grid.

 
 
Wavy divider line

The Project

Ghost Rivers is a new 1.5-mile-long public art installation and walking tour by artist Bruce Willen that visualizes a lost stream buried below the streets of Baltimore.

This project explores the hidden history and path of Sumwalt Run, which now flows through underground culverts beneath the Remington and Charles Village neighborhoods. Through a series of installations, wayfinding markers, and writings Ghost Rivers brings lost landscapes and histories to the surface. Along the way the project draws connections between Baltimore’s watershed, its social history, and the evolving relationships between natural and human environments.

 
 
A photo of a wavy bright blue line snaking across a street and sidewalk towards a leafy block of brick rowhouses.

Ghost Rivers installations map the lost stream path onto city streets and sidewalks across the entire neighborhood of Remington and beyond.

 

Fill out the form below to be notified about events and news on Phase 2 installations in 2024, and follow @publicmechanics on Instagram for more Ghost Rivers updates.

 
 
Two side-by-side photos, showing a storm drain in an alley, and a second image looking far down the storm drain at running water along the bottom of a sewer.

You can still find parts of Sumwalt Run and other buried streams today, where they run closest to the surface. This branch of the creek is visible through storm drains in Charles Village.

 
 

About the Artist

Bruce Willen is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, musician, and the founder of Public Mechanics — a design and art studio working in public and cultural spaces. Prior to Public Mechanics, Bruce co-founded acclaimed design agency Post Typography where he led high-profile projects that have shaped the visual language of Baltimore and beyond. His work has appeared on the covers of Time Magazine, The New York Times, and ESPN and in dozens of design books and periodicals, including a Post Typography monograph. He is the co-author of the book Lettering & Type and has written for the Washington Post, Design Observer, and other publications. As a musician, Bruce has composed new scores for silent films, performed on multiple continents, and released dozens of recordings with the groups Peals and Double Dagger.

Photo of a buried creek inside a concrete tunnel with water cascading down a flight of stairs. Ghost Rivers artist and designer Bruce Willen stands on the steps, illuminating the scene with a headlamp.

(Photo by Gabriel Deloach)

 
 
 

Partners & additional project support

Greater Remington Improvement Association
Blue Water Baltimore
Baltimore National Heritage Area
Friends of Wyman Park Dell
BCT Design Group

Additional research assistance

Micah Connor
Kathleen C. Ambrose
Ronald Parks

Fabrication & installation

Elemental Metalworks
Equus Striping
Public Mechanics
Preform
Powder Coat Finishes
Floyd Godsey II

Website development

Public Mechanics & Oleksandr ​​Khudonohov

Photos & illustrations

Photos and images that appear on this website by Bruce Willen except where credited
Aerial photographs by Frank Hamilton

Ghost Rivers is located on the traditional and unceded lands of the Piscataway and Susquehannock peoples, in present-day Baltimore, Maryland.

This project has been financed in part with State Funds from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, an instrumentality of the State of Maryland. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. 

 

Thanks

Ghost Rivers would not be possible without the generosity and enthusiasm of myriad wonderful folks, who graciously lent their time, knowledge, and support including:

Sarah Templin
Margaret & Richard Willen
Oliver Baranczyk
Everyone at GRIA & Friends of Wyman Park Dell
Amanda Rothschild
Corey Jennings
Kathleen C. Ambrose
Micah Connor
Phong Le
Jed Weeks
Samantha Solomon
Emma Simpson
Matt Williams
Mike Broida
Jennifer Mackenzie
Martha Waldron
Sandy Sparks
Blue Water Baltimore
John Marra
Chris Landers
Michel Anderson
Barbara Johnson
Alice Volpitta
Aaron Henkin
Church of the Guardian Angel
Barbara Jane O’Sullivan
Nathan Harpine
Craig Bettenhausen
Steve Holt
Ann & 3 Miles House
Jack Norris
Joan Hazelwood
Charles Krout
Natalie Infante
Joe Tropea
Ronald Parks
Kacie Moon
Graham Coreil-Allen
Doug Koschalk
Ed Leedy
Cathy Kundratic
Megan Bailiff
Jake Falbo
Floyd Godsey II
Rich Kolm
Kyle Smith
Marty Smith
Hyde Concrete
City Clean
Andy Cook & Michelle Geiss
David Ramos
Nathan Kensinger
Magan Ruthke
Claire Agre
Alicia Astronomo
Garrett Brooks
Nora Burghardt
Evan Woodard
Julia Gonka
Sonja Cendak
Sarah Manley
Valeska Popoluh

SS. Philip & James Catholic Church
Rob Schoeberlein & Baltimore City Archives
Molly Ricks & Baltimore Heritage
Maryland Center for History and Culture
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Maryland Episcopal Diocesan Archives
University of Baltimore Library
UMBC Library Special Collections
Spiniello
Chris Billak
BCT Architects
Bryce Turner
Seawall Development
Thibault Manekin
Gutierrez Memorial Fund
Roya Golpira
Dianna Gutierrez
Kim Lipira
Maryland State Arts Council
C. Ryan Patterson
Liesel Fenner
Baltimore National Heritage Area
Shauntee Daniels
Danielle J. Walter-Davis
Maryland Heritage Areas Authority
Andrew Arvizu
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Danielle Hamilton
Baltimore Department of Public Works
Mark Cameron
Baltimore Department of Transportation
William Ethridge
Shayna Rose
Baltimore Department of Rec & Parks
Adam Boarman
Ashley Bush
Baltimore of Promotion & the Arts
Lou Joseph
Baltimore Office of Sustainability
Ava Richardson
Amy Gilder-Busatti
Eric Holcomb
Kathy Christian
Councilman Robert Stokes
American Rivers
Dr. Mel Lewis
Amy Souers Koeber
Chantel Dominguez
Frank Hamilton
Ana Tantaros
Emily Pellerin
Rebecca Greenwald
B. Willow & Liz Vayda
The community of Remington

And the countless others who shared their ideas, enthusiasm, and stories… thank you!!!

 

For information on how to support the Ghost Rivers project via tax-deductible or in-kind donations visit the Donate page.

 
 
““[As teenagers] sometimes we’d go drinking down here by Stony Run. And if the cops came, we’d run into the Three Sisters [tunnels of Stony Run] and come out the other side at the Jones Falls. The cops were too scared to follow us in there.”
”
— Charles Krout, Remington resident (interviewed in 2021)