Port of Baltimore, a Point of Entry for European Immigrants and the Woman who Eased Their Transition

I came across a unique entry regarding European immigrants and their entry into the United States in the mid nineteenth century. A woman named Mrs. Koether (her first name I was unable to locate), a lady of German descent and also an immigrant, was contracted by several steamship lines to operate a large boardinghouse at the Locust Point Pier 9 to house the immigrants during their transition. Mrs. Koether ran this boardinghouse for 50 years from 1869-1929, and it was reported that she housed nearly 40,000 immigrants on an annual basis. That means Mrs. Koether had the great fortune of seeing almost 2,000,000 bewildered and bright eyed faces coming through her doors fresh off the boat...I get the feeling Mrs. Koether could write an extensive novel based on her experiences and story's from this lifetime of service for these people.

As it turns out, in 1913 the federal government began to construct three buildings that would assume the responsibility of Mrs. Koether's boardinghouse. Yet just as the buildings were completed, World War I was underway and the port was closed to immigrants. (Stolarik, Mark M. and Dean R. Esslinger. Forgotten Doors: the Other Ports of Entry to the United States. Pg 69-72. New Jersey. Associated University Press, Inc. 1988)